Tired of the Soccer-Bashing on Pardon the Interruption?

Well, let's do something about it. Much like there was an initiative this past week to try and get the U-20 game put on ESPN, I'm asking all soccer fans to rise up and flood PTI's mailbox with reminders that soccer is the World's Game. Wilbon was overly critical of soccer again today, which is he is almost everyday. I don't care if him and Terry Francona want to joke about how they don't give a crap if Beckham is coming, but I think it's ridiculous to not give credit where credit is due for the U-20 Men's Team.

As almost every soccer fan knows, soccer in the US is being held back b/c the majority of sports writers try to make it out to be a game for pansies. But let's take this time for a bit of a comparison and let's look at baseball or basketball for some examples.

Complaint

1. Soccer is boring. There's not enough action.

This article from Rick Reilly pretty much sums up baseball to me. You watch one baseball game for 3 hours and there's 12 minutes of actual 'ball in play' action. Soccer is a continuous 90 minutes of gameplay.

2. Fat people can play baseball. You can chew tobacco while you play baseball.

Please give Landon Donovan some dip to play a 90-minute game of soccer. I'd love to watch him hurl. Could you ever see Cecil Fielder trying to do ANYTHING for 90 minutes, much less run.

3. Soccer players are pretty boys.

This is coming from people who watch players in super tight outfits pat each other on the ass after every play. Riiiiiight.

4. Soccer players dive and fake injuries.

Alright, so let's look at basketball for this one. If a player comes down the lane and you want to flop on a charge, it's completely acceptable, am I wrong? Now, if someone slides you from behind in the box, you put the ball a little too far ahead of you and you try to draw a foul, same thing, right? Essentially. I would never endorse diving and most Americans don't. If you watch the US MNT or you watch most American-born soccer players, you don't see that. So don't criticize soccer in America for flopping.


My point with all this is that soccer in America gets a lot of crap, especially from sports writers. I don't know if it's something where Americans need to have their own sports and want to ridicule anything that is foreign to them or what. But, other sports are more boring, have less action, have more whiners, have people who are out of shape, and have 2 hours of commercials in a game that could last 1 hour. And I suppose that is where it all lies. In the fact that other sports are much more marketable and give time for people to get up piss the beer out of them, watch 1000 car commercials, and remind ourselves what America is really about and that is $$$.

This is an exciting time for soccer for all of us fans and I don't think it should be cheapened by the talking heads on ESPN or anywhere else. I suppose if you'd like to share how you feel, you should. Email PTI (pti@espn.com), email ESPN, email your local paper. Hell, I'm a lazy bastard, but even I don't mind dropping an email expressing my rage once in a while.

Thanks!

- Brad