Luis Suarez is an enigma, a talent and a villain whose actions would be deemed inauthentic by film critics were they created by a Hollywood studio.
Exhibits A through U are his brilliant goals, assists and turns, though V, W and X are his three bites of opponents and Y is the 27-year-old’s racist abuse of Patrice Evra.
Which brings us to Z: his reaction to the incident on Tuesday, where he bit Giorgio Chiellini of Italy. Instead of pretending it didn’t happen, Suarez is contending the Italian ran right into his teeth.
These are the words of a lunatic, and even a suspension is not going to change him. He will feel comfortable in the role of the victim, just as he has continued to deny the Evra race row.
This is a man who grabbed his teeth on the ground after the incident, as if to already have his “shoulder thrust” defense at the ready. He’s a calculating villain, this Suarez, and at the best he was hoping to convince the crowd and officials that Chiellini didn’t taste as delicious as he first suspected.
Two matches, two months, two years: it won’t matter. Some of us were suckered back into Suarez’s camp following his PR run last year, but the fact remains that not everyone is 100 percent hero or 100 percent demon; Suarez is entirely capable of stopping to have fun with a disable fan in a park as he is paging Dr. Lecter.
And while it’s curious to watch Liverpool or Uruguay fans try to defend or deflect the cases against their hero, it’s important to note that this is far from a case unique to soccer nor sport. Baseball’s Barry Bonds was a reported cheater and world-class jerk, and Ndamukong Suh remains both a Detroit Lion and a fan favorite.
Sports drive fans to do crazy things.
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