Wendell Sailor wishes he’d spoken out like Adam Goodes

BIG Dell’s footy career was an undeniable success, littered with premierships and rep jerseys. But he still has one regret.

Wendell Sailor during his visit to Brisbane. Pic Peter Wallis

ADAM Goodes makes me wish I’d been as strong as him.

You know he’s been racially vilified and crookedly judged on and off the field this week, but you don’t understand it.

Unless you’ve been racially attacked, you couldn’t possibly.

Unfortunately I do.

I was bullied and racially slurred regularly as a kid. When I was 10 years old, a kid a few years older than me said something about the colour of my skin.

It was a strange feeling, dealing with something like that and straight away my mum knew something was wrong.

She told me: “Names can’t hurt you, be proud of your skin, don’t let them get to you and use it as motivation”.

It’s advice I would fall back on throughout my career.

For whatever reason, racist acts never really got to me after that, but it was still shocking when it continued to happen at the highest level in sport.

I must have been naive to think it wouldn’t happen to me after I’d represented my country at the highest level.

In 1994, my second season with the Broncos, I got tackled by a guy, who I don’t want to name, who got me to the ground and didn’t get up straight away.

Wendell Sailor says he experienced racism in rugby league and Rugby union.

While I was still on the ground, he elbowed me then looked me in the eye and said, “C’mon you f***ing n****r.”

The same thing happened on the Kangaroos tour that year. In the first Test at Wembley, one of England’s star players tackled me and said, “C’mon, you black c***.”

They are just a couple of examples.

None of those words really affected me too much. I was able to use it as motivation. It doesn’t mean I’d ever want someone to go through it, though.

I never want my children, my three teenagers, to be treated like that.

And that’s what this whole so-called debate about Adam’s actions has to be about.

This has to be about bridging the gap.

I was really saddened that it was a 13-year-old girl Adam pointed to that night at the MCG, but that doesn’t make his actions any less justified.

It made his stand that much more difficult to make and he should be applauded for going through with it.

The same thing happened to Greg Inglis and Timana Tahu during the 2010 State of Origin series when they took a stand against racism — which just happened to be centred around one of the most liked players in the game, a rugby league Immortal. It was uncomfortable and required extreme bravery, but they did it anyway.

I have no doubt that Adam will have been racially vilified throughout his life, on and off the football field.

Lewis Jetta and Adam Goodes are proud of their indigenous Australian culture.

I was able to brush it off. Most people can’t.

The truth is everyone has a breaking point.

After years of racial abuse and a chorus of jeering crowds this season, Adam may have reached that point.

What I’ve seen from AFL supporters these last few weeks has been disgraceful.

It is casual racism at its worst and more fans belong in this group than we would like to admit.

Underneath all the booing is racism.

In my experience, that group of shameful fans support you as long as you’re entertaining them, but they want you to know your place as an indigenous Australian or ethnic minority in this country.

That’s what it comes back to. The minute you let them down, you’re back to being treated like you’re somehow different or inferior. People like Adam are allowed to be proud of their culture as long as it doesn’t impact on the mob’s own understanding of its culture.

Guys like Adam need to be applauded for taking a stand. When it happened to me, I never felt like I could make a difference. Adam’s stance has the potential to make a difference. A positive change. That’s why I wish I was as strong as him.

Sport is better because of people like Adam Goodes.