You know we all talk about Rome and Deford but Keith Olbermann is just as toxic, but for some reason he slips through the cracks. This was plucked from one of his recent shows. OLBERMANN: No segue possible then into our nightly roundup of celebrity and entertainment news, Keeping Tabs, and David Beckham, a soccer star so famous a lot fans don‘t even know he plays soccer, is coming to America. Beckham will be joining the Los Angeles Galaxy for a reported 250 million dollars over five years. Mr. Beckham saying, quote, there are so many great sports in America, but soccer is huge all around the world apart from America. that‘s where I want to make a difference with the kids. If this sounds familiar at all it‘s because instead of focusing on growing American stars, pro soccer has wasted the last 40 years importing international greats, many of them over the hill, most of them English, from Georgy Bess to Bobbie Moore, from Jeff Hearse to Gordon Banks, say nothing of Julio Caesar Remaro, Franz Beckanbauer, Georgio Canalya, Johan Niskens and Pele (ph). It has never worked before, so, of course, it will work now.
There are many words that can be used to accurately describe Keith Olbermann, some of which are pretty insulting. However, "moron" is not one of them. I didn't see anything in what he said that was so objectionable.
"Moron?"...perhaps the early part about Beckham's fame is a bit hyperbolic, but not completely ridiculous givien the familiarity with soccer of the average American. As to the latter stuff, once again a bit of hyperbole mixed with some ignorance, but far from the over-the-top caustic bile of many other commentators. Maybe we in the soccer community of the States are a bit over-sensitive, to be taking this sort of commentary to heart. Or for that matter, the whole Beckham thing. Maybe we are hoping/fearing too much into it all.
Nothing that Keith O. states is "toxic." Not to mention, Keith O. is not a soccer hater. He has stated many times that he actually loves soccer...just not american soccer, or the MLS. He is actually quite knowledgeable in the history of english soccer and not to mention, he is an extremely bright person...and I'm a republican!! To put shortly, know what you're talking about before you post.
Just quit worrying about winning the old white guy, entrenched in his sports/media guy arguments, and keep building those SSS, improving attendence, getting better at World Cup.... Success will change attitudes.
I disagree with Olberman on this for many reasons but you can probably find a few hundred BS posters who said the same thing. We need to be able to distinguish between criticism and soccer bashing. This is not even close to bashing.
Look, I like keith and his show but he is a basher of soccer. He just does it a little more tounge in cheek than the rest. You should hear him and dan patrick on espn. during the WC they were really insulting. Here's the thing, Olbermann is a big Baseball guy, BIG baseball guy and he just doesn't like anything that kind of challenges the all American notion of Baseball as the national pastime. He comments on Beckham but totally ignores the fact that Dempsey got sold for 4 million and that the YA's are for the most part doing well in the supposed "big" leagues. I'm sure that the Basher's are having a field day because they were caught off guard with the Beckham signing and they are reacting to Beckham hence MLS for being the biggest story in the USA
But, I think that's his point anyway. It's ok for Dempsey, Donovan, Mcbride to all go over to europe. In fact that's a beautifull thing. It builds up REAL respect for american soccer players playing in real non-franchised, exciting, high attendance, cup qulifying, promotion and relegation, single division leagues. Olberman is saying that it is moronic to start importing big name stars here to america because well, we've done that already. It didn't really work. Everyone just laughs at them. Beckhams decision makes him one of the biggest sell-outs of all time IMHO.
Keith Olbermann, the guy who thinks figuring out funny ways to describe a 6-4-3 double play is a substantial background for pontificating on the world situation? Why are you taking him seriously?
He really is a moron. I remember seeing his show after the England keeper missed the ball and it went into the net. Everyone with eyes could clearly see the ball hit a bump and hop over his foot but Olbermann made fun of him saying he was terrible. I remember vaguely him either making fun of soccer or just having 0 understanding for the game. It was probably both. He tries his hardest just like all the other tools on tv to fit in with American culture.
He is an Ivy League grad (Cornell). I don't usually give people much credit for their college degrees, but I must confess that I do still consider Ivy League educations to be impressive.
That four-eyed mongoloid probably never played a sport in his life. How he ever got a job at ESPN....and then ended up spewing anti-American venom on his own "news" show are quite puzzling.
What did he say that is so objectionable? I don't see it. It's not the most ringing endorsement, but he's far from Jim Rome or Bill O'Reilly.
O'Reilly had Drew Carey on his show talking up the USA - Mexico game awhile back, Bill was encouraging his viewers to make sure to support the team during the game.
Fair enough, I'm not knocking your opinion . . . but then why's he such a dumbshit? JUST KIDDING ;-) Maybe he's not a moron, but he's definitely SMUG and CONDESCENDING, I don't think I've ever seen a report of his that wasn't laced with too-clever smartass wit, EVERYTHING about the guy is CONTRIVED.
In other words, a man after my own heart. Actually, he's very intelligent. Too much so for his own good sometimes. But his better angels are constantly shouted down by his compulsive need to be the smartest guy in the room. Which I can also identify with. What he's wrong about here, though, is that we have grown American stars - the quality of the American player is so much better than it was even 25 years ago, it's not even funny. And our stars are actual, living, breathing stars and not Kyle Rote, Jr. And Beckenbauer, Chinaglia and Pele actually did work. I don't know what he expects Beckham to do, exactly - cure male pattern baldness, figure Pi to 4,000 decimal places and find bin Laden, I guess - but he's taken the lazy way out here and fallen prey to what too many people in the media (and on Bigsoccer) have done over the last two weeks - assuming that the Beckham signing and the Pele signing are the same things, just 32 years apart, and that the end result (the league that signed them splashing, then folding) is inevitable.
My knock on his intelligence was just a jab, winding it up a bit -- I quickly waived play-on. I don't know him but it seems you do, I trust that he's smart, not really criticizing that. But I think he'd have a hard time living down the SMUG description, he always has a wry comment that really reeks of self-declared superiority. And it's ALWAYS on, I can't say I've ever seen him work with any spontaneitiy, he seems very self-conscious always. Now, you're a media pro too, but my experience with your work is that you treat the CONTENT as the important part of the show . . . while Olberman (and the rest of the ESPN "look-at-me" class) treat THEMSELVES as the important part of the show . . . my opinion.
Oh, you've got him pegged, no doubt. He is all that and more. I think he's slightly less so in an unscripted format like with Dan Patrick on the radio, but, yeah, that's him. I think the Sportscenter guys moreso, but Olbermann definitely fits the description of smug and superior. The thing is, he is incredibly intelligent and a very good writer besides, and there are certain subjects about which he's a really good authority. This particular one - not so much, in my opinion. But he does appreciate the game itself and the history of it, I've seen that in the past. You have to remember that a portion of this is schtick and a portion of this is because he's on TV and TV does strange things to people because the people on the other end of the box kind of demand it.