Uruguay's Luis Suarez has been kicked out of the World Cup for biting another player. That's strange enough on its own, but it gets weirder when you find that this is the third time Suarez has bitten an opponent on the field. Yes, he's bitten three-times as many professional athletes as Mike Tyson. Like Shia LeBeouf, Suarez just keeps acting strange. You think it can't get any stranger, then it does, and you have to wonder what's behind it.
Given his continued great play, Suarez is now on the eternal-second-chance ride that Terrell Owens was on for many years. Hell get dumped by his current employer, Liverpool, go to some other team and help them for a year or two until his next incident, and keep repeating the cycle until his physical ability deserts him.
But what I find interesting about international celebrity meltdowns is how nationalism affects people's perception. Everyone in Uruguay, right up to the president, is behind him. And I don't mean offering unconditional caring while urging him to get professional help. They're actually ignoring the visual evidence, and buying his excuse that he lost his balance and fell onto the Italian with his teeth breaking his fall.
Say what you will about Americans and their celebrity culture: at least they don't all stand behind an obviously guilty superstar. When the aforementioned Tyson does something objectionable, his fans may back him unquestioningly, but many Americans will be ready to turn on him. I guess it's a result of a country's size. The USA has plenty of heroes; they can afford to throw a few under the bus. But Uruguay doesn't get the world's attention often, so they have to support the favourite son no matter what.
In Canada, were in between; about one-tenth the size of the US, but ten-times the size of Uruguay. So we seem happy to trash a local celebrity when they deserve it (Bieber, Ford.) But we will stand behind an entire province when foreigners attack them (Alberta tar sands, Newfoundland seal hunt.)
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