[Oceans of time]

Who do you think is a secret soccer fan? If you have a theory on someone famous in American culture who is a soccer fan that no one would have guessed is a soccer fan I'd love to see what you have to say. I'll get it rolling:

Another thread got me hook, line and sinker that Mike Ditka would be at the November 14, 2009 MLS Eastern Conference final game and I really bought it. I mean I was like "really, that will be a cosmic shift". But after I got over being taken in (I was at the game, didn't see Coach Ditka) I began to think maybe there is evidence that the man who once said "if God intended for us to play soccer he would haven't given us arms" is, in fact, like, Drew Carey, Jim Belushi, and John Kass, finding soccer to be irrestible whereas previously all of the above would have felt the complete opposite about soccer. Ditka had his movie roll in Will Ferrell's 2005 soccer movie "Kicking and Screaming" and the way Ditka talks about NFL football lately it's like he's hinting if we can't protect the NFL players from life-long, debilitating injuries we shouldn't even play the game. Then, he must know that, in that improbable scenario, only soccer would remain to fill the American football void.
OK, someone else go.

[Master O]

Originally Posted by Oceans of time

Ditka had his movie roll in Will Ferrell's 2005 soccer movie "Kicking and Screaming" and the way Ditka talks about NFL football lately it's like he's hinting if we can't protect the NFL players from life-long, debilitating injuries we shouldn't even play the game. Then, he must know that, in that improbable scenario, only soccer would remain to fill the American football void.
OK, someone else go.

He actually said that about NFL injuries?

[the_pheasant]

[Oceans of time]

Originally Posted by Master O

He actually said that about NFL injuries?

Actual Ditka quote in 2008 at Pitt: "I said a long time ago if you want to change the game take the mask off the helmet," he said. "It will change the game a lot. If you want to change the game and get it back to where people aren't striking with the head and using the head as a weapon, take the mask off the helmet.
"A lot of pretty boys aren't going to stick their face in there. If you're going to take hitting out of football, you might as well just call it soccer. That's what I believe. A lot of people will be disappointed I said that, but football is what it is. [Vince] Lombardi said it a long time ago. Football is not a contact game. Dancing is a contact game. Football is a collision sport." But when I was going through my own evolving feelings about soccer I remember a stage where I thought NFL football is to dangerous. Go back to leather helmuts and pads? OK. That would be Rugby. But screw Rugby. Soccer looks like something I might like and be good at.
All I am saying is for a middle aged American male born in the 30's, 40's, 50's or 60's to go from "NFL football good, soccer gay", which is what was drummed into our collective head, to respecting and even liking soccer and thinking maybe we've been lied to about the NFL style football is an evolutionary process. A person may not even have the chance I had-to play soccer to compare the play experience 1st hand because of old injuries. I just feel I have identified something in Ditka's comments that I identify with my own years long progression from Polish sausage da Bear's fan to Section 8 Fire fan.

[Oceans of time]

No thanks the_pheasant. Pheasant, do you have any wild theories you'd like to share?

[760Epicenter]

i never knew Will Farrell was a chelsea fan.

[moqool]

Tom Hanks... Villa fan, if Im not mistaken.

[#1 Feilhaber and Adu]

Originally Posted by Oceans of time

Who do you think is a secret soccer fan? If you have a theory on someone famous in American culture who is a soccer fan that no one would have guessed is a soccer fan I'd love to see what you have to say. I'll get it rolling:

Another thread got me hook, line and sinker that Mike Ditka would be at the November 14, 2009 MLS Eastern Conference final game and I really bought it. I mean I was like "really, that will be a cosmic shift". But after I got over being taken in (I was at the game, didn't see Coach Ditka) I began to think maybe there is evidence that the man who once said "if God intended for us to play soccer he would haven't given us arms" is, in fact, like, Drew Carey, Jim Belushi, and John Kass, finding soccer to be irrestible whereas previously all of the above would have felt the complete opposite about soccer. Ditka had his movie roll in Will Ferrell's 2005 soccer movie "Kicking and Screaming" and the way Ditka talks about NFL football lately it's like he's hinting if we can't protect the NFL players from life-long, debilitating injuries we shouldn't even play the game. Then, he must know that, in that improbable scenario, only soccer would remain to fill the American football void.
OK, someone else go.

[tambo]

Originally Posted by Oceans of time

Actual Ditka quote in 2008 at Pitt: "I said a long time ago if you want to change the game take the mask off the helmet," he said. "It will change the game a lot. If you want to change the game and get it back to where people aren't striking with the head and using the head as a weapon, take the mask off the helmet.
"A lot of pretty boys aren't going to stick their face in there. If you're going to take hitting out of football, you might as well just call it soccer. That's what I believe. A lot of people will be disappointed I said that, but football is what it is. [Vince] Lombardi said it a long time ago. Football is not a contact game. Dancing is a contact game. Football is a collision sport." But when I was going through my own evolving feelings about soccer I remember a stage where I thought NFL football is to dangerous. Go back to leather helmuts and pads? OK. That would be Rugby. But screw Rugby. Soccer looks like something I might like and be good at.
All I am saying is for a middle aged American male born in the 30's, 40's, 50's or 60's to go from "NFL football good, soccer gay", which is what was drummed into our collective head, to respecting and even liking soccer and thinking maybe we've been lied to about the NFL style football is an evolutionary process. A person may not even have the chance I had-to play soccer to compare the play experience 1st hand because of old injuries. I just feel I have identified something in Ditka's comments that I identify with my own years long progression from Polish sausage da Bear's fan to Section 8 Fire fan.

It could be me, it could be the time of day, but I'm having difficulty following your argument.

[G Enriquez]

Originally Posted by #1 Feilhaber and Adu

Who is that?