Rafael Nadal criticizes French for steroid parody
Remember that unfunny parody a French television program did of a steroid-aided Rafael Nadal? The world No. 2 certainly does.
Nadal was asked about the 60-second sketch on "Les Guignols" that showed him using a steroid needle as a pen and using his urine as gasoline. He was upset with the portrayal and used harsh, uncharacteristic wording to describe his anger with the French.
The translation is via tennis.com via an English-language translation of a Spanish newspaper. As we learned with some translations of Roger Federer quotes after the Davis Cup, this can be a slippery slope.
"I would never accuse anyone without proof. The problem in France, and I don't know why, is that they mistrust everybody. It didn't make me laugh, but everybody has their sense of humor. Every country has different humor and the French and the Spanish one is not the same. There is a part of the population that does not understand what professional sport is like or how anti-doping controls work; they are practically daily and we have to be locatable 365 days a year. Maybe I am being naive, but it is better that I am. I'm so far removed from the world of doping that my lack of knowledge is complete. I do not accept that they label me as a doper when since the age of seven I have worked thousands of hours every f---ing day. It's tiring, at the end of the day."
Rafa is a glass case of emotion, but we rarely see anger work its way in. Getting upset with this parody, whether it was in bounds or not, shows a more human side of Nadal. I like it. Channel that frustration into a match against Novak Djokovic and maybe the tide of that rivalry will change.
