The World Cup

    Tomorrow The World Cup begins. The biggest event, the biggest celebration of sport and national pride on the planet. Nations work for 4 years just for a chance to compete, stores and schools around the globe close on game day in order to celebrate or mourn together. Soccer is referred to as the beautiful game, as the world's game, and here in America it's referred to as ...boring.
    I've heard comments about the sport that as a TRUE sports fan disgust me. "It's a foreigners game." or They look like queers running around in those shorts" or It's not an American sport." or  one that makes me itch all over "It's boring." I am offended by everyone of those comments on many levels.
    Calling it a foreigners game baffles me in that it's another way Americans try to show how much better we are than everyone else, while forgetting we are actually made up of everyone else. I don't know about you but my relatives were born in Ireland, Germany, and Yugoslavia. where were yours born? Oh you're an American Indian? I guess you aren't a foreigner then. What about Americans makes them believe that being born In America makes you better than everyone else in the world anyway? These same "Patriots" will bitch and moan about how much they hate people who are born into privilege and money and believe it makes them better than others "Snobs looking down their nose at everyone" Hypocrites!
   As far as what soccer players wear, I'm questioning your sexuality not theirs if your judging athletes on their clothing choices rather than their athletic ability.  Second, stop using the word queer it's offensive and makes you sound like Archie Bunker, Third  basketball, tennis, volleyball, boxing, even MMA, all where those "queer" shorts.  And seriously these guys are running non-stop for 45 minutes at a time, an hour and a half total, what the hell do you want them to wear? Tuxedos would be nice I guess.
    It's not an American Sport. So what do you watch? Football the number one sport in America, was derived from English rugby, which came from a Soccer game in 1823 when William Webb Ellis disregarded the rules during a soccer match, picked up the ball and ran with it. So the most popular sport in the Country owes it's origins to soccer.
    Oh, America's past time what's more American than baseball? well apparently a lot. When Englishman Abner Doubleday created the rules for baseball it was based on the international sport of cricket. That's not very American at all.
    Hockey? No, we know that's Canada's sport, although their national sport is lacrosse which was invented by Native American and Canadian tribes, does that kind of count?
    Boxing, wrestling, martial arts and horse racing all owe their origins to a time before the existence of America as we know it and well outside it's borders.
     How about auto racing? Nope the first car race was run on July 22, 1894 from Paris to Rouen. That's right France. I bet that makes some red necks a little unhappy.
 What about basketball well basketball was invented in a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was invented by James Naismith, a Canadian who based it on a game he played back in Ontario called duck-on-a-rock  outside his one room schoolhouse, and it was invented using a soccer ball.
    Let me address the boring issue next. Since this is more of an opinion than the others it's a little more difficult, but best summed up by You're an idiot!
    Soccer is constantly moving for 45 minutes at a time with the only break being at half time. Well trained, and the best conditioned  athletes in the world doing things with only their feet that boggle your mind while using build up strategies that rival a chess master. Games last a total of 2 hours and the celebrations by athletes and fans are epic. Football my own beloved favorite, stops every 15 seconds for a huddle, TV timeout, penalty, or end of quarter and celebrations are penalized. Baseball can last 4 hours or more and barely anyone moves. A 1-0 win over 3 hours with no one running more than 90 feet at a time is considered a epic pitchers duel. Basketball players score so often that doing so has no impact until the last 2 minutes which take 30 minutes to play due to all the fouling and timeouts. Speaking of the foul god forbid you touch someone at any point during a basketball game.
    So while boring is opinion, understanding and learning the game would make you see the game differently.
So do yourself a favor and spend some time over the next month with the rest of the world. A good start might be The US vs England Game 2:30 ET Saturday. You never know maybe you were missing something.

    
    
     

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