The look on Gary Lineker's face was persuasive: time, surely, to reconnect with things that really matter.
The former football star turned BBC commentator could barely speak following England's defeat by Romania on Tuesday night - the news of Germany's much more sensational exit from Euro 2000 providing welcome opportunity to compose himself ahead of the studio post-mortem.
Kevin Keegan was understandably choked. And across Britain lumps rose in throats as the nation which gave us the "beautiful game" again failed in international competition. The only unresolved question was whether the hooligans who had again disgraced the country would shrug off their disappointment in a cloud of spliff or tear the place apart.
In Dover, meanwhile, police and forensic experts were continuing their examination of the lorry-turned-coffin which had carried 58 illegal Chinese immigrants to unimaginable death just two nights before.
It hadn't required unnamed hospital sources in Kent to conjure up the horrific image - of two survivors clawing at the walls of that airless container, screaming for release, as they fell over the dead and dying and the foul stench of mortality closed in around them.
So the entirely predictable thuggery of English "supporters" on foreign fields - and a human tragedy everyone agreed had been waiting to happen - conspired to give Mr Tony Blair another pretty miserable week at the heart of Europe.
By the weekend, and before the start of the EU summit in Portugal, the expectation might have been that the Prime Minister would find himself repelling domestic questions about the Brown/Byers/Cook/Mandelson split over the tactics for eventual British membership of the euro.
Instead, Mr Blair found himself hoping not to witness the disgrace of England's expulsion from Euro 2000 and urging Europe to a common policy and purpose on the question of asylum-seekers.
Romania's victory at least resolved the immediate difficulty. For how could a "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" government have complained about the expulsion of Kevin Keegan's team following any repeat performance by les hooligans anglais?
In an atmosphere of national grief, the questions were left unresolved. Why shouldn't England have been expelled because of their violent cargo? What new curbs can the government introduce, without gross violation of the most fundamental principles of law and basic rights, to prevent the same thing happening again when next England travel abroad?
And whatever about the dark mutterings of Labour MPs about the deep politics underlying the UEFA threat - is there any point continuing England's attempt to host the World Cup in 2006?
In the heat of last weekend, and scenes of appalling violence in Brussels, the government was sharply and loudly criticised for its failure to follow the German example and assume powers to prevent people previously convicted of football violence, or suspected of being or being likely to be involved in hooliganism, from travelling.
Janet Daley in the Daily Telegraph rightly asked if the advocates of such a policy understood the infringement of civil liberties involved in denying a right to travel to someone who has committed no crime - likening it to something reminiscent of the old Soviet Union.
Labour MPs should understand better than others, perhaps, the risks of legislation passed in hasty response to some particular outrage or atrocity. Many of them would certainly have made precisely that point down the years in relation to emergency legislation enacted to meet the crisis in Northern Ireland. As they overcome the disappointment of their hopes for soccer glory, they will surely appreciate the opportunity now for sober and serious reflection on the beautiful game's ugly face, and how to deal with it.
MPs on all sides (and TDs) should also welcome the opportunity provided by the tragedy at Dover for a more considered debate on the question of asylum. None will dissent when Mr Blair and the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, denounce the perpetrators of the evil trade in human life and human misery. In the prevailing climate (cultivated in this country by government and opposition alike) there will be instinctive support, too, for their demand that the rest of Europe joins them in raising the barriers still higher.
But what drove those 56 young men and four young women, presumably with the support of their families, to raise the money and trust their fate to the people smugglers? And what does their determined, pathetic, frightening flight for freedom and a better life say about the contribution they might have made to society here?
Interesting voices on the right are being raised suggesting a different view of economic migrants and their potential to enrich society. The debate may have been encouraged in an odd way by the disreputable behaviour of so-called football fans in Europe.
As a leader in the London Independent put it: "Who would do Britain's image more good? A group of Chinese who had risked life and limb to make a new life in Britain - or the snarling, pot-bellied men of violence, self-proclaimed English `patriots', who went berserk in Charleroi?"