Gennaro Gattuso is currently the manager of the Italian national team, and he has just overseen their failure to qualify for the World Cup for a staggering third-straight cycle. The Italian press is destroying him. The fans are rioting. But more importantly, Gattuso looks so angry in his press conferences that I am physically terrified he is going to reach through my television screen and strangle me.
Pure Unadulterated Rage
Have you seen Gennaro Gattuso when he is mad? He looks like a bulldog that was just denied a treat. His veins are popping out of his neck. He screams in rapid-fire Italian, and even though I don’t understand the language, I know he is saying things that would make a sailor blush. I watched a 30-second clip of him yelling at a journalist, and I immediately apologized to my empty room just in case he could hear me.
A Nation in Mourning
Italy missing three straight World Cups is a statistical anomaly that feels like a curse. The entire nation is in mourning, and Gattuso is standing at the epicenter of the blast radius. If I were him, I would simply walk into the Mediterranean Sea and refuse to come out. The stress of managing that team would cause all of my hair to fall out in 48 hours.
