Nile Ranger: Gangster Extraordinaire
Posted on May 16th, 2011 | 65 Comments |
Jokes aside, the above is a new picture leaked to the Sun who of course paint Nile Ranger as a hitman for the Wallsend Mafia.
NEWCASTLE United star Nile Ranger was quizzed by club officials yesterday after he posed “like a gangster” with a GUN.
Pardon me if this post is a little messy in places; it’s difficult to organise your thoughts when you’re in fits of laughter.
If you manage to read beyond the above quote without any kind of fluid pouring out of your nose, you’ll find out that it is in fact a replica firearm that was being carried about for whatever reason, presumably in public.
What’s missing from the article is that Nile was at his girlfriends house and they had a few friends over and one of the silly Southerners pulled out the replica gun and everybody decided that they wanted to hold the magical chrome plated object. Of course the gun came to Nile, whose girlfriend is aroused by men with guns and she took a picture.
The source told The Sun:
“Someone spotted this bulge in the waistband of one of the bloke’s trousers.
“He was a bit of a hardcase and pulled out this gun. It was passed around and Nile struck up a pose like a gangster and tried to look like a real tough guy.”
Please note the use of the wording of that last sentence. “Tried to look like.” I’d imagine the person who leaked this picture is:
1. Not a very good friend.
2. A Chelsea supporter.
A Newcastle United spokesperson had some words to say, though seemed to jump immediately on the ‘legal’ bandwagon:
“The club have spoken to Nile and can confirm that the item shown in the photograph is a replica firearm which is not an offence to own.
“Nile regrets posing for the photograph, which was taken by his girlfriend at home.”
Maybe I’m just being a little nonchalant about this whole thing but what harm is he doing? The photo was taken in private amongst supposed friends. I agree completely that this was a silly idea by Nile but there’s a huge difference between holding a live weapon with a magazine full of death and a none functional replica – there are people who have live rifles hanging in glass cases in their houses, after all.
Of course, the anti-gun bandwagon jumped straight at the lads throat. A Mother’s Against Violence campaigner had this to say:
“Footballers are an example to young boys. He probably thought this was a bit of fun, but guns tear people’s lives apart.”
Something about that irritates me. While I agree with the sentiment, the point still remains it’s not a real gun! How many young boys owned cap guns? When I was younger you could get quite realistic looking ones in the styles of revolvers, Glock’s and at one point had a rifle, designed to look as realistic as possible. What violence is Ranger causing by posing with something that’s actually less realistic than a cap gun?
What annoys me even more than that is quite simple, really. That quick statement seems to imply that every young boy who sees that photo (that The Sun happily paraded around), will say “Mam! I need one of these gun things like Nile Ranger!” and as a result accountability is not with the parents – it’s all the footballers fault!
If your child wants a gun for whatever reason, you’ve probably failed as a parent.
I can’t help but be reminded of the Parents Music Resource Center that took place in the 80s, claiming that music, particularly rock and pop, was a bad influence on children and was promptly slapped down by both Frank Zappa and Dee Snider. Same goes for the Columbine shootings, it couldn’t possibly have been that the parents were at fault, or that the teenagers had un-addressed mental problems, oh no! It was all Marilyn Manson’s fault. Of course!
Back on topic: is Ranger advocating violence? Not at all, he had a picture taken with a fake weapon.
Yes, the young lad has had a nasty past but he is not aiming (heh) to promote gun usage nor is he advocating people to follow the same path that he took in his younger life. Newcastle offered him a lifeline and he grabbed it with both hands.
We all know that Nile isn’t the brightest spark (least of all when he claimed Lovenkrands was Scottish) and he knows that this was a terrible idea but hindsight is always crystal clear. Let’s just hope he learns from this and shows the media what he’s made of on the pitch.
The media irritates me sometimes.
NUFCBlog Author: Thump
Some say his bones are black and white but that is yet to be medically proven. Currently writes for a few different publications and likes to assert his imaginary authority on nobody in particular.
Beware: eats children.
Thump has written 36 articles on this blog.
I should apologise for the mini-rant in advance. This was initially going to be tongue in cheek and then it started grating on me.