No Tackling Tonight, Paul, She Has a Headache

First there was the survey finding that 95% of English males aged 20 to 34 would prefer watching Alan Shearer score a goal in the World Cup to making love to a supermodel.

Now comes the admission from England midfielder Paul Ince that he finds tackling an opponent “better than sex.”

“I love tackling, I really love it,” Ince told reporters at the English training camp in La Baule. “It’s better than sex. My wife is not going to be too pleased, but I love the sound of it, the crunch, the noise, the act of tackling. I was born to tackle.”

Ince couldn’t remember his first time, but he calls a tackle made against Shearer during the just completed English Premier League season “the best I had this season. . . . It was great in two ways. First, I love hearing the noise of crunching into someone, the fans roar and the other guy going ‘Aaah.’

“Secondly, Alan was just back from injury and if he can take my tackle then he can take anything. I felt it was important that he got up and walked away.”