There are times when being a Rangers supporter is about opinions and debates. Who should start, who should be sold, what the manager should change. Then there are moments when the football side of it gets drowned out by something much more serious, and you’re left speaking as a human being first.

That’s where I’m at with the Dujon Sterling drink driving incident. I’m not interested in point-scoring, or trying to act like some saint on a forum. I’m simply telling you why I’m set in my ways and why, for me, there’s a hard line that doesn’t move.

When you’ve seen the damage, it sticks

In a past life I delivered death messages to fallen soldiers’ families. Some were killed in battle, others taken in different, unfortunate ways. Even with that background, there’s one drink driving incident that has never left me, and I doubt it ever will.

I was out with a friend and his wee boy, Tom, only four years old. Sunday afternoon. We were driving back to our barracks down south. Quiet countryside roads, nothing dramatic, just the usual run back.

We were sitting at traffic lights, completely static, and then it went black. Next thing, the car was flipped. We ended up around 200 metres down the road with the motor on its side. Tom had been ejected. We searched for over an hour before we found him.

He didn’t survive. Seeing his own dad trying CPR is an image that never fades. Gut-wrenching doesn’t even cover it.

The sentence doesn’t match the consequence

The driver was three times the limit and received an 18-month sentence. For me, that’s not justice. Maybe the law ticks its boxes, maybe people will say “that’s how it works”, but it doesn’t undo what’s been taken away in a split second.

Nothing prepares you for the devastation that lands on your shoulders instantly. If you know, you know. And if you don’t, I can’t neatly explain it in a way that makes it feel real.

Football loyalty can’t be the shield

I respect that folk will have different opinions. That’s normal in any Rangers support. But I also hope this explains why some of us won’t soften the stance just because it’s one of ours, or because we want the focus back on the pitch.

You can back your club, you can back the team, you can even back a player to rebuild their life. But drink driving isn’t a “mistake” you wave away as if it’s a misplaced pass. The risk is too big, and the cost is too final. That’s why, for me, it’s zero tolerance.

Written by Florida Bear: 9 January 2026

Tags: injury