I owe Brendan Fevola an apology.
For the past six years when I’ve been going into high schools and giving talks on resilience I’ve told a true story – what’s meant to be a funny story – where Fevola is part of the punch line.
While the story is totally designed to poke fun at me and my stupidity (I humiliated myself on radio by confusing NRL with AFL) along the way I make a joke about how much we all hated Fevola when the Brisbane Lions recruited him in late 2009. It always gets a laugh. ALWAYS.
And for years I felt justified making the joke. As far as I was concerned Fevola was a gambling, boozing d*ckhead who – let’s not forget – was alleged to have taken and circulated a naked photo of Lara Bingle when she was in the shower.
He was the type of man I had little time and zero respect for.
Top Comments
As a fan of The Mighty Blues, I've always had mixed feelings when it comes to Brendan Fevola. He is a very talented player on the field, but (especially during his time with Carlton) his off field antics were nothing short of embarrassing. Admittedly, I've only watched snippets of I am Celeb, what I have seen of him, has shown that he is a decent guy who got a bit lost on the way, but now seems to be on the right track. Glad to see he's getting a chance to change the public's perception of him.
Well said and well written. My knowledge of Brendan Fevola was only what I'd seen on the media. Like many young, talented sportsmen, fame and money were an 'aphrodisiac' of a different kind and most don't have the maturity to deal with it.
The first 'glimpse' I had of Brendan's true nature was when I saw him on 'Dancing with the Stars' but his time on 'I'm a Celebrity' showed him to be a man who had made mistakes; who acknowledged and 'owned' them; and who honestly loved all the 'women' in his life. Watching him reunite with his family had me in tears. Whilst you can 'hide' yourself from a partner, children are not that easy to pull the wool over their eyes. The love those children have for their Dad was almost 'tangible'!
May he continue to 'go forward' in his life.