Hugh Keevins: Perspective and not pique required

The Rangers fan, like 'Iron' Mike, leaves behind a bewildered and bereaved partner.

There you have, wrapped up in one solemn package, two happenings that absolutely deserve to be termed a 'Disaster' or a 'Catastrophe.'

But when Scotland play Lithuania in their World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park on Saturday night every well worn 'Braveheart' cliche will be trotted out as a matter of course and the lexicon of hysteria will be combed for the words to sum up the life or death nature of the game.

It never takes long for matters of serious import to be quietly forgotten about and perspective lost in a wave of fresh excitement.

The game of football is part of the fabric of our lives and has given me a living since 1970, but the time has come to try to examine the words we use to describe what we're watching and the consequences of this results driven business.

Thoughts and prayers are always sent out to the victims like Mike Towell and Ryan Brady and I have no reason whatever to doubt that the sentiments expressed are heartfelt and totally genuine.

So let's try thinking about things in that case.

Whether Scotland win, lose or draw at the weekend a rational response should accompany whatever result Gordon Strachan's side get at home.

If Ricky Burns wins his title fight the night before let everyone hope that he and his opponent are, first and foremost, safe and well if understandably battered and bruised at the same time.

Then we can allow ourselves to praise the man who came out on top.

In that way we can prove that a sense of perspective is able to be embraced and that we haven't just been temporarily touched by the intrusion of real life into a boxing match and a road accident.

Strict Liabilty is now becoming the argument of choice for our politicians as they insist that football clubs must shoulder full responsibility for the wilder excesses of their supporters off the park.

While that notion is being resisted by the clubs for fear of what it could ultimately cost them is it actually too much to hope for that individuals adopt strict liability for their own personal conduct in future?

The best way to honour the memory of Ryan Baird would be to support in an ordinary, everyday way the team he loved.

The best way to honour Mike Towell is to remember that no sporting event, no matter how lucrative, is more important than life or death.

On Wednesday afternoon I sat with him and his manager, Tommy Gilmour, while Dundonian Mike had a moan about the high cost of parking your car in Glasgow's city centre. He never returned to his vehicle because forty eight hours later he had passed away.

Words are one of the most powerful weapons we possess, and made even more powerful if we use the right ones.

When Rangers lost five goals to Celtic in a league match earlier this season the Ibrox manager, Mark Warburton, tried to introduce a sense of perspective instead of over-reacting by saying, "Nobody died."

He would have been dismissed by some as a visitor to our country who hadn't quite got a handle on how much a game can invade the lives of those on both sides of a fiercely divided rivalry.

Who is right, and who is wrong, where that argument is concerned now?