Dear NRL,

That's it. I quit. No longer will I allow my son to attend your games. No longer will he be allowed to watch your sport on TV. He will be devastated by this news but as a parent, trying to instill basic values into my child, what choice have you given me?

The latest incident with Roosters and Queensland Origin player Nate Myles being naked and disoriented and defecating in a hotel corridor after frightening a family when he tried to get into their room? That's it for me. We're out.

You don't need me to remind you of all the disgraceful incidents involving NRL players this year. Incidents involving binge drinking, assault of women, drink driving and group sex. Incidents that have received wide ranging media coverage and have been so numerous, they have begun to blur into an ugly mess.

To those who say the off-field antics of a handful of players should be kept separate to the game itself? I say rubbish. I am a parent who is trying to teach my son values. Trying to teach him that bad behaviour has consequences. To accept that what players do off the field has nothing to do with the game would be like telling him that as long as he does well at school, the way he behaves at home and in public doesn't matter. Well it does.

I can't hide the newspaper from my son anymore. He wants to read the sports section, wants to follow his favourite NRL team. But the sports section has become a litany of disgrace. I am appalled at the things I have had to explain to him after he's heard or read about them this year: bunning, glassing, sexual assault, defecation……How do I explain to him that a professional sportsman who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, goes out after the game and gets so drunk as to behave in ways that are disgusting and sometimes illegal?

How do I implicitly support that behaviour by allowing him to attend games and cheer for these men who he looks to as heroes? And don't tell me that they are paid to play football and not be role models. They ARE role models. Families just like ours have supported these teams for generations and these players don't have the decency or common sense to respect their fans or their clubs enough to behave in ways that are socially acceptable. Why should we respect the clubs when these players don't?

Please don't blame the media for this. Yes, players are currently under a lot of scrutiny due to the actions of some. So wouldn't you think that would make the players a little bit more careful? A little bit less likely to binge drink and get into trouble? A little more likely to modify their off-field antics?

I think David Gallop is a fine man. I know a couple of other fine men who are on the board of the club we support. And not for a moment do I believe that all football players should be tarnished with the same brush. But unfortunately, the players who hit women and drink drive and who get so drunk they are found naked in hotel corridor next to a pile of their own shit HAVE tarnished the reputation of the game and made it impossible for people like me to support it.