Quote ="Superted"This is closer to the right question in my mind - for me, the right question is 'why do rugby league players seemingly go out on the drink/sniff much more than any other professional sport?'.
People saying in NRL it's because of higher money/profile, then why don't we get the same with Premier League footballers over here? (Now it could be that they're that rich, they pay enough to hide it, but I doubt it).
In other professional sports, the athletes seemingly take things much more seriously and are far more disciplined with diet and drink etc.... you just hardly ever hear of athletics folk, footballers, golfers, boxers, even bloody darts players being on the grog. There is only really cricket and rugby league where the drinking culture still exists.
I'm sure there are a while host of reasons, but think there are a couple of main factors (and I appreciate this explanation is going to rely on some stereotypes);
1 - The typical social background of RL players. Most players come from very similar backgrounds and are of a similar mentality. The very physical and aggressive nature of RL means the sport attracts kids who are tough and enjoy the confrontation. Inevitably, often they come from tough backgrounds where confrontation/aggression/violence is a regular occurrence. What would be a really interesting study would be to see what percentage of pro-RL players in England were brought up on rough estates - it will be high. Cricket I believe has the issue for a different reason that is because of the culture around local cricket clubs - they're a social hub usually, and again, kids will be brought up going to the cricket club and seeing their parents drinking their regularly. In both sports, it's learned behaviour from generations of families.
2 - RL is a sport where natural physical strength/toughness alone can get you relatively far - it's possible for players to be a bit loose of the field and still perform on it (maybe if there was a bigger pool of players to choose from, those with natural talent would need to be more professional) - but this is probably because the sport as a whole is built on the same foundations. It's no coincidence that Melbourne, the most disciplined amd professional team in the game are the benchmark.
Ultimatelty, throw groups of young lads together from these similar types of background, who enjoy physical confrontation, who have been brought up around drinking, and then give them a pocket full of cash, an element of profile and a culture where drinking is not only acceptable, but is the norm, and you've got your answer.
As a far fetched example to kind of prove the point, I could ask 'why do so many weddings of travellers always end up finishing with a massive fight, compared to normal weddings?''"
Are you seriously telling me there is no drinking culture in rugby union?
