"I love tackling, love it. It's better than sex"
About this Quote
There is a kind of blunt poetry in Paul Ince’s line: it’s not trying to be profound, it’s trying to be felt. “I love tackling, love it” doubles down like a player going in for a second challenge, insisting the audience understand this isn’t a job requirement but a craving. Then comes the escalation, the locker-room heresy: “It’s better than sex.” The point isn’t literal comparison so much as cultural calibration. Ince is telling you where his brain lives. Not in celebrity glamour, not in silky highlights, but in impact.
The intent is to elevate the least “marketable” part of football into a source of pride and identity. Tackling is often framed as the necessary violence that enables artistry; Ince flips that hierarchy. The subtext is about control and risk: tackling is a moment where you impose order on chaos, where courage has a measurable result, where pain becomes proof. Sex, in this framing, is private pleasure; tackling is public domination with immediate feedback from the crowd, the opponent, and your own adrenaline.
Context matters: this is English football masculinity at full volume, especially in an era when hard men were currency and midfield aggression was a badge, not a disciplinary problem. It’s also a performance of commitment. By choosing an outrageous benchmark, Ince signals to teammates, fans, and rivals that he’s all in - the kind of player who doesn’t just do the dirty work, he romanticizes it.
The intent is to elevate the least “marketable” part of football into a source of pride and identity. Tackling is often framed as the necessary violence that enables artistry; Ince flips that hierarchy. The subtext is about control and risk: tackling is a moment where you impose order on chaos, where courage has a measurable result, where pain becomes proof. Sex, in this framing, is private pleasure; tackling is public domination with immediate feedback from the crowd, the opponent, and your own adrenaline.
Context matters: this is English football masculinity at full volume, especially in an era when hard men were currency and midfield aggression was a badge, not a disciplinary problem. It’s also a performance of commitment. By choosing an outrageous benchmark, Ince signals to teammates, fans, and rivals that he’s all in - the kind of player who doesn’t just do the dirty work, he romanticizes it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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