We think the rules of professional soccer deserve some editing. Apparently if one player gives a player on the opposing team a friendly kiss, a penalty is in order. Seems like an exemplary show of sportsmanship if you ask us.
But when Lee Mansell, a midfielder with the Bristol Rovers leaned in to peck J.J. OâDonnell, a midfielder for Gateshead FC on the lips, the refs didnât share our view.
He was given a yellow card (which, if youâre a non-sports fan, means a caution, and if a player gets two of them  in a game, he is ejected).
Lee later said that this kiss was a way of deflecting a fight that he felt coming on, so maybe itâs not so sportsmanlike after all.
How about we take this to the next level?
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âWe either clash heads and he goes down or I end up doing something silly,â he said. âI did it to defuse the situation. Itâs the first time Iâve been booked for kissing someone⊠But we had a laugh and a joke about it with the lads afterwards. Itâs another thing to add to the list of daft things Iâve done on the football pitch.â
Hereâs video of the incident:
Forget the mistletoe lads? @Official_BRFCâs Lee Mansell goes in for a cheeky kiss with @GatesheadFCâs JJ OâDonnell! https://t.co/J3zRnv5neJ
â BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) December 19, 2014
Dakotahgeo
My first post of the day: Bravo to the two young guys for good sportsmanship! Four yellow cards and a kick in the head for the Ref! He was probably jealous!
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Wow, seems I might be in the minority but to me that came across as an aggressive act, a deliberate attempt to intimidate and emasculate his opponent in a, âIâm gonna make you my bitchâ kinda way. Weâve seen boxers and MMA do it. But hey who am I to get in the way of projected fantasies :/
jayj150
Kissing a stranger(of the same-sex or not) on the lips, without their consent, is sexual assault. The fact that the writers at Queerty seem to find it sexy doesn’t change that. Queerty’s editors should stop acting like horny 13-year-old boys trying to sexualize everything.
jwtraveler
He should have bitten him. Apparently you don’t get penalized for that in soccer.
TrickyPuck
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: I agree with you, if you watch the other guy’s reaction after the kiss, it was a ‘yeah, you like that huh’ kinda thing, and the receiving party was not about it. Yeah, those are two hot guys and it would be fun to fantasize about them ‘getting it on’ if you will, however, that was poor sportsmanship. The editors and writers should really focus less on how their dicks feel and more on what the facts are.
Billy Budd
Maradona kissed a soccer buddy once on the lips, when he was celebrating a goal.
BigWoody
Seems to me, by the reaction of the kissee, he was upset more about the kissers bad breath than the kiss.
Chris
In a post-game interview, the guy who kissed the other soccer player said he was trying to defuse what was in danger of becoming a serious altercation. I guess he succeeded.
Wingfield
@jayj150: I was actually thinking the same things. It’s a “it’s all cool because they’re both straight” situation. I wonder what the backlash would have been if robbie Rogers did that?
Bryguyf69
“Lee later said that this kiss was a way of deflecting a fight that he felt coming on, so maybe itâs not so sportsmanlike after all.”
===
I have mixed feelings about this. First, I disagree with the author. I think deflecting a fight is VERY sportsmanlike. Especially when done with humor, as is seemingly the case here. That said, any [presumably] unwanted physical contact that is not part of the game — especially something as intimate as a lip-to-lip kiss — would be a violation in any sport. In fact, it would be punishable in any workplace. You can even argue that it’s worse than verbal harassment or groping since a kiss can transmit disease. Downtime due to illness is one of the worse nightmares for an athlete.
PS – the video wouldn’t play for me so I can be completely wrong.
Bryguyf69
@jayj150 wrote “Kissing a stranger(of the same-sex or not) on the lips, without their consent, is sexual assault. The fact that the writers at Queerty seem to find it sexy doesnât change that. Queertyâs editors should stop acting like horny 13-year-old boys trying to sexualize everything.”
===
Your comment is equally valid when flipped. Two athletic men kissing is sexy. Just because something is wrong doesn’t change that. Sexual arousal is generally an involuntary reaction. You may argue that it’s wrong to write about it, but you can’t slam someone for an innate feeling. It’s not a matter of “trying to sexualize” since arousal and ethics are not mutually exclusive.
As an aside, I recently helped a friend who is suing a health club. Apparently, the club had “security cameras” that recorded [male and female] patrons walking around naked and showering. I won’t deny that the footage was arousing, despite being immoral and [likely] illegal.
Dr. Arthur Frederick Ide
Two people of the same gender has long historical roots: from the ancient world to this day. In the Middle Ages it was known as the Osculum Pacis (Kiss of Peace) and was patterned after the gospel account of Judas kissing Jesus: not a sign of betrayal but one of a promise to protect and defend another. In the feudal world, it was exchanged between lord and vassal: a visible contract to secure, protect, and help the other (cf. Gansoff, F. “Fuedalism”). It has been the sign of most religions since 1983 CE as an exchange of wisdom and life itself, with the promise to secure and protect the one being kissed.
While I saw no reciprocity of the kiss in the video, at the same time I did not see the person being kissed being repelled by it or striking out against the one offering the kiss–thereby tacitly accepting it. There is no sign of violence and no recognition of staid and ossified behavior. This clip is not as poignant as others, but it serves well to show that one does not have to resort to violence when a misstep is taken or someone is slightly injured. @jayj150 needs to get a life.
aliengod
He deserved the yellow card. He had no right to kiss his opponent in such an aggressive way. It’s no different than punching him as far as the rules are concerned.
Cagnazzo82
There’s probably more gay kissing in soccer than any other sport.
Usually it’s between teammates however.
I agree with the above poster that this was more of an ‘aggressive’ perhaps mocking and demeaning kiss moreso than anything else.
Although the guy he was kissing is cute, so you never know đ
Bryguyf69
@Cagnazzo82: While I agree that there is a lot of fraternal kissing in soccer, it’s often on the cheeks. For the most per capita kissing (aka the highest rate) between men — often lip-to-lip — we’d have to look at the Eastern Europe. That includes, ironically, homophobic Russia. So what team sport do they dominate? Yep, gymnastics. Lots of lip locking there. They also dominate figure skating but it’s usually not a team sport, so there’s little kissing. And they obviously have to do well in the sport to give so many congratulatory kisses.
As for Americans, if you like father-son action, look for Olympian Danell Leyva. The Cuban-American gymnast has been seen kissing his stepfather, who is also coach and a former gymnast. A lot of massaging, caressing and hugging too. It’s actually quite beautiful, and should be an example for all American father and sons.
blackberry finn
@jayj150: “Assault” is a strong word. It’s hard for me to see it as an assault unless the aggressor, for example, forcefully presses his lips against the other guy’s lips. I mean this is practically an air kiss! But with more thought perhaps I could change my mind on the matter.
Bryguyf69
As a complete tangent, this was my favorite male-to-male kiss in the last few years. I don’t know if Swenson is gay, but his act of tenderness amidst death certainly shattered stereotypes. And no one would dare call him a sissy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYQUPKnX1QE
Bryguyf69
@Bryguyf69: You can read more about Swenson’s heroics on Wikipedia. Amazing guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Swenson
1EqualityUSA
It seemed like a cute story, until I watched the video. It seemed to mock, in a weird way.