But I'm not sure that criminal proceedings against the Hearts balloon who swung a fist in Scott Sinclair's direction are proportionate or necessary.
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| Hands on: Scott Sinclair felt the love from Celtic fans |
I must confess that there is little about the Jambos that warms my heart. I respect the fact that their supporters stepped up to save their club, when others watched their own club die and blamed everyone but the culprits, all of whom could have been found inside their own stadium at any given match.
But Hearts took their medicine, paid their bills and came back.
I think they have a good, if hard-to-love team, which I believe will present our strongest challenge this season.
They played ugly against us, but they played well. They committed too many fouls to the extent that you could consider their foul play part of Robbie Neilson's plan.
Neilson is an interesting character. Not yet feted by the media in the way that Derek McInnes has been lauded to the strains of Bonnie Tyler singing “Holding Out for a Hero”, he has led a team through adversity, to strength.
He managed to outclass a far better funded team of Rangers impersonators to the Championship and make a decent fist of things in the SPFL. I have a hunch that Neilson is the one to watch as far as Scottish coaches within the Scottish game are concerned and that his team will be formidable opponents this season.
On the other hand, it's hard to find any feelgood factor whenever we play the Tynecastle men.
There have been many occasions on which their fans' rabid antipathy towards Celtic have been evident, none worse than the attack on Neil Lennon and the appalling contortions the Scottish legal establishment went to in order to mitigate the guilt of an assailant who had apologised unreservedly for his actions.
Their striker Jamie Walker secured an absurd penalty through a piece of abject cheating and there are reasonable calls for him to face retrospective punishment. I would support that, as long as it was done within an established structure that applied equally to all clubs.
We should try to eradicate that from the game, though we all know we never will.
But the fist-waving idiot?
Bear with me while I combine personal experience with distaste at reactions to recent events.
Firstly, let it be said that the thug who swung a fist towards Scott Sinclair deserves to be punished. A stadium ban would be in order, maybe even a lifetime exclusion, and you would hope that a strident defender of standards as Ann Budge claims to be would take the lead in getting her own house in order.
But, here's a silly anecdote. I once had a friend who was, by common consent, an absolute arsehole, much of the time. He even, pathetically, admitted as much to me, once.
One day, while walking down Union Street, I heard this almighty, shocking roar in my ear. It was my friend, who – never knowing where was too far – had spotted me, run towards me and shouted “Boo!” in my ear with all the volume he could muster.
I am not proud to say that I swung my right fist with all the power my adrenaline-fuelled body had in it - quite a lot. At the last split-second, I pulled it towards me, saving my friend from being laid out on the deck, quite possibly with a serious injury.
I am even less proud to admit that the reaction to punch him came after I caught sight of his buffoonish, grinning face.
In that few seconds, in an agitated state, I “chose” (as far as you can within those reaction times) to knock his head somewhere towards the Clyde and still had time to make that look like an angry gesture, rather than what it was – a real, volatile intention to smack that grin off his face.
I'm quite glad that I didn't make contact and I don't think it would have been a good thing, had I been unable to change my decision. If I had connected, he would have been hurt and I might very well have found myself in trouble.
That is just one occasion on which I have welcomed the maxim that the intention to commit a sin is not the same as the commission of the immoral act.
The thug who swung at Scott Sinclair doesn't have quite my excuse and I suspect he may have a greater history of launching his ham-like fists towards the faces of people who had upset him by being good at what they do.
And we absolutely must make football grounds safe for players and fans. Scott Sinclair didn't antagonise the Hearts fans – he simply took the quickest natural route towards the Celtic fans to celebrate his debut goal.
And had the assault been carried through, a jail sentence would have been appropriate. But supposing that maroon-clad clown may have thought better of lashing out at someone who had simply done his job, I wonder if a criminal record for a swing in the heat of the moment is warranted.
That's supposing that Ms Budge does take action.
But back to context. I suppose that this is informed by the absurd press reactions to Hibs fans taking to the pitch to celebrate their Scottish Cup win, when they were accused of all kinds of calumnies against their opponents players and coaching staff, though none have convincingly reported as much as an Indian burn, as evidence.
And yet all manner of punishments were called for – and many journalists insisted that their “eye-witness” accounts should be taken on trust, despite a Sheriff – presumably in full possession of all the available facts – concluding that threats to the wellbeing of the professional losers were greatly exaggerated.
Those same “respected” commentators called for sanctions from everyone just short of the UN Security Council for Hibs fans on the pitch that day and most of Scottish football scoffed.
So, maybe it would be enough for Hearts to deal decisively with Gormless-from-Gorgie and send a clear signal that Scottish football clubs can be trusted to deal with such actions in a way that the courts have, thus far, failed to do.
But I could be wrong.
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