TV VIEW/Keith Duggan: The players of Charlton Athletic FC were filmed going around the local hospitals wearing Santa Claus hats and smiling with sick kids who didn't seem to recognise any of them.

As Dean Kiely explained, it was part of the Charlton ethos, just a small part of an ongoing attempt to put their status in the locality to some positive use. It was clear that for manager Alan Curbishley and the players this wasn't just an hour of hamming it up for the cameras, they actually believed in the principle of giving something back.

It was interesting, in that light, to consider that Lee Bowyer learned his craft at Charlton.

You wonder if Bowyer might have been an entirely different person had he stayed there after his apprenticeship.

As things stand now, Bowyer would be hard pressed to find time enough to visit people he has actually put in hospital without greeting those who have made it there independently. Bowyer's public stamping on the head of the lad Gerardo (not the talk show host) last Thursday evening was an astonishingly brazen act of public thuggery.

On Football Focus, the usual suspects debated the potential consequences for Bowyer, who has in the past demonstrated his proclivity for stamping on European football players.

So lost in the gravity of the situation was Garth Crooks, he spent even more time than usual searching for the phrase that would satisfy him. The result was Ray Stubbs and Mark Lawrenson were left redundant as Crooks stared into the middle distance trying to formulate his thoughts.

Lawrenson's expression, though, represented what most people felt when they watched the clip of Bowyer's stamp. He looked quite queasy. It was apparent he felt uncomfortable even talking about Bowyer.

The actual incident was a strange thing. Stamping is obviously alien to soccer but there have been many similar incidents in rugby, albeit disguised at the base of rucks. The most shocking thing about Bowyer's act was the arrogance of it. It appears he was less concerned with injuring his opponent - because he didn't place his full body weight on the foot with which he trod upon Gerardo - as he was with just showing the world he carried the potential to do such things.

Given Bowyer experienced months and months of daily humiliation during the trial for the assault on a citizen outside a Leeds nightclub, you had to reluctantly marvel watching the slow motion replays of his latest outrage. Evidently he has learned nothing about what society does and does not find acceptable. Or else he took on board the lessons from that trial - he was found not guilty, after which he was given a second chance to rehabilitate his England career - and consciously decided to reject them.

Still adored by the Leeds crowd, still obscenely wealthy and still young, he felt untouchable and unaccountable. Either that or he is brain-dead, a genuine dullard incapable of understanding the basic principles of right and wrong most people acquire after one year of life.

But the probability is Bowyer is far from stupid and just represents the extremities of the vulgar mores that dominate the top flight of English soccer.

Bowyer stayed silent and sullen throughout his time on trial and went about his playing career with the sort of energy and application that has made him a valued commodity among the bigger English clubs. Thursday night was the closest he has come to a riposte and given his form and reputation, it was, for Bowyer an eloquent and appropriate way to reply. He cocked a finger at the courts, the media commentators who chastised him and at everyone who follows the English game.

Although much has been made about Terry Venables's feeble attempts to stand by his player, the problem is much greater than El Tel. As Lawrenson pointed out, Venables inherited a poisoned chalice in Leeds. If you believe in reincarnation, you must surely reckon people who have ended up as Leeds footballers in this life did something truly awful in the last life. The ethos at Leeds is of selfishness, greed, petulance and an utter refusal to accept responsibility. The sense and understanding of team has disintegrated.

But for all that, it really doesn't matter. Lee Bowyer may or may not feature on our screens against Bolton this evening. Bowyer possesses the cold-blooded nerve to not only play but also to probably play well. And why not? He has been here before. The home fans will cheer him again and in this country and across the water, thousands of people will continue to subscribe to Sky to watch him.

So maybe Lee Bowyer is the only one who truly understands how the game works. He can stamp on all our faces and we will just keep coming back for more.