I think it's more that he was one of the few high-profile(ish) footballers to actually be convicted of rape in this type of case, which meant he became the go-to case when people wanted to condemn the extremely dubious sexual attitudes and behaviours that appear to exist among some footballers.
Personally, I would be extremely wary of anyone who chooses to get on their high horse in his defence, since I suspect their agenda quite as much as I suspect the agendas of those who lined up to condemn someone who was, in fairness, a convicted rapist.
I think his defence was very clear cut, he always said that she consented. Given that he always denied his guilt, that he had a reasonable defence, that the consent aspect of any rape conviction is a difficult one to prove and that an appeal process was underway; if I was going to 'comment' I would have held back a little on the sanctimony.
Many did. Many others did not. The latter now look a right set of muppets imo. I'm thinking primarily of those people who openly petitioned for him to not be signed by a professional football club even though his appeal was underway.