He is simply trying to downplay the incident for his own selfish ends. Doesnt take a genius to work that out.
Your opinion. That's the Suarez I've seen since before he even moved to Ajax. Cnut on the pitch, chummy the moment the final whistle blows.
Anyway so what if its only on the pitch? What player continues their behaviour off the pitch? You cant dive or cheat when the game is over.
The point is the differentiation between unsporting behaviour on the pitch and your standing as a human being really having to be evaluated off the pitch. Some players are cnuts on the pitch, some off the pitch, some in both. There's a lot of hyperbole flying around about him being the vilest of human beings, that's off the mark.
It's all very well having a laugh about the biting incident, it wasn't going to cause any great mental or physical harm to the opponent.
But you can hardly racially abuse someone and just say tough luck at the end of the game. Or attempt to break someone's legs and then have a laugh about it afterwards. Oh, you're out for 5 months? Haha, tough luck mate.
Sure, I never said he wasn't a cheat nor that I agree with his acts. Point is, I understand the motives ultimately boil down to the age old discussion as to whether the end justifies the means.
I don't think so myself, as a former rugby international I do appreciate the importance of trust across the 30 men on the pitch. The trust that you will give as good as you get (which Suarez does and I'm fine with it) BUT that you will never deliberately set out to injure someone (which Suarez does at times). It's your neck on the line, literally, leaving someone wheel-chair bound would be the easiest of things in rugby, yet it doesn't happen.
Oh, so he's only racist, a human biter, cheater and makes consistent dangerous tackles on the pitch.
Okay, good guy then.
Do you not see you are making a stereotypical defense of disgusting characters?
Again, never said he is anything but a disgusting sportsman. Where we differ is:
1) He is not a racist. Even the report and Evra acknowledged it. He resorted to racist language to wind up an opponent, which is not on, was punished for and I doubt he will do again. He will just wind them up in other ways.
2) Cheating. I don't have an issue with his handballing history, nor with the occasional dive (sometimes diving isn't just to gain an immediate advantage but also to keep defenders worried you will get them penalised if they even get close, which I think is clever gamesmanship). I do cringe though when he spends more time on his arse than on his feet, with the extent of his rolling and acting like he's been shot and with his contempt of referees. That is the character bit which I despise. It's the weasel in him which does my head in. Mind you, he is not trying to win a popularity contest but to get his markers to lose it, so I appreciate what he is trying to do. Doesn't make me like it.
3) Dangerous tackles. A lot of players do them, I like hard crunching honest tackles. If someone gets injured every now and then that's admissible, the game would be poorer without them, football isn't ballet. What I dislike in him is it is always stuff from behind which he goes on to portray as accidental and hurtful collisions.
All in all, it's the snide way he goes about hurting other players, the overacting and the character flaw of deflecting guilt which I thoroughly dislike, but the vilification of Suarez has got way out of hand in being blinkered and one-sided.