IAN HERBERT: What this beautiful portrayal of friendship should mean to us all… Kevin Sinfield carrying Rob Burrow over the finishing line was a scene to make your heart soar
- Kevin Sinfield carried Rob Burrow over the Leeds Marathon finishing line
- It was an incredible and indelible testament to fraternity and teamwork
- The moment transcended the narrow self-interests and squabbles of sport
It wasn’t straightforward, of course. There were the straps around his old friend to unfasten and then the process of gently easing him out of the chair in a dignified way. The glasses which shielded his eyes almost came off. His waterproof pouch got in the way.
But they managed it, crossing the finishing line of the Leeds Marathon together on Sunday in a scene which transcended the narrow self-interests and squabbles of sport and was testament to the enduring power of friendship. Rob Burrow raised his head a little as they stood there under a grey sky. Kevin Sinfield seemed to grip him a little tighter. It was a scene to make your heart soar.
That friendship has been unassailable during the terrible diminution of Burrow, the man who seemed unbreakable as a slight, quick, tough, talented rugby league player when they played in the Leeds Rhinos team together. Burrow has lost so much since his Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis in 2019, though this friendship has prevailed, surpassing even what they had as team-mates. With Sinfield and others most dear to him, Burrow is not alone.
It was the sense of solitariness which most struck me when I met Fernando Ricksen, the former Rangers footballer who was also living with this condition, a few years ago. It was a Saturday night at the Tradeston Ex-Servicemen’s club near Ibrox and when Ricksen wheeled himself in through a side door the room was up on its feet to greet him, alive with love and noise.
He was among friends and family, including his wife Veronika, and grown men could not help but kneel to where he sat and embrace him. Yet what an incalculable sadness – Ricksen being able to hear and see all that unfolded in a room where supporters queued to be photographed with him, yet unable to raise so much as a hand to offer a gesture of affection back.
Kevin Sinfield, 42, carried Rob Burrow, 40, across the finish line on Sunday afternoon
Sinfield gives Burrow an affectionate kiss to mark the moment they cross the finish line
Mail Sport columnist Ian Herbert (pictured) said the moment at the marathon was heartwarming
Sinfield has kept his friend’s torch burning. You only had to see Burrow on that finishing line, lifting his head to survey the scene as Sinfield held him, to know that. But this is a friendship of equals. Sinfield, who had pushed Burrow around the entire Leeds marathon circuit, has found a purpose which transcends sport. ‘The last couple of years have shown me what I need to do with my life,’ he tells my colleague David Coverdale in an interview to be published here later this week.
It was Burrow, in one of their daily text exchanges, who encouraged Sinfield to embark on a new autobiography, The Extra Mile – a beautiful portrayal of friendship and a powerful treatise on the need to afford those who play sport a greater duty of care. Sinfield’s granular description in the book of his first concerns and the months leading up to Burrow’s diagnosis is unforgettable. Research in 2019 showed the risks of developing MND are more than eight times higher among those who sustain repeated blows to the head and spine in top level sport.
Sinfield describes in the book how he would run through villages up at 3am, during a 101-mile, 24-hour fundraising run in 2019, to find people emerging from houses in their pyjamas to offer donations. The £1million he raised from that challenge was testament to what an inspiration he and Burrow have been for so many. The run ended at Headingley, where Burrow was waiting for him. ‘You don’t realise the impact you’ve had on me,’ Sinfield told him that day.
It was a giant step on the road to the £6.8million needed to build a care centre for those living with MND, in Burrow’s name. Sinfield’s work is also helping to fund new drug trials and keeping the government to its commitment to invest £50million.
Sinfield reflected last week on whether government is doing enough, or indeed whether society is, in this relentless world where time and thought for others seem in increasingly short supply. Time may be the greatest gift we can give, he suggested. ‘Without getting too political, when you look at politicians and the way government is set up,’ Sinfield said. ‘They are supposed to make it better for people. We have probably lost sight of that. We have become quite selfish as a society.’
He didn’t want to be too political with such pronouncements, he said. He didn’t want to condescend to assume that people will always be willing to give. There would probably always be compassion fatigue, he reflected. And then last Sunday happened. The two of them, doing a marathon together, before that moment on the finishing line – an incredible and indelible testament to fraternity, friendship and teamwork.
The Extra Mile, by Kevin Sinfield is published by Century at £20 hardback
www.mndassociation.org
Why no Paisley stand at Anfield?
It was 40 years ago this week that Bob Paisley brought the curtain down on a glorious managerial career and rarely a year goes by without his achievements seeming all the greater. Other managers have come and gone but none has brought Liverpool silverware as consistently and for so long.
Jurgen Klopp is more ebullient than Paisley. So was Bill Shankly. Neither man has held a candle to Paisley’s accomplishments. He didn’t want a fuss when it was time to go. Graeme Souness literally pushed him out towards the Kop to take the applause after the last home match, against Aston Villa. But it is puzzling that Anfield, which marks the contribution of its heroes so wonderfully, does not have a Bob Paisley Stand.
Bob Paisley poses with the UEFA Cup, Charity Shield and League Championship trophies in 1976
The day a police dog bit my right-back!
I wrote here last week about Cambridge United’s fans’ delirium after their dramatic last-day escape from the drop, though that pales by comparison with the drama of some who’ve emailed me.
The former Torquay United manager Stuart Morgan relates how his side equalised in second-half injury time against Crewe Alexandra on the last day in 1987, as they sought to avoid becoming the first team automatically relegated from the Football League. In the mayhem, a police dog bit Morgan’s right back Jimmy McNichol, who needed 30 stitches. ‘We drew the game and Lincoln City went down instead,’ Stuart relates. ‘Jimmy survived too.’
Lunatics assaulting bosses is becoming commonplace
The lunatic Leeds United pitch invader who confronted Eddie Howe at Elland Road only commanded headlines for a day or so. Arrest made. Lifetime ban. Apology issued. Little sense of how shocking that scene was. Perhaps we’re becoming immune. This time last year, a Nottingham Forest fan attacked Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp.
It’s time for clubs to pay out for security reflecting the threat at these death chamber games. And for those in the company of such lunatics to rein them in.
A Leeds fan (right) confronted Eddie Howe (left) on the touchline during Newcastle’s game with Leeds at Elland Road on Saturday
City’s tiresome boo boys
A night of potentially huge significance awaits Manchester City, with every shred of evidence suggesting that their moment has arrived at last in the Champions League. This wonderful side packed with world-class players belong in Europe’s pantheon and now it’s time for their fans to embrace the tournament too. The booing of the UEFA anthem is as tiresome as the conviction that the club are somehow victims of UEFA conspiracy because they have twice been charged with breaches of spending rules.
I distinctly recall Pep Guardiola addressing the booing at his first City press conference back in 2016. ‘They must forget what happened in the past,’ he said. ‘All we can do is play every time better and people will say ‘I will spend 90 minutes at the stadium and have fun’.’ He’s kept his side of that bargain.
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