You may remember (if, unlike Balls, you are a well-adjusted, socially normal person then you probably won't) but Solomon Rondon was sent off against Bournemouth on December 19th last year. He got his marching orders for violent conduct, and Rondon did show a remarkable commitment to said conduct.
In stoppage time, Rondon stamped on his opponent, and then went-to-head with said opponent, twice flicking his head towards him while kicking him at the same time. Perhaps this was an instance of the Venezuelan simply losing his head, but a straight red-card did earn him a three-match ban, that coincidentally earned him a nice break over the Christmas.
We're not saying that this was premeditated on Rondon's part, but being suspended over Christmas is a safer way of skipping games than the approach taken by Jo when he was Everton: the striker decided to fly home and his own winter break.
So, despite how richly-renumerated they are, many footballers are like the rest of us: they don't like working over Christmas.
And this fact has been reinforced by fearless journalist Howard Webb, who has temporarily released from his bunker at BT Sport to join James Richardson and co. on the European Goals Show. Webb said that players who have four yellow cards - and are therefore one away from a suspension - are not exactly averse to picking up a yellow around that time of the year.
A couple of times around about Christmas time in the Premier League players will want the time off. They will say 'a yellow card might suit my purpose.' It's not what fans want to hear really.
As long as they don't do something stupid, maybe just a small holding offence or kicking the ball away and they might get what they want, but it's not cricket, is it.
Because a yellow card isn't for life. It's just for Christmas.
