Last Friday afternoon I was sitting in my office without much to do, so I decided to cut the corporate eight a little short and head home early. It was a slow day, so I didn’t feel bad at all about doing it, one of those times where leaving to “beat the traffic” is entirely acceptable. Apparently, it was also a slow day in the sports news world. So slow that as I got home and flipped on the tube to watch PTI for the first time in a long time, Tony Kornheiser exclaimed, “We have to talk about soccer today!” You would think it was if the trumpets were blaring and the oceans were turning to blood. Soccer! Locusts! Repent! The end is near!
The key phrase in Kornheiser’s explanation was “have to,” signifying that discussing the world’s most popular sport for two minutes was akin to going to the dentist or sitting through a musical with your significant other. You don’t want to do it, but you have to. The topic at hand was the English Premier League’s idea to stage an extra match for each of its clubs in foreign markets beginning in 2011. To Kornheiser’s credit, he said that he would be in favor of the move, instead of simply dismissing as boring. Wilbon, on the other hand, was not in favor of having British culture “forced” upon us, although to me it seems the American brand is peddled everywhere everyday. I digress. (What they really think is anyone’s guess. It is PTI after all, where yelling about anything is the modus operandi. And it is entertaining.) Then, with a sigh of relief, the two minutes were up. The four horsemen never showed.
The potential merits and faults of the Prem’s proposal can certainly be debated, but they are not today’s issue. What bothers me is the way that soccer is treated in mainstream American sports media. The game is dismissed or ignored by a group of sports pundits who, by in large, did not grow up with the game and don’t understand it. Because these people get paid to write and talk and pontificate and we fans do not, we must endure the same old and tired arguments about soccer. “It’s boring,” and “There’s not enough scoring,” and blah blah blah. It’s same old lines over and over. They seem to think that their professional opinion is the only one that matters.
America mostly consumes the sports that were invented within our borders: baseball, football, basketball, and NASCAR. This is fine and natural, and sports pundits are naturally going to cover them with zeal. Ignorance of other sports, even those with the global captivating power like soccer, is not. Sportswriters love to talk about how “global” some of the American games have become, whether it be success of basketball in Europe and South America or the wealth of global talent there is for baseball. They love to say how great it is that our games are spreading overseas. At the same time, it is all well and ok for the American media to say, “Here England, enjoy the NFL experience, it’s good for,” or “Hey Mexico, host another NASCAR race, it’s very exciting,” just as long as those places keep soccer to themselves. The message is that we want others to embrace our sports, but we don’t have anytime for so-called “foreign” games. This message is not only hypocritical, but also out of touch.
The key phrase in Kornheiser’s explanation was “have to,” signifying that discussing the world’s most popular sport for two minutes was akin to going to the dentist or sitting through a musical with your significant other. You don’t want to do it, but you have to. The topic at hand was the English Premier League’s idea to stage an extra match for each of its clubs in foreign markets beginning in 2011. To Kornheiser’s credit, he said that he would be in favor of the move, instead of simply dismissing as boring. Wilbon, on the other hand, was not in favor of having British culture “forced” upon us, although to me it seems the American brand is peddled everywhere everyday. I digress. (What they really think is anyone’s guess. It is PTI after all, where yelling about anything is the modus operandi. And it is entertaining.) Then, with a sigh of relief, the two minutes were up. The four horsemen never showed.
The potential merits and faults of the Prem’s proposal can certainly be debated, but they are not today’s issue. What bothers me is the way that soccer is treated in mainstream American sports media. The game is dismissed or ignored by a group of sports pundits who, by in large, did not grow up with the game and don’t understand it. Because these people get paid to write and talk and pontificate and we fans do not, we must endure the same old and tired arguments about soccer. “It’s boring,” and “There’s not enough scoring,” and blah blah blah. It’s same old lines over and over. They seem to think that their professional opinion is the only one that matters.
America mostly consumes the sports that were invented within our borders: baseball, football, basketball, and NASCAR. This is fine and natural, and sports pundits are naturally going to cover them with zeal. Ignorance of other sports, even those with the global captivating power like soccer, is not. Sportswriters love to talk about how “global” some of the American games have become, whether it be success of basketball in Europe and South America or the wealth of global talent there is for baseball. They love to say how great it is that our games are spreading overseas. At the same time, it is all well and ok for the American media to say, “Here England, enjoy the NFL experience, it’s good for,” or “Hey Mexico, host another NASCAR race, it’s very exciting,” just as long as those places keep soccer to themselves. The message is that we want others to embrace our sports, but we don’t have anytime for so-called “foreign” games. This message is not only hypocritical, but also out of touch.
The reality is that soccer has made serious strides in the United States. Arguably the world’s most popular player in David Beckham now plays in MLS, a league that has grown exponentially in terms of financial soundness and level of competitiveness in only twelve years of play. No other American pro league can boast of such a quick period of growth of stability at its inception. MLS has managed to accomplish this against the competition of the established American sports leagues and a 24-7-365 modern sports media machine that relatively ignores it in this country. To me, this success signifies that there is a U.S. market hungry for serious soccer coverage on the large scale.
So ESPN, et al, I urge you to please stop using your programming or column space as means for your personalities to dis the game. I don’t expect the likes of Jim Rome to like soccer or all of a sudden accept it, but it is time to put the old arguments and ignorance of soccer out to pasture. Get with the times and hire some new blood that grew up with and understand the game. The world is not ending, but it is certainly turning. Please move with it.
Cheers.
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