Sharp Apologises. Saves Sponsorship.

Lynsey Sharp has released an apology to a large part of Scotland after her shocking, bile-filled tweet at the weekend.

Yesterday, social media erupted after a national newspaper ran the story about her actions, which were highlighted on this website.

Most Scottish football fan sites were uproarious with anger at her behaviour.

Certain Sevco sites were gleeful, embracing her more warmly than ever.

Says a lot for the people who post on them, right?

Today, as the outcry shows no signs of abating, she is sticking to the stonewall strategy, which is to say that she’s telling the world that she didn’t know what the phrase meant.

Without wanting to accuse her of being full of it, it says a lot that her only viable defence is to plead absolute ignorance and stupidity.

There can be few people in Scotland who are unaware of the context of that statement.

From the reaction of her social media followers, especially those of a blue hue, she would have picked up the meaning pretty damn quickly.

Yet it took her two full days to issue this response, and she’s since made her Twitter feed private, which I suppose could be interpreted as not wanting the hassle.

Yet it could equally be seen as someone who knew there was more to find for anyone who wanted to look.

Forgive me for being cynical, but she’s not the first person to pull this particular stunt.

It’s called ring and run.

It’s as old as the game of football itself.

Which brings me to the statement, which is full of little curiosities.

“I did not fully understand the meaning of what I wrote at the time but accept now what was said was in extremely poor taste,” she said.

Poor taste?

Well, that’s one way to put it.

If Big Stein were still alive she could have added the word “defamatory” to that statement.

Maybe it’s just me … but can a comment really be “in poor taste” if, in all honesty, you hadn’t realised what it was that you were saying?

Thoughtless. Yes.

Poor taste, though?

Isn’t that what end of pier comedians used to say about their sick jokes?

“I would never have written it if I had thought people would have taken my words in the way many of them have,” she added.

Which really means nothing at all.

It’s what you would expect someone to say if their sponsors and their agents were screaming down the phone at them for their sheer idiocy.

“It was an error of judgement on my part which I deeply regret and I apologise for any offence or distress I have caused.”

Once again … I find the language a little odd, like something a PR person wrote in a hurry.

After all, a mistake is not an “error of judgement.”

You don’t lose your job for making a genuine mistake.

You don’t throw yourself on the mercy of the court of public opinion over it.

You say “I made a mistake, I apologise” and you move on.

An “error of judgement” is an admission of guilt, isn’t it?

That’s what politicians call it when they are caught with their hands in the till or their knickers around their ankles, or when they make up crap during an election to smear an opponent and then get found out.

Maybe I was involved in politics too long.

Maybe I’ve become a hardened cynic.

Maybe I read that tweet, made as it was on 12 July, when a certain sub-sect of humanity thinks it can do and say and act as it likes because they are The Peepil, and I see a nod and a wink to the gallery of goons.

Maybe I see another third rate celebrity who thinks status confers immunity, knowing all it would take was exactly this kind of mealy mouthed apology for the circus to move on.

Except that it won’t.

Because or apology or not, the silver medal athlete is now the Sevco fan who tweeted about the great Jock Stein.

That’s the legacy she’ll be remembered for long after that medal has two inches of dust on it.

I said yesterday that I could not conceive of a way to get past this, that I could not in all honesty ever imagine cheering her on or wishing her well again.

24 hours after writing those words, I remain just as firmly convinced of that.

As a second placed runner she’ll forgive me for this analogy.

She was too slow out the gate, and the effort too half-hearted.

As far as I’m concerned, the damage is done.