So Jason McAteer has taken to the airwaves to appeal to the hearts and minds of Irish sports fans over his donnybrook with Stephen Cluxton. He appeared on the Off The Ball last night and essentially called Cluxton out, while offering a non-apology for his role in the fracas and blaming Cluxton for costing Dublin the 2003 All-Ireland.
It was a surreal interview. The more McAteer talked and the more he implored Cluxton to do the right thing and apologise, the more ridiculous he sounded. Cluxton said nothing and the mystique of that random punch grows with his silence. McAteer's quotes are below.
"Stephen Cluxton obviously wanted to make a point and he tripped me up,’’
"We came face to face with each other and suddenly he let fly with a left hook. It came right out of the blue.
"It was disappointing because a lot of families had come and paid a lot of money to watch the game and I just thought people needed to know it’s not about him being a hard man.
"He should just really show some humility in the situation and maybe come out and apologise.
"To throw a punch was over the top and shouldn’t have happened. Humility should be shown and maybe an apology to Darndale for his actions.’’
"There’s been that many phone calls today and that many people wanting to know what was going on, I wanted to let everyone know what really went on and how disappointed I am and just to say sorry to Darndale who put a lot of effort into arranging the game.
"I just want to say for my part of it, I’m sorry for Darndale if I’ve let anyone down.’’
"We know Stephen Cluxton has got a history of getting sent off, as it were. He was sent off in an incident where he let a lot of people down in Dublin and probably cost them an All-Ireland.
"He let alot of people down there and I just feel it was a stupid thing that he did.’’
"I believe there’s been things said on Twitter, Bernard Dunne making out he (Cluxton) is some hard man.
"People are parting with their money for charity, this is what we’re all turned out for yesterday, people didn’t turn out to see a boxing match... I just don’t see a funny side to it.’’
