Reply #25: I hate football [View All]

[tkmorris]

But I like soccer. OK I love soccer.

I grew up around sports, here in the US that meant baseball, football and basketball depending on season. I played em and watched them as fans.

Somewhere along the way though I started to dislike the "normal" sports. Hard to say why. The ridiculous money being thrown around was part of it, ticket prices are just stupid anymore. Plus so many of the "stars" turned out to be major assholes. A lot of the fans I knew wre idiots as well. I have always been a critical thinker (that's why I'm a Dem LOL) and fans, well, they just aren't usually. It's hard to talk football with some clown who REALLY believes this will be the year his team wins the Super Bowl, even though every star just left town and the owner just fired the whole coaching staff. Or whatever.

So I turned to lesser sports. Hockey at first, in the mid 70's. Big Caps fan, went to lots of games. The atheletes were real people who didn't make fortunes nor think they were somehow superior human beings even though they couldn't spell "superior". Ticket price for the cheap seats was under 10 bucks. Well under IIRC.

Then I discovered soccer and have never looked back. I like the international nature of the sport a lot. I also like that the US doesn't win internationally merely by showing up, like say the Olympic basketball team does. In fact, the US got no respect at all in soccer until recently. It's fun to be an underdog at something. The pro league here, the MLS is full of people you never heard of that don't make a mint to play. The tickets are reasonable and the teams are actually accessible.

I really do believe that Soccer is a more "pure" sport than the big 3 are. It is all about skill, you gain little advantage if any through being 6'7" tall, or weighing approximately as much as a 78 Oldmobile. It's players play both ways for the most part, you must play defensively AND offensively, switching with one misplaced pass.

Bah! I am rambling badly here, I haven't had enough sleep. Sorry all!