Luis Suarez Bites Defender – Why Does He Keep Doing Things That Make People Hate Him So Much?

Yesterday, Luis Suarez, Liverpool’s premier striker and starlet bizarrely bit Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. He literally grabbed his arm as they jockeyed for position and bit him.

Even if you’re a devout Liverpool fan, you have to be wondering, what is wrong with this guy?

Although he is a formidable footballer and arguably one of the best and most talented strikers in the world, this is not the first time Suarez has made headlines for absurd behaviour. He entertainingly, and yet embarrassingly, has a pretty impressive resume when it comes to irrational and erratic choices on the field of play.

In the 2010 World Cup quarter final against Ghana, Suarez used his hand to swat the ball off the goal line in the dying moments, giving him an automatic red card. Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty. The game went to penalties and Uruguay won, advancing to the semis.

Suarez came under severe criticism for his deliberate handball, because it was perceived as unabashed unsportsmanlike conduct. Granted, for Ghana, it must have been an incredibly infuriating and sour way to be knocked out of the tournament, however, I’m sure Uruguayans were not complaining very much.

In a twisted context, you might even say what he did was quite patriotic; putting the nation’s honor and glory ahead of his own. In addition, football is self-characterized as a gentleman’s game – a gentleman’s game where every foul, injury, or breath on an opponent is embellished to the point of ridicule. They lie. When they dive and roll around in a way that children can’t even manage, they lie to the ref, the fans, the spectators, and I bet they even lie to themselves and become convinced that they really are injured and not just trying to gain a slight advantage by telling a little fib. For this reason, what he did in the world cup doesn’t really disturb me, but his rap sheet doesn’t end there.

Later on in 2010, while playing for Ajax, Suarez bit Otman Bakkal in the clavicle in a match against PSV Eindhoven, earning him the moniker, the “Cannibal of Ajax”. Personally, I would have went something more along the lines of ‘Luis Mouthstrong’ or ‘Hungry Hungry Luis’, but ‘Cannibal of Ajax’ is good too, I guess.

In a high profile match between heated rivals Manchester United and Liverpool in 2011, Suarez came under intense scrutiny when Man U defender Patrice Evra revealed that the Liverpool striker hurled racial slurs at him several times.

Suarez disappointed millions in a society trying to overcome racism, was suspended for 8 matches, and fined more money than I will probably make in two years.

Lastly, he has been notoriously identified as a shameless diver who repeatedly tries to draw penalties in the 18-yard box anytime he sees even a glimpse of an opportunity. What is worrying is that the heaviest condemnation has come from current players themselves. All footballers do it, yet it appears he does it so much and so shamelessly, that he has become a pariah on the pitch and anywhere outside Uruguay and Merseyside for his flagrant cheating.

Is he just really competitive? Crazy? Or hungry?

I think he’s really competitive but a little crazy. You can see his drive and determination when he plays, however I think he lacks a mental filter that most athletes possess.

All athletes are extremely competitive at heart with an unrelenting desire to win. I am generalizing here, as I’m sure there are many athletes who are happy to be mediocre but collect millions with little effort and lots of time on the treatment table. See Donovan Mcnabb, Lamar Odom, Alexander Semin, Dimitar Berbatov, etc.

Furthermore, I am sure that almost every athlete is overcome with a rabid competitive fervor that urges them to bite and punch their opponents, however, the majority have a mental filter that tells them punching and biting is crappy behaviour and not acceptable.

In my mind Luis Suarez lacks this behavioural ability. When his instincts tell him to bite, he bites. When his instincts tell him to cheat, he cheats. When his instincts tell him to steal money while he’s playing Monopoly with his friends, he probably does that too.

His actions are not the best thing for football or even the world of sport, in fact they are deplorable, but he is not the first, and in all likelihood, he will not be the last to behave this way. If anything, his latest stunt has simply embarrassed himself and his team even more and definitively placed him in a unique club of athletes that were incredibly talented, but just a little too crazy to be considered normal, or even sane. Before, he was on the cusp, but now, he’s definitely in.