What’s happened here is a truly great Aussie Rules footballer’s career has been destroyed because of an overzealous and - for reasons some in the know will understand - double-standard wielding AFL administration. The losers are the player, of course, but mainly the fans.

Sports is either war without guns - in which case its not supposed to be pretty - or pure fantasy - in which case all we want are superstar athletes parading their skills on the weekend for our escapism. What they do off the field during the week is, either way, irrelevant.

The guy on the right is not in the original picture
a flash was used when taking the picture
there is no evidence of a flash used on the man in this picture.

The original guy in the picture with ben cousins has Red Eyes as caused by a Flash which also may explain why Ben’s eyes are semi - closed

Original Picture

http://goalsandgirls.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/cousins.bmp

The picture also could be a very drunk person it isn’t necessarily a stoned person. The simple fact is for all the Media Crap about Ben Cousins - the ONLY proof they have is that Ben Cousins admitted to being a recovering drug addict, the rest is hearsay and would not stand up in any court.

Yes I am a Ben Cousins fan, because quite simply he is the best footballer I have ever seen. The truth is he is not innocent, but he is nothing like the media have been portraying him. They glamorize Gary Ablett and a girl died of a drug overdose whilst staying in a room with him.

And while we are on the topic has everyone forgotten the fact that Alan Didak (Collingwood) was driving around with an underworld killer?

Ben Cousins has been punished by the AFL although he never harmed anyone except himself. It’s a bit hypocritical that the AFL punishes “Drug Users” but are quite happy about other players assaulting members of the public.

No Ben Cousins is not innocent and neither is the media.

Hehehehe,..

That’s not exactly the killer punch for your argument there, Courtney.

You’re clearly pretty fond of Benny, but your arguments are paper thin.

You’ve attempted to tar every club as having it’s share of drug users. Nice use of the ‘aww,.. Dad, but everyone’s doing it’ excuse.

Put up the proof or shut up. Ben’s father has admitted substance abuse, Ben has spent time at a high profile substance abuse rehab center and Ben has happily agreed to a rigorous regime of drug testing as part of his return to the AFL. Like it or not, Benny is AFL’s first confirmed illicit drug addict.

You say your club has ‘just been honest’. Rubbish. Forget about the continuous rumours of his lifestyle over the past 5 years.

He famously ran from police 12 months ago. Are we to believe that Ben was just drunk and forgot it was ok to be drunk as a passenger? There are only two reasons you exit a car to run from police.

1) You stole the car (and we know it was his car).
2) You have illegal substance on your person/in your system and are afraid of being detected.

It was patently clear at that time he was on something and afraid of getting caught, but West Coast were perfectly happy to ignore the 100 ft red writing on the wall.

It took another 12 months and Ben’s increasingly ratty and unpredictable behavior for West Coast to have no other choice but to act.

Guess what, you just done the same thing. You arent an eagles fan so dont say you are. I have been an eagles supporter since i was 2years old and i have not once stopped suporting the eagles.

You have no right in writing such allegations against people in which you don’t know.
I have met Ben Cousins on several occasions and for all you know he could have been drinking in this photo, but even so, are you going to say no to players drinking, cause im sure thats NOT a crime.

Stop and think about what your writing next time you go and write some crap like this.

All eagles fans will agree.

First off, i posted the image you’re showing in one of my own blog posts, that condemned Ben Cousins big time for his blatant disregard of the role model he is to the youth of today. Not to forget the blemish he puts on the AFL game and further contributes to tarnish the overall reputation of “sports stars”.

Sahipae, i absolutely disagree with your statement that these sports heros are “victims of society” which takes the blame of their own actions out of their hands and allows them to do (in their own mind at least) whatever they want to. Just because you’re a big star i’ve yet to see society demand somebody jab a needle in their arm or sniff coke. In a society where you are responsible for your own actions it’s paramount we don’t give these sports heros an out when it comes to them skipping their responsibilities, and not to forget, the law.

I still dont see why money and power means you have to resort to hard drugs and if it actually was the case we’d be seeing Steve Jobs sniffing coke on a regular basis.

I’d say bravo to Dave for taking the stance that this is simply not acceptable. Debacle after debacle from idiotic sports heros leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth…

That doesn’t however remove the fact that there are problems in the sporting world. Not just in West Coast or in the AFL but in all sports. Famous people have money and with money comes power and with power comes the ability to missuse it.

Unfortunately we see too many people missusing such power in the world. That is the result of youngers being pushed into the limelight at such young ages. Many sports allow people to play on a country-wide level at the mere age of 18. As for the music and televison/movie industries; they thrust people into the limelight from much younger ages in some cases.

These victims of society get all that power before they have learnt how to live fulfilling lives. Consequently they are left trying to fill the void with girlfriend to girlfriend, party to party or drug to drug. Just look at holliwood, it’s a prime example of the problem.

Everyone wins!