Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Police get complaint about Neil Lennon putting his hands to his ears

After having a real bomb that was sent to him intercepted by police and having loads of verbal abuse rain down on him during Sunday's 0-0 Old Firm match, you would think that Celtic manager Neil Lennon would quietly go back down the tunnel immediately after the game so as not to incite any more ugliness. Instead, he tried to show Rangers fans at Ibrox that they weren't getting to him standing on the pitch, looking right at them, and putting his hands to his ears. And this, apparently, caused someone to call the police.

From the Press Association:

A spokeswoman for the police said: "We can confirm we have received a complaint regarding Neil Lennon at the end of the Rangers-Celtic football match. Strathclyde Police officers were in attendance at the time and would have taken action at that time if they had deemed it appropriate."

The Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell, said: "It is absolute nonsense. It is laughable that such a ludicrous complaint has been made, given the abuse Neil received throughout the match. It tells you more about those making the complaint than it does about Neil."

When the gesture was mentioned after the game, Lennon said: "Don't ask me about that. It's called humour, all right?

"Don't distract away from my team's performance. Don't even write about it. You have the photographs, I'm sure, but it is just a bit of fun. I don't want to distract from my team's performance today."

If you don't want to distract from your team's performance -- which was solid enough to keep them just one point behind Rangers in the table -- then you don't do something like that. It's simple. As for his intentions, it's shame there isn't any humor in the Old Firm Derby, but there really isn't. At all. And the guy who was almost got blown up last week should know that better than anyone.

So while it's stupid for Rangers fans to get so worked up about such a silly gesture, it's also stupid for Lennon to do it in the first place because he knows it's just going to perpetuate the stupidity from both sides. And that's as accurate a description of the state of the Old Firm Derby as you can get.

Photos: Reuters, Getty

Kristin Kreuk Molly Sims Monika Kramlik Lacey Chabert Amber Brkich

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