Wifey put this a good way:
- If McCormick was your son, would you want him to have a second chance or whould you want him vilified wherever he went for the rest of his life?
- If it were your sons that died, would you want him to have a second chance or whould you want him vilified wherever he went for the rest of his life?
Would you be so compassionate in both answers? It would take a bigger man than me to do so.
At risk of adding to the 'bleeding hart bullshit' (in itself a bullshit phrase):
The crime is getting behind the wheel of a car when he was unfit to drive.
Anyone and everyone who has done that is potentially as guilty as McCormick, as several people have pointed out. Add to that anyone who has driven a car which is unfit to drive, anyone who has exceeded the speed limit in a 30mph zone, or anyone else who has driven without due care or consideration. What happened with McCormick is total tragedy and disaster, firstly for the children who died and their dad who was injured, secondly for their family who will never ever get over it and thirdly for McCormick (and his family) who will also never get over it.
But he did not make that totally wrong decision to drive with the intention of hurting anybody, any more than I did when I drove at 34mph in a 30mph zone. I could so easily have gone round a corner and hit someone, and I would have been entirely responsible. There is absolutely no justification in law for the principle 'It doesn't matter so long as I don't get found out'. That is just hypocrisy.
Further to that I - and I suspect everyone else who is writing on here - have absolutely no idea what has happened in McCormick's life since going to prison. We know nothing about the terms of his release. We know nothing about whether he has had contact with the family he damaged so appallingly. We know nothing about the basis on which he is currently with the club. He is a footballer by profession. There is nothing so far as i know that prevents a person who has served a prison sentence (for anything) from restarting the career for which they are trained, unless their crime has a direct bearing on the profession - as , for instance, in financial crimes or sex crimes.
It is a reasonable question to ask whether someone who is an 'entertainer', and therefore thrives on public profile, should really come back into the public eye. That is a very difficult question, and if we start down that road, where do we stop? I trust the leadership of the club to ask those questions very carefully, and to make the best possible decision for everyone concerned.
There is nothing more detestable in our society generally than the animal instinct to make scapegoats, whether in the out-and-out tabloid rubbish that some have written, or in the patronising 'There but for the grace of God go I' attitude of some others. We ARE in it, unless there are any saints on here - and I have yet to encounter any.
If the club decide that Luke McCormick has the right attitude to pick up a career (and where else in the lower leagues would a player find a more disciplined approach), then I would not want to stand in his or their way.