Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

When George Best (1946-2005) was on a particularly devastating bender, it is said that someone advised him to try Alcoholics Anonymous. His response was as brilliant as one of those legendary Old Trafford moves of his: "How could George Best be anonymous?"

And that's the truth of the matter. George Best was not anonymous. That's because he was not a mortal. He was a god. Or least, that's how legions of football fans regarded him. And "gods make their own importance," as Patrick Kavanagh, another talented son of Ulster once said. Those who tried to wean Best off the booze, well meaning as they were, did not understand the man. George Best loved to drink as much as he loved to play football. A few years ago, he led a TV crew into his new home. And there, the centerpiece — a bar! If you want to recover from alcoholism, you don't have a bar in your living room.

Kate Moss can go off to some clinic for treatment and that thrills the tabloid makers with their simple morality tales, but George Best couldn't play that game. He didn't want to be "saved". In his glory days, he did things that most men dream of, but never come close to achieving. In his decline, he was himself and he was at peace with this fact, although others could not accept it. They wanted him to be "mature", to be "responsible", but George Best was happy being George Best, even when it was obvious that he was killing himself.

The uncomfortable truth is that George Best drank as memorably as he played, and he immersed himself in alcohol with the same effortlessness as he made footballing magic. Who are we to say that he should have lived differently?