The Sporting Life from The Weekly Standard

StoneIsland · Sep 7, 2007

In the September 9th, 2007 issue of The Weekly Standard, Englishman Gerard Baker writes,

Last month, after weeks of frustrating inactivity occasioned by an ankle injury, David Beckham finally made his debut in Major League Soccer. The owner of the most famous foot in sports, the head that launched a thousand haircuts, the talented half of one of the world's most recognizable couples, was at last ready to inject American soccer with its largest dose of charisma and celebrity since Pelé landed in New York more than 30 years ago.
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Go to The Sporting Life, Real Football Returns for the full article.

Best line of the piece, while talking about American Football (emphasis mine):

Michael Vick's savagery may have tarnished the game for some, but I can wax ever more lyrical on the deeper appeal of the game. I can repeat the line I first heard years ago from a similarly Americophile Englishman that football was like a cross between chess and rugby. I can tell you how it serves as an animated metaphor for America itself: the melding of Hobbes and Locke on the field of play--the brutest of force mediated by the most complex of regulations that only a nation in thrall to the law could ever devise.
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/040nanup.asp?pg=1

Cyclonis · Sep 7, 2007

Wow... great story. Got me thinking, about all those lonely superbowls I spent alone playing FIFA. I'm glad that the writer shared his true feeling instead of just trashing soccer becasue more people would nod their heads along with him.

StoneIsland · Sep 8, 2007

Cyclonis said: ↑

Wow... great story. Got me thinking, about all those lonely superbowls I spent alone playing FIFA. I'm glad that the writer shared his true feeling instead of just trashing soccer becasue more people would nod their heads along with him.
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I found it refreshing that he didn't reflexivly bash American sports, as many Europeans are known to do.

Leedsunited · Sep 8, 2007

StoneIsland said: ↑

I found it refreshing that he didn't reflexivly bash American sports, as many Europeans are known to do.
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There is a minority of us who like MLB, NBA and NHL. Still a minority, but there is a good deal of respect, especially for Baseball. It is traditional for one thing.

Cyclonis · Sep 8, 2007

StoneIsland said: ↑

I found it refreshing that he didn't reflexivly bash American sports, as many Europeans are known to do.
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I only bash, if i get bashed first. The problem is that everywhere I go I find people giving me crap for being a soccer fan. I'm more of an eye for an eye kind of guy than for turning the other cheek. However, I was taught to live and let live... different strokes for different folks... I could go on with old adages but you get the point.