Where I'm At With El Pistolero

Ok, so I'm going to break a promise I made not two days ago. But ask the women in my life, that's kind of how I roll. That's why I'll die alone, ugly, and dead in the words of Moe. Besides, what woman could really love someone who spends his time breaking down Jay Spearing's game?

Anyway, this isn't about "the incident" or "the handshake" per se. It's probably just more to work out my own feelings on the whole thing and player, and you'll just have to deal with my psychosis.

Anyway, I think we can all agree that it hasn't been easy to be a supporter of Luis Suarez recently. But I think I know, or at least want to believe what's at the heart of it.

Here's what I want to believe: I think a lot of Suarez's problems or missteps are because he cares so much. I think Luis wants to win that bad. I don't like the diving and yelling at refs or opponents. But I don't get the impression it's all done in some self serving, aggrandizing way. That was the general impression I get from Christiano Ronaldo's antics, though that comes from a horribly biased position (though I'll freely admit he'll go down as one of the most exciting players I've ever seen). It always felt like Ronaldo took a call against him or a foul against him as just that, a foul against him. Maybe it's just because he wears our red, but I always feel that Suarez is just aggrieved at the missed chance to help his team win.

Maybe I'm just basing this on his reaction in the stands to Kuyt's winner against United. He looked like he belonged in the Kop, and maybe that's where he would have rather sat.

Does this excuse some of his latest actions? Of course not. But at the very base of it, and this is all just a theory of mine, but I think Suarez's anger stems from of a feeling of being robbed of a chance to help his team. To him, there probably isn't a bigger crime, if anything I'm prattling about here is even close to the case.

The American equivalent I keep coming back to is Rasheed Wallace. For those who didn't watch basketball the past couple decades, Rasheed was a wonderful player who had a nasty habit of picking up technical fouls for arguing with refs. He even set a season record for it. But almost always, he wasn't doing it to put himself on show or be the story. He just wanted to win so badly. He didn't channel that feeling correctly, and eventually never became quite the player he promised (and is almost certifiably nuts), but it came from a good place. It just manifested itself wrong.

I guess this will be proven right or wrong on where Suarez's Liverpool career goes from here. If he puts up four or five more years of excellent football without incident, we'll probably look back at it as a "teachable moment". It'll be where he learned what the limits are. I hope.

Again, all a theory, or maybe just a feeling or hope. But as horribly as Suarez has let his desire go wrong recently, I do believe it comes from the right place. If that makes any sense at all, which I'm not sure it does.

But then again, do any of our scrambled thoughts make sense?