Stuart Hogg’s fall from grace continues.
It’s been just under a year-and-a-half now since former Scotland rugby international, Hogg, pleaded guilty to a domestic abuse charge against his then-wife Gillian and was subsequently given a one-year community payback order.
And this week, the latest consequence of his abominable behaviour has caught up with him, with the 33-year-old having been stripped of the MBE he received in 2024 for his services to rugby.
There were loud vocal calls at the time of his conviction, when he admitted shouting, swearing and acting in an abusive manner towards his estranged wife, for his honour to be stripped from him and now, those calls have been answered with his name having appeared on the list of individuals who have had their honour removed, with the full announcement in the Gazette reading: "The King has directed that the appointment of Stuart William Hogg to be a Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 30 December 2023 shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order."
No longer being an MBE is, perhaps, the least of Hogg’s worries given quite how much harm he’s done to the life of his ex-wife and mother of his children.
But this dishonour is also an important consequence because, for too long, there’s been a sense that being good at sport, particularly if you’re a man who’s good at sport, you’re afforded a level of protection that many, many others would not be go onto enjoy.
Indeed, despite Hogg’s conviction almost 17 months ago, he remains a professional rugby player, plying his trade with French Top 14 team, Montpellier.
There is something extremely distasteful about a man who’s been proven to be a domestic abuser being able to continue his sporting career almost completely normally, while his victim, in this case his ex-wife, is left to deal with the damage he caused to her.
This issue goes far wider than merely Hogg, though.
Far, far too often, sportsmen display quite heinous behaviours against women, yet the punishment does not seem to fit the crime.
Being able to earn your living by playing sport is the ultimate privilege. It’s the job that literally millions of people across the globe would give anything to do for even a day. And, in the case of Hogg, and many of the professional footballers who fall into a similar category as does Hogg, they’re paid handsomely for this privilege. And, despite displaying quite disgraceful behaviour, they retain this privilege of being a professional sportsman.
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I’ve never fully subscribed to the theory that being a professional athlete automatically makes an individual a role model. Being good at running round a track or kicking a football or, in Hogg’s case, scoring points on the rugby pitch, doesn’t automatically transform someone into a pillar of society. And neither should elite athletes be immediately pilloried for leading anything other than a perfect life, just because they happen to be good at sport.
But what elite athletes do have to take responsibility for is that, whether they like it or not, kids look up to them. Idolise them, even. We’ve all seen how kids copy their favourite sportsperson, from the way they dress to the way they style their hair to the way they behave on their field of play, kids will try to emulate their heroes.
And this is where it becomes so worrying in the case of Hogg and any of the other men who happen to be good at sport but also happen to be quite abhorrent individuals.
We’ve all seen the athletes who’ve been convicted of all kinds of domestic violence across a variety of sports, yet have not been stripped of the privilege of playing sport for a living. These individuals are not, I would suggest, the type of people any of us would want our kids looking up to.
The problem with giving athletes, and by athletes, I really mean sportsmen, a free pass to behave badly or, at times criminally, and then continue their life without facing severe consequences is that they, and those watching and admiring them, start to believe that being good at sport will shield you, at least somewhat, from being brought to justice.
Indeed, there were more than a few observers who wondered if Hogg would have faced a stiffer sentence then the one-year community payback order he received had he not been one of Scotland’s best rugby players? Of course, we’ll never know the true answer to this and I’d like to believe that the justice system took its course, irrespective of Hogg’s standing as a rugby player. But those uncertainties were certainly voiced in more than a few quarters at the time.
And this is why Hogg being stripped of his MBE is significant.
It thrusts him into the headlines, once again, for all the reasons he wouldn’t want but reasons that are unquestionably important to be highlighted.
It can become too easy for the media to be blinded by the achievements of a sportsperson and forget about the fact that actually, far more important than being good at chucking a rugby ball about is how you conduct yourself as a person.
Despite no longer being an MBE, Hogg will remain a professional rugby player, as much as I would have liked to have seen him banished from the top level of sport due to his actions.
Ands there will, unfortunately, still be some kids who look up to him.
But these latest headlines, once again, reminds everyone that yes, Hogg is a very good rugby player but he’s also someone who has, at least in the past, displayed utterly repellant behaviour and no amount of sporting ability should protect him from the consequences of that behaviour.
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