Editorial: Clash of two eras in Mad Mondays

Debating the end-of-season antics partaken by Super Rugby team the Chiefs before they disbanded this week is fraught with risk.

This was highlighted by the she-said, he-said stuff in which a lass called Scarlette and the team's management became embroiled. Being the respondents, Chiefs' management were caught between a rock and a hard place, with perhaps, no correct correct answer. Placing one's foot in one's mouth seemed inevitable.

So, where does one start?

At the beginning, and what we expect of our professional sports people, or what we seem now to be told to expect of our professional sportsmen.

It's a clash of two eras. Remove "professional sportsmen" from the debate and what we have is just one of the many variations of how people have tended to leer-up at the end of a tough campaign for centuries.

Celebration, with a bit of entertainment thrown in, whatever that entertainment may be. Soldiers off on a few days' leave from the war, anything went. Graduation day. Students before heading off on careers as lawyers, accountants, and scientists. The break-up do before Christmas ..?

In the case of the Chiefs, the entertainment involved a woman who was to be paid for a certain level of service. More might have been expected than was offered, but the payment, apparently, wasn't a lot. Given that this is the era of professional sport, where was the contract? Someone slipped up on that one.

Similarly, it's a bit of a surprise that we haven't been able to go to the TMO - a zillion Facebookers would have gone apoplectic at the opportunity to witness the waitressing performance of Mad Monday, without a thought for any double standards that might be at play. No footage seems to be available, at least not readily.

The lady made a personal choice to be there. Short of a complaint to police, which if relevant should have been the first step, and given usual acceptance of the privacy of what goes on between consenting parties behind closed doors, we don't know what went on, and probably don't need to.

We're right to expect our professional sports to play sport professionally, but should we expect them to be saints as well?