Why hate a sport?

This is something that has always confused me as well. A few years ago, this steroid punk at my high school tried to fight me over this issue (the interesting part is that he actually started on a very good high school soccer team).

The arguement started when he said that football is so much more difficult then soccer. I was confused, so I asked him what he meant by that. He said that "football players are so impressive because they have to be big and fast and condition so much harder." I said that it was a different type of training and thus very hard to compare. I also said that i disagree that football is pyhsically "harder" because there are many more people in the world who play soccer, so to be the best you need to physically train at a level to gain an egde. I did not respond to that comment so I told him that if he didn't understand what I was saying he must have a low IQ. He said "don't ever call me stupid again" and pushed me up against a locker and pinned me there.

I don't know what evoked such a strong reaction out of him (besides the low IQ point) but I think the anti-setiment towards soccer is fueled from it being anti-american. I think it is just another example of the amazingly US centric that americans have. Out in hickville USA anything "counter culture" is a sin. Still, in history, soccer has only been popular for 30-40 years in the sense that every kid plays it (to my knowledge). I would hope that in the near future, (somewhat rare) extreem reactions to the mention of soccer will stop because it will be adopted into general US culture. However, I think that isolated examples will not stop until the repulsive attitude of a US centricity ends.

 

Interesting that a sony commercial would laugh at soccer - considering that they are a huge Champions League sponsor (all of those Bravia ads).

The majority of casual sports fans in this country simply don't get soccer. The mature ones shrug their shoulders and go about their day, the ones who didn't get enough love from daddy kick/shout/piss/moan/etc and try their best to illegitimize the sport - generally through misinformed ignorance (at best) and downright stupidity (gay, eurofag, insert-off-color-remark-here).



Most of them resemble Uncle Rico, as shown above. A bunch of high-school athletes who didn't make it at the next level, still dreaming of the glory days, like back in '84 when they could have thrown a football over 'dem mountains. The vast majority of them have probably never watched soccer in person, or on television. They can probably bench more than you, however.

 

Dude, we might as well just ask why folks here on BigSoccer use pejoratives - even in News and Analysis forums - to describe more popular American spectator sports.

 

Fair enough (see my post above). However, in my experience the difference is that soccer fans don't have a problem with the other, more popular American sports.

 

This thread has been created and discussed, over and over. I think a major problem is that often soccer and American football share seasons, fields and funds. For some reason there is a latent insecurity among both sets of fans that requires they take it out on the other set. Just cite the plethora of t-shirts available making fun of American Football for being called football, of the Fox soccer channel for calling it throw ball. Either way, anyone who make overarching statements and perpetrates stereotypes is just weak minded and insecure, and this goes both ways.

 

tailored for the market, to appeal to what the ad-men think is the best demographic to target in that country.

Even the most flag-waving patriotic flag-waving American brands would, for example, sponsor soccer outside the US.

 

I can understand why a rugby fan living in England who has no interest in soccer might get annoyed by its popularity and start hating soccer. But its puzzling why people in the USA would have such hatred for a niche sport. Pretty damn easy to avoid if you don't like it.

 

You're joking right?

 

Well, Americans make IGNORING a Sport(such as Soccer for example) seem like such a difficult task, just ask Keith Old Bad Man, Jim Rome, and countless others.

 

This is interesting, very interesting even, but what makes you wonder is the "soccer mom" stereotype when pinned up against this, which is clearly also an "all-american", conservative, counter-counter-culture character stereotype.

 

Soccer Mom, so this makes it a Feminine sport, only good for young girls to play, and very young boys who are almost feminine anyway, before they grow into more appropriate manly sports.......

Also the Soccer Mom, is the euro interested, leftist, probably secretly marxist, supports health care for everyone, thinks welfare is okay, probably hugs a tree every morning and probably voted for the terrorist Obama for president.

As opposed to Baseball/Football Dad, who loves his pretty daughter playing with the dolls, and actually loves America down deep in his heart, distrusts anyone who drives on the left side of the road, who likes the metric system, knows there is no crying in baseball and though he's baffled by the confusing and complicated rules of soccer that allows no scoring, that it's a good team building sport for his son until he reaches the age of 8 or 9 and can play a real sport.

 

I have this soccer bashing problem in my family. All my in-laws hate soccer for the reasons already listed above. They are spewing that hate to the little cousins that are now growing up. I have a 1 month old son that I'm afraid I will never be able to have him play soccer because he will be made fun of by his family and so to avoid that ridicule he'll wind up playing baseball or something else. But my question is, in your opinions, is there more physical contact in soccer than in baseball or basketball. I think so. And if that is the case why isn't baseball any more of a girly sport than soccer?


(On a side note, my side of the family is not big into any sports so there isn't much support for soccer on that side either- but hey at least there's no bashing there).

 

Umm. You're being sarcastic, right?

 

All of the soccer-bashing is kind of sad, especially in light of the fact that soccer has been played in the US for as long as baseball has been played, and longer than football or basketball (we even had a pro league back as far as 1894, three years after basketball was invented). Soccer is just as American as any other sport. I guess the fact that the US has sucked at soccer on the world stage more years than not has something to do with it. Had we been a player in the World Cup every time it's been played, and had ASL 1 not collapsed back in the late 20's, things might have been different.

 

All of the soccer-bashing is kind of sad, especially in light of the fact that soccer has been played in the US for as long as baseball has been played, and longer than football or basketball (we even had a pro league back as far as 1894, three years after basketball was invented). Soccer is just as American as any other sport. I guess the fact that the US has sucked at soccer on the world stage more years than not has something to do with it. Had we been a player in the World Cup every time it's been played, and had ASL 1 not collapsed back in the late 20's, things might have been different.

 

ha please, there are Americans soccer fans willing to bash other sports, though they may to belong to a minority.

 

Sports are extremely symbolic of values (and masculinity), so people hate other sports as they encroach and threaten those values. With soccer and the US, for example, the "international" sport is encroaching on American Exceptionalism, hence the hate. Hockey is ok because Canada is familiar.

It definitely works both ways; I vividly remember living in Barcelona and throwing an American football around in a park with a friend. People glared at us like we were about to invade the country and set up a McDonald's against their will. One person actually tried to take the football away. Very strong feelings.

 

First of all, nascar is stupid(hypocritical I know). Second soccer is slowly catching on in the US - I didn't grow up around soccer. Didn't have a team to play on. No one in my family - none of my friends played it. The high school I went to just got a soccer team THIS year. If you grow up with no knowledge of something it just makes it easier to hate it then try to learn it or understand it. I only became a soccer fan because I started watching world cup 2006 on espn - and now I follow it a little closer and enjoy playing a pick a game every once in a while.

You're right that main-stream America doesn't like soccer. They think it's boring or there's not enough scoring and action. But we love baseball(not me so much) and baseball is extremely boring. They don't understand the endurance, control, and skill you have to have to be a professional soccer player. Not to mention because the US isn't 'in to' soccer that much the big media guys aren't going to feed it to us. Sure there is a game once in awhile on espn and if you're lucky you might get the soccer channel. It's all about the money here and soccer doesn't bring it in in the US like it does elsewhere. Football, baseball, basketball do - and again I hate nascar.

Over the past couple of years I have seen an increase in soccer coverage and soccer commercials. Honestly though, I think it's only because of the increase in the spanish speaking population here in the US. They grew up with soccer and are more accepting of the sport. Hey but we got David Beckham to come play in the MLS...

 

Sports are extremely symbolic of values (and masculinity), so people hate other sports as they encroach and threaten those values.I enjoy football

 

The hatred against soccer is puzzling - but I also wanted to comment that the hatred of other sports by soccer fans in this country seems to me to be more of a reactionary attitude against the hatred spewed by the others. Personally, I don't have much love in my heart for football, and if I psychoanalyze myself a little bit, I am sure it stems from being made fun of in high school by the football players for playing the girlie sport, soccer. I still hear it today. Frankly, I pretty much keep it to myself that I like and play soccer, unless someone asks.

I mean, I tore my achilles tendon last December playing indoor soccer, had surgery, was in a cast for months and am just now getting back into playing shape. While going through therapy, some people asked how I injured myself, and when I told them, they actually laughed, and said something about how it was impossible to get hurt playing a girlie sport like that. This was just over the past 12 months, and I am 36 years old! And this comes from people who can't run more than 10 yards without keeling over...

 

I'm an American and damn proud to be one. I am not proud, in fact, ashamed of the ********** sports we play (Canadian football, baseball, basketball, hockey, etc.) I know the logical ones in here will not like that, but I hate the other dumb, slow, boring sports along with their fans