Where is the line on unacceptable language?

‘Saint’ Stephen Milne is fined $3000 by his club after a report from umpire Dean Margetts that he called Magpie Harry O’Brien a “f------ homo c---”, as reported in The Age.

 

The story goes on to quote AFL Operations boss Adrian Anderson labelling Milne’s comments “simply not acceptable … for AFL players to use homophobic insults on the football field”.

 

Aren’t you being a bit selective, Adrian? What about the other word? Around 50% of the population would find it at least as objectionable as the homophobic portion of the comment, but your reported comments make no mention of it.

 

More to the point, we’re in serious danger of a vain attempt at trying to turn the AFL field into a sledge-free, swear-free environment. How sanitised can we realistically make a physical contest between grown men?

 

Standards do change, as we’ve seen with the AFL’s much-applauded stance against racial abuse, but AussieRulesBlog wonders where we draw the line when we start to sanction “unacceptable language”. The first question to answer? Unacceptable to whom?