Sam Kerr will always be remembered as one of the greatest women’s players to grace the game, but one drunken night out in London has raised questions over the Australian superstar’s reputation.
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The 31-year-old Chelsea striker, who is mixed race, issued a public apology despite being found not guilty on Wednesday of racially aggravated abuse of a police officer in the early hours of January 30, 2023.
Kerr was recorded calling the policeman “stupid and white” but claimed she did not use “whiteness as an insult”.
The judge said after the verdict: “I take the view her own behaviour contributed significantly to the bringing of this allegation.”
In a statement, Kerr apologised for “expressing myself poorly on what was a traumatic evening”, with the case threatening to leave an indelible mark on an otherwise unblemished career.
Whether the case has a lasting impact remains to be seen. Kerr has not played football in over a year after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury (ACL).
Football Australia chief James Johnson refused to speculate during the trial on her future with the national team and whether she should remain captain and in a statement on Wednesday, FA was noncommittal on the matter.
COMMENT: How full 34-min police tape changed my mind on Kerr
New footage emerges from Kerr arrest | 01:55
“Football Australia invests heavily in building the behavioural standards and expectations of all involved with our game, especially for all our national team players, where leadership comes with added responsibilities on and off the field,” the statement read.
“Football Australia will reflect with Sam on learnings from this matter and we will continue to provide appropriate support for her moving forward.”
Interim Australia coach Tom Sermanni said last week he expected Kerr to be fit for selection when the Matildas host South Korea in April, but he too declined to comment on whether she was the right person to lead the side.
The Australian Financial Review’s Myriam Robin, in an opinion piece, wrote that Kerr’s suitability to be skipper “has more to do with public opinion, and its tolerance for entitled or idiotic athletes behaving badly”.
“That tolerance has, lately, been shrinking,” she added.
Meanwhile, Erin Smith of Code Sports was adamant Kerr should be “stripped of her Matildas’ captain armband and banned from any leadership roles”.
“If the captain of any of our national men’s teams, the Socceroos included, had been found drunk in a taxi, mid-season, and using deplorable language they would have been stood down from the role immediately,” she wrote.
“So why should Kerr get any special treatment?”
Well, The West Australian’s Kate Emery went some way to answering that question in an opinion piece where she argued the trial was a “waste of everyone’s time”, adding the not-guilty verdict was the “only good bit of news” to come out of the entire ordeal.
“An almighty mess of a bad night that should never have made it to the courts and turned into a two-year-long circus,” Emery added.
“Was Kerr, who has Anglo-Indian heritage, acting like a drunken prat when she said those four words to a police officer during a dispute over a taxi fare after a night out? Sure.
“Was she racially abusing the cop when she did so? Nope.
“And it seems like the jury that returned a not-guilty verdict agreed with me.”
Emery went on to write that it “would be a shame” if this incident, and the commentary that followed, “tainted” Kerr’s reputation in the long-term.
“Particularly given the drunken antics Australia’s male sporting heroes have long gotten away with, even been lionised for,” she added, arguing the double standards exposed by the Kerr saga with men often instead lauded for their “larrikin spirit”.
Emery also drew attention to the fact Kerr, and not her white fiancé Kristie Mewis, was arrested for criminal damage over the broken taxi window despite defence lawyer Grace Forbes stressing that Mewis told police “time and time again that she had broken the window”.
Kerr’s fiance defends her character | 00:55
“There is a broader point to be made here — one that came up at trial — which is that there is a difference between insulting a caucasian person for their race and insulting a non-white person for theirs,” Emery wrote.
“That difference comes down to one word: power. Racism is prejudice plus power. Historically, in our western world it is white people who have held the power and non-white people who have not. Overwhelmingly that remains true today.”
The same is also true for women’s safety concerns, as Sam Squiers wrote in a comment piece for foxsports.com.au. Nadia Russell of The Sydney Morning Herald also empathised Kerr’s situation while recalling her experience with one Uber driver who got lost and then instead of “apologising for the inconvenience” proceeded to “turn on” her.
“I’ve been in Sam Kerr’s shoes, and not only do I completely understand her behaviour during her infamous exchange with a constable in a Twickenham police station, I don’t have a problem with it,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, former NZ Football Fern and Team Heroine Founder Rebecca Sowden asked on LinkedIn if anyone else felt “uncomfortable” watching the Kerr trial unfold.
“Before smashing a taxi window to ‘escape’, Kerr & partner, Kristie Mewis feared they were being kidnapped after the driver locked the doors & windows, drove erratically & wouldn’t stop (after Kerr spit-vomited out the window),” she wrote.
“Whenever I take a taxi/uber, particularly at night I study the driver ID & am on high alert. Sadly, I’m sure many women go through similar ‘fears’ when doing other ‘day-to-day’ activities (taxis, jogging, walking to your car at night…). Feeling afraid during daily activities should not be, but is the reality for many women.”
Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells also threw her support behind Kerr, saying “the more we find out about the incident the more you can understand why they’ve acted the way they have”.
“… Sam certainly has Australia behind her.”
But that isn’t necessarily the case.
Kerr audio from taxi played in court | 00:56
As The Guardian’s Kieran Pender wrote, the not-guilty verdict “does little to quell bigger questions about the ongoing reputational fallout, including Kerr’s future as captain of the national team and the face of women’s football in Australia”.
He mentioned the additional context that was brought up throughout the trial in Kerr’s favour, including the Matildas star telling the court that after she vomited out the window the driver allegedly acted “crazy” and refused to let them leave.
Kerr went on to tell the court that he locked the doors and started heading in an unknown direction, adding that she felt “terrified” for her life while Mewis feared it was a “kidnapping”
Pender also referenced Kerr’s citing of the Claremont serial killer, along with the fact she felt like she was treated differently by police because of “the colour of my skin”.
“For Kerr’s detractors, this wider context obscures the central point: here was an entitled millionaire footballer, drunk, vomiting in the back of a taxi, and then using rude language as police officers sought to de-escalate the situation,” Pender added.
“… As the evidence over the past week revealed, there are competing kinds of privilege at play here – with enough material for those on either side of the debate to claim vindication. The video footage is not flattering to Kerr; the context explains, even excuses, say her backers.”
So, the big question: what does this all mean for Kerr and her standing in women’s football?
Kerr made her Australia debut aged just 15 and has gone on to become one of the world’s best players.
She was the face of the 2023 World Cup on home soil after her profile soared to new heights when she moved to Chelsea in 2020 and steered them to the domestic double.
Australia’s all-time leading scorer, among men or women, with 69 goals in 128 appearances, Kerr has been shortlisted for the women’s Ballon d’Or and nominated for the Best FIFA Women’s Player consistently since 2017.
Named “Young Australian of the Year” in 2018, Kerr was hailed as “inspirational, well-grounded, professional and mature”, helping drive change in Australian football with a minimum wage now in place and players treated as professionals.
Pender wrote that “even before the verdict it was clear things will not be the same” for Kerr or Australian football.
“The extent to which this incident tarnishes a glittering career, or is relegated to a footnote, remains to be seen,” he added.
“For many, in these polarised times, the answer to that question was predetermined before the trial had even commenced.”
Kerr officer challenged over motives | 01:50
It is a similar point to the one made by the Australian Financial Review’s Hans van Leeuwen, who wrote that Kerr was “exonerated by the jury unanimously, but the court of public opinion remains divided”.
“Who was belittling whom? Who was racist to whom? Everyone has a view, and there’s no chance of a universal verdict,” he added, referencing the fact that while many women are “sympathetic” to Kerr’s situation, the “furious commentary” in reaction to the case suggests she has “lost a lot of admirers”.
Kathryn Batte, meanwhile, wrote in a column for The Telegraph UK that “it is up to Kerr now what story she writes next”.
“Australia’s golden girl, their sporting superstar and hero showed she was not perfect after all,” wrote Batte.
“Kerr showed herself to be human. A human who can make a mistake, just like everybody else. The question now is whether she can repair her damaged reputation off the pitch and rediscover her best form on it.”
