You made some good points, but I think we might not be on the same page as far as a "participant sport" goes. I am sure that fewer people drive around stock cars than play soccer in the US. As far as that goes, there's no way figure skating, boxing, hockey, or football come even close. Depending on how this is calculated, soccer may be above any of these as a participant sport. In any case, there is no "probably" one of the 5 most popular participant sports. It is in the top 5.
Grant Wahl may be right about Romey, but it would not hurt to give soccer and MLS some props on occassion. Sure, I wish there were more goals yesterday, but I was with three other soccer fans who enjoyed a fantastic, tension filled match, eating beef brisquet and drinking draught Guinness. A great day shared with 61,000 true believers. Forget Rome, either he gets it and choses to make soccer his enemy, or he really does not. On the plus side, Chris Berman has the goal that wins the Cup as one of his top ten plays of the week on Sportscenter and that goal was again shown on the 6 pm SportsCenter. MLS does not often get that, and only light kidding about the LA players singing "ole ole".
Rome gets alot of mileage out of bashing soccer. From reading what he says on here, there is a sense of desperation in his attack. He has placed himself in a corner and really does not know how to get out of it.
That's the beauty of being a sports editor or a talking head on tv. You can spout crap time after time after time and get paid for it. THe guys got a cushy job.
Romey does make a good point about playing on footabll Sunday, but when else? If the final were played Saturday, he would have said we were boneheads because of college football. MLS was in a no win situation.
There's always Tuesday night. Oh wait, the World Series. Oh and the fact no one would broadcast the game in prime time.
Paul, thanks. I meant that soccer is probably the fifth, sixth or seventh most popular spectator sport. After reading your post, I edited the post in question. Sorry for the confusion.
me too! Should we stay silent or should we complain? It is a double edged sword with many positives and negatives on both sides.
At the end of every MLS season it seems the following happens: 1. A team wins the MLS Cup 2. Don Garber gives a forecast of the future based upon entrails and science fiction. 3. Jim Rome makes an jack ass out of himself. 4. Everyone points out that Jim Rome has made an jack ass out of himself. I guess this is what tradition is all about.
From what I read, it sounds like Rome and Kornheiser were far more complimentary toward MLS Cup than some BigSoccer posters. Sachin
Name me something Rome doesn't know a lot about? I'm not saying he's like a genius or anything, he could be dumb as a freaking brick outside of sports, but when it comes to sports, he knows his s**t. Oh god, do you realize that the Masters, Wimbeldon, any major boxing fight, and figure skating at the winter olympics gets higher ratings than every televised MLS match this season combined! And it is the #1 participation sport in the country. Heh, duh! Doesn't that tell you something then? He's just doing it for the hell of it. Cause he can, and cause it's funny. True, very true. Suprised no one on here said... "God, this guy doesn't even realize the game is 90 minutes long and not 60! Jesus he's stupid!" Off to listen to the rest of today's show. Now that they cut the commercials out of the streamlink show via his website, it makes $7 a month a bargain. War Willy in KC.
obviously it tells them nothing look on the first page war Trapper and will the sniper please take out Jeff in Richmond
In my office? Quite a few, actually. Yanks who move to England might be a different subset of the population, but almost every American guy in my office likes soccer-- and yes, not just Eurotrash soccer.
Ahem. Its ROMEY, people, doing a sports-COMEDY show! Yes, COMEDY! He makes fun of things and people in sports. He also makes fun of NASCAR, Patrick Ewing, and a host of other hilarious American topics. If gets annoyed with his "takes" on footy, please consider the hurt feelings of Tony Labonte fans when you laugh at his "takes" on NASCAR.