Don't read it if you're in a good mood. And I thought the sport was getting a little better press. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49250-2003Nov16.html
On the lighter side, I was listening to two rugby guys this morning complain about ESPN not showing the England-France Rugby World Cup semifinal. I was like "Wow, soccer is so far ahead of Rugby in this country. Thank God." Thirteen years ago, it would have been us complaining about not showing a WC game here. This guy is just another ignorant a-hole. I hope Stephen Goff put dogshit on his chair tomorrow. The Washington Post actually gives MLS- I think- the best coverage it receives anywhere in the country, this dumbass aside. Had he watched the KC-SJ game or the SJ-LA game from last week I think he would have written a very different article.
I think a good marital joke is any time he undresses in front of his wife. Or attempts sex... Nice profile on this guy Once an aspiring concert pianist, Norman Chad now works as a cigarette girl on carnival cruise ships and watches Nick At Nite most weeknight evenings.
Another tool. I cannot understand way these guys continue to write this garbage. But I guess if they have nothing else to write about, then they turn to us. Obviously, the sports scene in the DC area is very bleak. Apart from United an dmaybe the Capitals, what does the Baltimore -DC area have to talk about in sports? The Orioles, Skins and Wizards suck. DC barely made it to the playoffs this past season and what are the Capitals doing? You should also read a fine piece of writing in today's USA Today Forum section by Robert Lipsyte. Truly inspiring.
Hate to break it to you guys, but this guy is a national syndicated columnist. Same column appeared in a local paper here. (Seattle Post-Intellegencer)
It was also in the Boston Globe and several others. This guy has written several mocking articles of MLS in the past. He must feel threatened by it to always resort to an article like this every once in awhile. The question I have is why do editors give space to such a waste of time lazy article. That space could have been used for an informative article on this weekends match. what a waste of space.
Great. Two guys in one day in national syndication. The apocalypse is upon us. Head for your fallout shelters and close up MLS and the national team program.
Admit it, the guy makes a couple valid points, especially about the teams' touting attendance increases. You guys need to grow thicker skin. Haters will always exist.
Not in my master plan. We have a place to put them. They will be well taken care of and will be entertained listening to the first detainee to arrive. Jim Rome!
Ignore the hating, my brothers and sisters, of those who spread such vile filth against our beloved game, for they are a dying breed, clueless and myopic. Pay no need to their hate, nor to their ignorance. It is of no great consequence that such men speak as fools to the public, for, in time, their words will come to be heeded in the same vein as that of the flat earth society, or of the misguided who did believe the geocentric theories of the ancients. Or of the man who believed size, in fact, does not matter. And let it be known...let it be known among the people, that nothing, nay, I say, nothing they say could have such a terrible effect on our beloved game so as to drive it into the horrors of non-existence. Go forth and spread the love of the game unto the people of this great land, and pay no heed to these poor, misguided souls, for we have a bright future ahead of us that their spewing of such vile lies can not take away.
You know, the article didn't really bother me; it was stupid, but not really offensive. However, his point about the attendance increases was just plain wrong. The team that saw the smallest average attendance increase this year was Chicago, whose attendance rose 8%. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's more than 1000 people per game. AND, most importantly, that's over 15 games, so that's 15,000 extra people attending games. Chad's specific example was "if Jeff Shulman's parents decide to have his Bar Mitzvah reception at a Rapids game or if Sun Microsystems decides to have its annual corporate outing at an Earthquakes game, it might shoot attendance up 3 percent!" Not a particularly funny quip, and not at all accurate, unless Jeff's parents were taking more than 5000 people to his reception.
Some Words on Norm Chad In order for anyone to really understand what that article is about, you have to understand Norm Chad. Everything he says in his writing, on TV (he appears frequently on PTI), when he's commentation Poker World Series, etc, is done with a very very dry sarcastic wit. I don't think he is being arrogant/ignorant. Did anyone notice that he is only pointing out the same things that we as MLS fans complain about? Save for the comment about aggregate goals which a normal soccer fan likes, and his crack about FSW commentating (which remains to be crap), he was saying what everyone is thinking-- its shameful that there's poor attendance, its silly that 8 of 10 teams are in the playoffs. He isn't doing anything wrong really-- he's not bashing the sport, he's not saying he knows better, he's just offering his humorous opinion, which is what he's paid to do. Did anyone reading that say to themself "Hey he's right, what the hell am I doing watching this crap??" Until MLS is as popular as NFL (think 70-80 years) there will always be Norm Chads out there.
i never watch PTI when he is on anymore. he once cracked on MLS for absolutely no reason. he brings up soccer just to crack on it. but whats more insulting...are his JOKES!!! theyre horrible! no1 would ever find any of his jokes funny. and its not just this article, its everytime ive ever heard anything from him. he never ever stops w/the jokes, they just keep coming out, each one as corny as the last. and if u think this article reads bad...omg u should hear his voice and see his face! before i ever even heard him say ANYTHING about soccer he annoyed me. hes just 1 of those guys that no matter what he says u instictually want to punch him in the face. but if u look at it positively hes a lot more likely to praise the league than make even a Carrott-Top quality joke.
Norman Chad Read this!!! - and remember baseball's glory days if you dare Brothers and Sisters, Point 1) Remember Norman Chad writes nfl articles - 97 percent of the time - for his couch slouch column… I guess even ‘he’ gets sick about it, too. I skimmed his last 50 articles headlines on this little Newspaper search my College offers … they’re all the same.: He picks an nfl player/coach/team and compares it to his “they [any nfl team] stink like the bad milk in my fridge” sort of humor…. Bottom line: nothing special. Point 2 – Why should ‘we’ care) about the Norman Chad’s of the World (scratch that) Norman Chad’s of the U.S.? (look at point 5 for joke) Point 3 – Because it’s a FACT people are followers, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, it’s humanity’s great risk…. if you lived in an island with 12 people and 10 out of 12 say the moon is made out of cheese… odds are you’d believe them…. Just like when Hitler told Germans “jews stab our country in the back,” they believed it, some questioned it but “disappeared” and people just went along…. Point 4 – Up till the 1950’s Baseball was King, King! Now it’s the Jester. This was 50 years ago folks, 50 years!!!! What happened from 1950 – 2000 in the U.S? Today kids want to be NBA or nfl stars, … for baseball the writing is on the wall…. Too bad too, it’s the players/owners fault, MLB fans never forgave them for their last stoppage…. Point 5- TV made the nfl a Star! + superstar factor In the 1960’s TV gave a spin to things, the superstar-factor came in, Johnny Units the old Packer team players, these guys made the nfl what it is… for some reason baseball started a gradual decline with TV’s appearance…. Strange hunh? Notice you never hear of baseball stars from POST-1960 with the same love they give the Mantle’s and Ruth’s. Except for maybe Cal Ripken. Jr….. This is why the Freddy Adu’s , Pele’s, Maradona’s are key. NOTE:: If you seen an old American male (gray hair) at some bar/pizza place.. ask them about sports (back in the day)… they’ll actually remember that mythical time when baseball was king, and they’ll tell you how the nfl stole their lightning, its quite amazing... ask bout all the sports, NBA, NHL, golf…. I guess depends on what town. Point 5 – The U.S. is the “ONLY” country that plays football… the ONLY…well… A journalist once said, “America is the only country in the world where they play football, except for a dysfunctional league in Germany that is a prison sentence with no chance of parole” Pont 6 – Soccer was King in the U.K, in 1900 and is still king in 2003. Even with TV!!! A lot of people say “Oh baseball and soccer don’t translate well on TV” but if you think about it, in plenty of countries around the world they have TV + many sports along with soccer, In Mexico Baseball is big, but so is soccer, In Argentina basketball is HUGE! I remember being in La Paz in 96’ and watching the news from Buenos Aires, where they were asking Argentinean fans following the national basketball team, which they liked more soccer or basketball? The guy draped in a flag and w/his face painted blue and white said, “In Argentina, Soccer will always be #1, but basketball is #2.” In many soccer crazy European countries cricket is big, then again the fans aren’t so well… fanatical. Soccer TV rules in Europe, S. America and now is taking over China!!! or at least when ‘he’ plays. Thank you Mr. Beckham. Bottom-line #1: Soccer will not be topping U.S. TV ratings, or Selling-Out stadiums, UNTILL some of you complainers, MAKE A LOT OF MONEY, Buy ESPN, let me say this again BUY ESPN, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been to a bar, and on the tube they got ESPN, some mindless Nascar race is on, many times ppl aren’t even watching, bar-goers are trying to take someone home, but on the slow nights, ppl watch it, and guess what channel it’s on …. Also buy-off the sports staff CBS, NBC, hire the announcers, hire/fire sports writers, and pump a lot of money into making … *uh-humph* ‘forcing’ it down people throats… this is partly what the nfl did as soon as they got the big money…. Also super-star factor comes in, too. nfl owners realized this, that’s why they tried their euro league…. In case you didn’t notice it ain’t working… there was a thread on it here a few months back. For the record.. I don’t hate the nfl, heck, I even played a year of grid-iron football in high school, it’s was kind of like going to war (with your body) it was Ok, I guess, but it just ain’t got beauty, it’s jus some big guys hitting each other, thus the appeal. Bottom line #2: Remember the NBA was going down the toilet in the late 1970’s then Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came along, look at them now. Likewise the NHL use to have Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. Sadly Eric Lindros never became the superstar he was supposed to be… too bad I actually like the game too me it’s like soocer it’s beautiful and poetic, except for that stupid fighting… interrupts the momentum… hockey is best in the play-offs… well when the Devils play its boring Thank you, brother and sisters for your time. Please spread the gospel of “the game” at the parties, bars, and bedrooms of your lifetime. (Once they see how ‘possessed’ you are by the “beautiful game” they’ll check it out, too… well maybe….ahh you never know) – Saltenya94 I leave you with a Q’n’A that Norman Chad ends all his articles with … a P. Malach from Oregon asked him…. Q. Bobby Knight once said that if he ever needed a brain transplant, he'd want the brain from a sportswriter, that way he'd know it had never been used. Who would you like to have your brain transplanted into? (Pat Malach; Hillsboro, Ore.) A. Actually, the best match for my brain probably would be a small household appliance.