THEY used to do surveys on how various professions were regarded by the public. Doctors used to come out top, but following cases like Harold Shipman, their rating has dropped. Police officers were also once popular, but in my time in the service I know our standing with the public has also fallen.

We're not as low, though, as lawyers, estate agents or journalists. In the next survey, I reckon the noble profession of footballing would come out at the very bottom.

We all know about the Jonathan Woodgate trial. We all know about Chelsea players drunkenly mocking Americans the day after September 11. We all know about a West Ham player urinating over a bar during the club Christmas party.

But I was surprised to see a mocking piece in one of the Sunday papers about Andy Cole who has just bought one of the new minis, apparently because it's easy on petrol. The article poured scorn on Cole for his cheap choice of motor, and said how his teammates in their big BMWs and Mercedes were ridiculing him.

But who are these teammates, and the journalist who wrote it, really ridiculing? It is you and I, people who aren't rich enough to drive round in extravagant cars. They are laughing at us in our comparative poverty. It's as if they've forgotten that it doesn't matter how much money you have, it's personality that is important. The Leeds trial showed this. For all their thousands of pounds, Woodgate and Lee Bowyer have an unpleasant streak running through them.

A team of footballers is a strange group of people. If you get a court of lawyers, a gossip of journalists, an arrest of policemen or a syringe of nurses all together, you'll know roughly what to expect. Certain types of people go into certain types of job.

But a team of footballers cuts across all kinds of backgrounds, classes, intellectual abilities, ages, personalities and nationalities. And in that mix, there are some sound individuals. But the one who really stands out is Niall Quinn of Sunderland. Whenever you hear him interviewed, he comes across as thoughtful and likeable, and you know he knows that there is more to life than just money and football.

This week it was announced he is to donate all the money he makes out of his testimonial match to hospitals in Sunderland and his native Ireland. This will be more than £1m.

He is a true role model to all young footballers, and I suspect that there are many more like him, but they get drowned out by the louts who are destroying the name of their profession.

BUT however low football falls, it can never be as low as professional boxing is at the moment.

I am a supporter of boxing, if only because of the work the amateur sport does across the North-East, taking children off the street and instilling a bit of discipline in them.

The professional game, though, is a disgrace. If someone has a broken arm or chickenpox, the symptoms are clearly visible. Mental health problems are usually more concealed. But Mike Tyson's violent rampaging - which includes rape and biting - are symptoms of a very dangerous condition.

Just as people with flu should stay at home for fear of spreading it and hurting their business, so Tyson should stay out of the ring for fear of destroying his sport.

Published: 24/01/02