?Idiotic? - doesn?t quite tell the whole story.

What a clown... I?d like him to explain himself to the parents of these dead kids.... moron.

None of us really know the full extent of the lead up to Sean Cahill’s ’brawl’ with another ’clubber’. For all we know, the other guy could have been a cocky little shit who was asking for trouble, which unfortunately ended very badly for him. If this is the case I can understand his brother’s support.

Luke McCormick on the other hand is a totally different story. Quite frankly, in my opinion, anyone who drinks and drives is, excuse my french, a cunt. Quite why his team-mates would want to show their support for him is beyond me. If it was one of my mates who had caused the death of two young kids because of doing somehting so fucking stupid, then I would never want to see him again, let alone show my support for him.

Footballers brainless? Good god no, there was even a rumour the other week that someone in the league had a GCSE. If you want to see an intelligent lad, look at Stevie G la, trying to convince the world he isn?t a diving twat. It?s disgusting that there are hundreds of students leaving the University of Liverpool in thousands of debt, searching for their first job in life, while that mindless red scumbag gets a degree for nothing. If he had any sense, he would give it back and apologise to everyone he has offended.

Lee - Sean Cahill took a run at a man lying on the ground and kicked him so hard he went partially blind. If his foot hit the right place he could have killed him too.

For me, people who do that kind of thing are also drunken cunts, even if their little brothers score goals for Everton sometimes.

If it was my law, Luke Mccormick would have his hands chopped off and never see the light of day again. Unfortunately due to the country we live in, he will be living the life of luxury at the moment and will be out in 3 years sharing a beer with that prick Norris. Whoever the fuck he is?

Why on earth should we expect footballers to be role models? Norris is a fool who ,along with the media(who love this sort of thing) has hurt a grieving family. We are paying young men a fortune for kicking a ball.Let’s not expect them to show sensitivy or intellegence.

Yes, McCormick made a major mistake and now he is paying big time - in no way is his punishment close to the pain that the parents of the victim must feel.

Norris too made a mistake, in the heat of scoring a goal he thought that sending a message to a friend with a gesture was something that would help. Should he cut off his friend and rip his feelings for a pal out? No, of course not - Norris know that McCormick made a major mistake and I’m sure he even cordones the length of the sentence his friend has been given, but that doesn’t mean that he should de-friend him.

Should he have made a public gesture to convey his thoughts? No! If anything this has just brought up a lot of unneccesary attention to the situation. Making it worse for his friend and the family of the victim. Again, this is something Cahill did with his gesture - something I understand but think was as bigger a mistake.

The press are wrong in thinking that Cahill and Norris’ actions somehow cordone what their ’loved ones’ have done. They were trying to send a message to some one they care about, they just did it rather insensitively and thoughtlessly.

I understand Cahill’s "tribute". It was for his brother afterall, and Billy, I dont know what happened to make Sean Cahill do what he did, but clearly his offense is not in the same world as Luke McCormick. For all I know, the guy SC kicked had just pulled a knife on him.

The issue is that Norris acted in a disgusting manner considering the crimes against LMcC. What about Pennant though? He got 30 days for being so high/drunk that he drove his Merc home with a lamp post stuck under it after he had hit it. Same offense, just Pennant was lucky not to kill anyone. He was back playing Prem league football with a tag on straight after release.

Billy Dean, as myself and Joeynkoo above has said, it has not been published anywhere (from what I can find) what the lead up to Cahills ’incident’ was. I agree that when you put it like you have it sounds bad (and indeed kicking a man when he is down always is), BUT, we do not know what happened prior. I am a very placid guy, but I could list a whole load of reasons that would lead me to do exactly the same thing in the heat of the moment! It is totally different from McCormicks offence in my eyes.

I?m glad I haven?t the time or inclination to get the slightest bit wound up at however a footballer chooses to celebrate a goal. If I did, I?d be very concerned.

James - the handcuffs celebration was definitely done befor Cahill by an Aussie Rules "footballer" called Michael Gardiner, who made the gesture in support of some local gangster who was imprisoned over here.

The same footballer had earlier been sanctioned by his club for refusing to help police with a nightclub shooting he witnessed allegedly involving the same gangsters. Being an Aussie, maybe our Tim picked up on this....

Thanks Adam, fascinating insight into the "handcuff" thing!

Especially with the Australian connection.......

Lee, Joeynkoo, I hear what your saying, but think of Joey Barton, he’s been absolutely (and rightly in my opinion) slated for his actions but who’s to say he wasn’t provoked into them too?

Billy,

The video evidence says he wasn’t provoked into them....

Hi Billy, as Ciaran says, there is video evidence of Barton's latest attack, and from that evidence it didn;t seem as if he was provoked a great deal (admittedly something could have happened before that). It also wasn;t the first time that Barton found himself in trouble was it!

I found this about the Sean Cahill incident...

"The friend claimed that Sean acted in self defence the night of the brawl after being racially abused by a seven-strong gang at the cab rank near Delano?s nightclub in Bromley, Kent.

"They thought he was from Pakistan and were calling him a ?Fucking Paki?," said the friend.

"Sean was set upon by the gang and from what we understand he didn?t throw the first punch. He was defending himself, and growing up in Kingsrove he had learned how to do that.

"He found himself caught in a London street fight and it obviously got out of hand."

Also, the judge at the case (I have lost the link, sorry) expressed his regret that someone with such a good background and great references ended up in this situation.

Could you envisige a judge saying that about Joey Barton? I think not.

How is Luke any worse than Cahill? He deliberately attacked someone. Even if they did provoke him, the guy was on the ground and he ran and kicked him. He did not need to do that. The judge even said he lost control of himself. Luke did something really stupid, not thinking of the consequences. The accident ultimately happened because he fell asleep at the wheel.

What annoys me is because at one point he was clocked at a high speed everyone says he was speeding. I have seen the number of miles he travelled and the time it took him to travel it. There is no way he was speeding for very long, my guess would be near when he fell asleep his foot started to press down on the accelerator. What he did was stupid ? but he didnt intend to hurt anyone ? Cahill did. So, as bad as each other maybe..Cahill worse maybe (except luckily he didn't kill the guy.) But Luke is not worse than him.

Definitely a case of double standards. If Gerrard did what Cahill did we?d be calling him a ?Murdering scumbag who should have been banned for 20 games?... Cahill may score goals for us and be an employee of the club but he?s got a job as a rolemodel and scum like his brother and idiots like Luke McCormick should not have had any tribute paid to them by these so-called professional footballers.

Jessica,

I’m getting the distinct impression that you know Luke, and I can’t fault you for your loyalty.

However, when Luke climbed into his car drunk, he wasn’t under any unnecessary stress or duress, there was no ongoing or recent traumatic event that would have clouded his judgement. He was just drunk, too drunk to drive safely and yet he chose to set off on this cross country journey in his big SUV in that state.

This is why people are trying to make a clear distinction between his actions and those of Sean Cahill. When Sean set out that night, he didn’t choose to do so in a manner that would be expected to endanger others. Unfortunately, as he was set upon by a group of bigots he was put in a position where he had to defend himself. Subsequently, he lost control, and took things further than was reasonable. His actions cannot be condoned, but there clearly were mitigating circumstances that were outside of his control.

None of the circumstances around that tragic RTA were outside of Luke McCormick’s control. Had he not been drunk, he would probably have had the sense to pull over and rest when he started to notice fatigue setting in. As it was, in his inebriated state, he either didn’t recognise that fatigue was setting in or decided he’d be fine and get home regardless.

There is a clear distinction between these 2 cases, while neither person’s actions could be condoned, only one had the circumstances fully under their control.

The Saying "you don?t need to be clever to be a footballer" is an old one and is proved by the likes of Cahill's actions.

Wayne Rooney springs to mind by his badge kissing stupidity. Does he not realise that he is hated by Everton, Liverpool and both Manchester clubs because he is a scouser regardless of the fact that he plays for MUFC? Sooner or later, some thug is gonna give him a hiding and let's hope it is a blue.

A few years ago in Brazil, Romario had only recently left Flamengo and signed for Vasco when he scored against his old club and kissed the badge like an idiot. A few days later a lad with a gun stopped Romario in his car on the street, robbed him and told it was because of what he did with the badge and that if he did it again he would be dead.

As you can see, not many of them are clever regardless of where they are from.

"Sooner or later, some thug is gonna give him a hiding and let’s hope it is a blue"

Can this comment please be retracted. I for one certainly don’t hope for this to be the case and I’m sure most Evertonians don’t want to be tarred with this brush.
"Don’t have to be clever to be a footballer"? Clearly don’t have to be clever to be a football fan either!

I agree to some extent, Mark, and when I first read that, it came across as advocating physical violence, or worse. However, part of it was just relating a story that could or perhaps should serve as some kind of a warning to our dumber footballers. I’m not comfortable with it but I let it stand.

The sad thing with Tim Cahill is that he sounded pretty intelligent for yer average footballer on that BBC interview. It’s disappointing to me that he needs to bring his private family life onto the field while playing for Everton.

I'm happy for a bit of tarring in this case.

People are an absolute joke.

1) Who are we to know that this was a handcuffs celebration? It is pure assumption.
2) So what if he is sending a message to his FRIEND?
3) Luke McCormick is not a cold blooded murderer. He has killed TWO people, children and he has to live with this. No-one is excusing what he has done, not Norris, not himself, NO-ONE. But he is NOT a cold blooded murderer and taunts at Norris for ?friend of a murderer? are a joke he is a FRIEND of someone who is an idiot and made an AWFUL mistake.

I have respect for David Norris for making that gesture. None of you would have known about this SUPPOSED handcuffs gesture if it was not for a reporter.

You can all sit there and take your offence by this ?ridiculous outrageous gesture? but how many of you saw the game and saw him do it? I doubt very many of you. I doubt the children's mother saw it.

The media are animals who want to tear apart what they can to sell papers and should realise THEY caused the mother pain by writing all these stories and making it high profile, not Norris, because Norris did not go to the mother and say WHEYYY or anything like that.

So before you all hop on the bandwagon, THINK about it: if your friend made a stupid mistake would you be there for him? He has not ONCE said he agrees with what McCormick did, quite the contrary, but as he rightly said IT WAS A PERSONAL MESSAGE [once again - NO-ONE noticed it, no-one assumed handcuffs bar the media slaping it into the spotlight] and he WILL continue to go and visit his best mate in prison.

This is much like the Russell Brand situation where it has all been blown out of proportion in a country where we focus more on petty things like this rather than important situations like what the hell our country is going to do with a severe lack of jobs and money etc.

If David Norris wasn?t a footballer no-one would care even 1/10th as much. If Ashley Cole was not famous no-one would care that he cheated on Cheryl Cole. It?s just another person for our country to be obsessed with loving to hate. He IS a footballer, he IS a role model, but as said already, no-one noticed until the media pointed it out and he did not once suggest McCormick was in the right, he just was simply making a gesture. His gesture could be interpreted as MANY things but the bandwagon has now spread him to be some disgrace of a human being.

This country and a large amount of people in it make me sick. I was at the Doncaster game yesterday and found it repulsive how the Doncaster fans reacted. These people think they are big and clever in their large groups condemning someone to try and ruin their career as many have called for JUST for simply showing support to a friend who is in a ridiculous state right now.