I don't know if this has been brought up before, but it looks like Steven A. Smith is going to dedicate his entire show of Quite Frankly on Friday to discussing the state of soccer in America. I don't know where Steven A. stands on soccer, so it could be an interesting show to watch. I think that it airs at 6:30 eastern time on ESPN2. I'll be curious to see who his guests are. Here is the link to the show: http://espn.go.com/eoe/qf/
Even money this thread gets merged into the Soccer Basher thread before the weekend is over. SAS is all about mean-spirited bombast, and if he gives soccer even close to even-handed treatment, I'll be shocked.
He's opinionated, and not really a big fan of any sports other than the NBA (which he's paid to cover) and MLB (which he's also paid to cover, especially for his show on 1050 ESPN Radio in NYC, and he's a Yankees fan from birth). That said, he's not dumb either. He gets good guests on both TV and radio, though I rarely watch or listen.
If I were at the taping of the show I would just wait untill he goes "no one watchs MLS", some one needs to yell "yes, but more people watch MLS than this show". Thank you i'll be here all night shows at 10, 12 and 2. I've watched his show a couple times and its not that bad becasue he is mostly calm when he has guest on the show but once it's "his take" i have to change the channel.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) I just finished watching the entire show. I think Stephen A Smith did a great job and the show really did touch on many of the issues concerning the current status of soccer in the U.S. The only joke was that old "professor" guy. It was so obvious that guy had an inner hatred of soccer. He couldn't have been more clear about it. Tommy Smyth, in my opinion, was brilliant. Steve Nash also made some good points.
actually it was excellent. shockingly. very well done by smith (shocked) and wonderful interviews with bruce, alexi, garber and even smythe.
Just saw the entire show. Stephen A Smith did a fine job. I give him credit. Tommy Smyth was brilliant in his analysis. Steve Nash's personal story and arguements were interesting. The old "professor" guy in the beginning of the show was nothing but your typical anti-soccer puppet.
The Professor was a tool Same old argument from him, low scoring, no room for soccer. Steven A. did a good job by calling him out his anti soccer bias, the professor ended up saying that he wanted soccer to grow. Bullshyt. THe discussion was very good, surprised me how well Smith conducted the program. The only problem I had was that they didn't go into the immigrant situation changing the sports culture in America. The only one that mentioned it was Arena with the future spanish speakers in this country. No one ever mentioned that the second biggest market in America (Los Angeles) gets higher ratings for soccer than all other sports. Mexican NT> Lakers Mexican NT> Dodgers Mexican NT> Angels Mexican NT> USC football They focused too much on MLS and how it represents soccer popularity in the country. There are more foreign soccer fans than there are MLS fans. And another thing only Tommy Smyth attacked the media for not respecting soccer the way it should.
It was okay although it might have been nice if (Steven A.) Smith had got Lalas' and then Wambach's names correct the first time he said them. Also, why was the only footage of MLS used from several years ago? Any young fans that were watching would have been hard pressed to see any of today's stars, with whom it was quite correctly pointed out they need to identify in order for the sport to continue to grow. Alexi Lalas made the point that young players need to be able to watch a game and think 'I can do that'. I doubt too many of them recognized the players that were shown scoring goals, with the exception of Donovan perhaps. That is not Steven A. Smith's fault of course. However, his employer, given that it does have the rights to MLS, has little defense on this. The professor did not have an inbuilt hatred of soccer, in my opinion. He did revisit some fairly well worn subjects as to why the sport is not as popular in the USA as it is elsewhere, but he also had some fair points to make. One of the more interesting things he said was regarding soccer and its failure to 'get on the bus'. The fact that it did not become popular in the late 19th century, a time when the sport as a whole was becoming more and more regulated throughout the rest of the world, is indeed a worthy pointer to why it is playing catch up today. Another good point was made (I believe by the host), who pointed out that, although millions of young players are playing the game, few are watching. Of course, there is adult politics involved here. Games are televised when the major networks have a time slot available and young kids often cannot go to games because a) they cannot afford a ticket and b) they are too young to drive to the predominantly out of town stadiums. Still, at least it's good to see the sport making an appearance in primetime. It's just a shame that the commisioner was on the show on the day after one of his teams has bailed out of its home. Perhaps that is another reason why there is a lack of support for soccer in this country ...
I was very impressed and agree with most of what you said. The only problem I had with Stephen A Smith was when Tommy had mentioned people wearing jerseys of teams from England and Spain in NYC. SAS then said "They're not from around here" or something to that effect. Seemed like he was trying to do the whole soccer isn't American sort of thing. Tommy corrected him by saying that he wasn't born in the US but he was from here now. I don't know how SAS couldn't have noticed people wearing these jerseys unless he wasn't from around here. I live in NC and there are people that wear those around and NC is far from as worldly as NYC.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) That professor despised soccer. What an old fart. I thought Steven called him out good onit too.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) Yup, it seemed like they cut the show short..No Bruce Arena interview on the episode they just showed.
Garber did mention it briefly in the whole thing about the league not being through a whole generation, but he wqasn't clear enough on the issue. Yep. They needed to say that soccer is popular, but MLS isn't and the challenge is to make those two situations meet in the middle somehow. I only watched bits and pieces, but Tivo'd it and will watch today. Looked good from what I saw.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) The rerun is apparently a condensed version based on the listings online. Topic merged with existing discussion.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) I saw it at 2 AM and it was really cut up. Is his show normally an hour? There was no Bruce at all.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) That's what it looked like on the tivo listings, buT i could be wrong.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) that makes sense then because even the steve nash interview was really short and seemed cut up. It seemed like they would give someone with that name recognition longer than like 2 minutes.
Re: Garber, Lalas and Smyth on ESPN2 Right NOW (7:15 12/16) the full version also had interviews with Arena and Abby Wambach.
Wish I had seen this thread earlier. Sounds like a really good show on my favorite sport. I applaud this Smith fellow for actually discussing the topic, and not resorting to childish soccer bashing.