How You Can Help U.S. Soccer

US Soccer Federation, Inc. Chicago, IL
Heading and Cognition Study--$106,000

Money well spent.

 

Lemme guess -- they spent 106K to figure out that heading a soccer ball several times over is going to kill some brain cells?

 

This is money that could have been spent on just about anything to help MLS. Soccer players usually have brain cells to spare. If it were football players, then I would start to worry about a shortage.

 

Are you sure about that ???.

 

Not anywhere else they don't.

That only applies in the States, as soccer here is still a safe little diversion for Kids Who Have Done Their Calculus Homework. It's very much the people's sport, or at least a sport of the people, in most other countries.

When

1) 13 year-old American kids reading on the second grade level start telling their teachers "I don't need this. I'm gonna be a pro soccer player"

2) People in backwoods areas like Alabama and Missisippi start treating Bruce Arena with the same respect they reserved for Bear Bryant

3) The local Podunk barber shop has calendars of the local HS soccer team rather than the grid team

4) When Clint Mathis can act like Randy Moss and get away with it

...then the USA will be ready to move to the Quadrennial Contender level.

 

And more stupid parents will steer children away from the Game.

 

My highschool team who went down state three years in a row (and were ranked top 10 three years in a row) had a cumulative GPA of 4.2. Of the 33 guys I played with in that time, 11 went on to ivy league schools and another 8 went to schools ranked in the top 15 (other than ivy) Just about everyone recieved both athletic and academic honors, some of the smartest (and talented) guys I have ever met I shared the field with in those years.

However it is true that this applies to mostly just kids in the US.

 

Maybe it's just a British thing here, but 95% of our players would probably have a bit of trouble reading Spot the Dog. It's probably down the fact that to be with a club as a youth player, you'd have to leave school around 16, whereas in America, you can combine studying and sport much easier (even if the system seems to allow idiots who happen to be good at sport the chance to go to university).