Lemme guess...they say that they've been hearing for 30 years how soccer is going to take over but it still hasn't and never will.
Anderson, Meant to post about what they said. Sorry about that, had to go out for a minute. Anyway, Basically Tony said he didn't watch it because he was having eye surgery(he was kidding). Then Wilbon said that Mia scored a great goal and Tony missed out. Then it developed more into a conversation about how Tony doesn't like women's sports. Wilbon asked him if he watched the WNBA game on Sunday and Tony scoffed at that. Then Wilbon asked him what he has against women's sports. It was a short segment. Overall, it ended up being a discussion more about women's sports than soccer.
falcon, thanks for the summary - I wasn't trying to gripe at you about leaving us hanging or whatnot - I often watch the show and have just been noticing that recently that whenever soccer comes up it always ends with the old refrain that I mention above. So, I'm actually pleasantly surprised that it didn't end that way on this topic -but I guess there wasn't enough time after the women's sports routine.
I saw the mail segment on WUSA (basically standard good cop/bad cop routine), but I noticed that a previous segment was 'The Littles'. Was this about Freedom's Skylar and Jacqui, or something else?
predictable This pattern is as old as David Seaman. Sports yapping head makes boring, unoriginal insult about soccer that everyone's heard about 1000 times. Soccer fans react in indignant outrage at the yapping head's immaturity. They call the yapping head ugly, say his momma wears combat boots and generally throw a temper tantrum. It's so predictable, why does anyone waste energy getting upset or time typing a post. I'm sorry, but I just don't care one way or the other about some yapping head who knows nothing about soccer and doesn't even pretend to ponificating about soccer. I like soccer. And guess what, even if the "cool" crowd at Sportscenter or PTI or whatever don't like soccer, I STILL DO. I've got enough self-esteem to like a sport even if the so-called "opinion makers" don't. Jeez...
Re: predictable That attitude has no place around here sir. We must react and overreact to every imagined slight of soccer and boycott Disney.
saabrian, I agree with you in general, but I'm not sure there's any indignant outrage at TK or Wilbon in this thread. Of course, it's still early. I think two points specific to PTI are helpful: First, neither TK nor Wilbon is the average sports yapping head. Most of those guys aren't very bright as an initial matter and then compound the problem by making pronouncements about things that they obviously know even less about than usual. I suggest that the poster boy for boderline-human intelligence is Dan Le Batard. I think we can spot the obvious differences in intelligence between Le Batard and either TK or Wilbon. Second, both TK and Wilbon are surprisingly well-informed about soccer for general sports analysts. TK's shtick has him pretending to know nothing and caring even less, but his knowledge of the game during the WC was bit of a give-away that he knows more than, for whatever reason, he likes to admit. He may well not care in the least, but that's a different question. Wilbon has written some pretty good stuff about DCU in the W.Post and can chat pretty reasonably about soccer. He obviously doesn't know the game as well as Paul Gardner or Jeff Bradley, but he knows enough to offer some real analysis. Alright, so the question that's interesting to ask is why do even smart, well-informed guys like Wilbon toss out an old refrain that's clearly poorly-reasoned and ill-informed? I don't think asking that sort of question makes you a low self-esteem soccer victimization junkie overreacting to evey perceived slight. Obviously, what TK or Wilbon think about soccer has nothing to do with whether we like or should like soccer.
Re: predictable But in the good news section, we're not stupid enough to bring in Ian Feuer as a back up.
Re: predictable Well, one of my reasons is - I want more soccer coverage in the US media. I want English Soccer, Italian Soccer, Spanish Soccer, even German Soccer, covered here. I want to SEE more matches on television. When smarmy ESPN sportscasters, or old wrinkly newspaper sportwriter hacks bash soccer, if for no other reason than just because they are bored with life in general, then yes, I think that affects the general sports fans views on soccer. therefore influencing corporate decisions on the future of Soccer here in the US. I could give a rats SS what the writers and broadcasters think anyways... I'm not a whiner and I don't think us soccer fans are persecuted or anything like that and I don't get too upset about not getting "respect", it's just that I'm selfish. I want more soccer. It's as simple as that.
Since I'm the one who started this thread, I just put it up there to inform everyone what was said. I like PTI. They actually highlight soccer quite a bit. Most other media outlets ignore the game but they never do. As for TK and Wilbon, they are overall fair to the sport and even showed quite an interest in the world cup. Once in awhile, TK will throw in a cheap bash but wilbon usually responds with the soccer fans perspective. I think Wilbon may even be somewhat of a fan, he has mentioned that he watches the European leagues on his dish. I agree with another poster on here too. These guys are much more intelligent than the average all-sports radio talking head.
I'm not trying to be a smart-ass here, but I think the answer is fairly easy: they're communicating in sound-bytes. The format for PTI doesn't allow for astute intelligence to put itself on display. In the world of sports talk, that's a ratings killer.
Fair enough. But that still doesn’t explain the content of the sound byte. Even if you only speak in sound bytes, you can offer a sound byte that reflects nothing about what’s going on in this country - either in sports or in the broader society - or you can offer one that at least suggests that you’ve been awake for the last 10 years. Here are two sound bytes that would take about the same amount of time: 1. I’ve been hearing for 30 years from the soccer crowd about how soccer’s the next big thing and is gonna take over in this country but it hasn’t made it big yet so it never will. 2. Soccer now has a better shot of becoming a serious pro sport because the demographics of this country and the interests of younger sports fans are both changing. Sound byte 2 is still very simplistic and may represent more wishful thinking than anything else, but it at least reflects some thinking about what‘s going on in the country and in sports. Both are sound bytes and, by definition, offer very little in the way of thoughtful analysis, but one of them is so intellectually lazy that it’s reasonable to conclude that the speaker has no clue about the subject. I’m puzzled about Wilbon’s recent PTI comments on soccer not because they're sound bytes, but because they're sound bytes that reflect a lazy mind.