This entry was posted on 3/21/2008 9:08 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Ok, I wasn't going to get into this issue, but then I was listening to Rome and talking to a soccer friend on the phone who heard it in the back ground and started to chew me out.
First, let me state, I love the Jim Rome show. I listen every day. I really like his takes and his show doesn't suck. That said, I think he's wrong about soccer. That's fine. i do find his rants even about soccer to be entertaining. Soccer isn't for everyone, but neither is basketball. I personally hate a game where the only the last 2 minutes really matter and the other 46 are basically pointless. For those who are Jungle listeners, soccer fans and soccer in general really need to take a page from NASCAR in dealing with Rome. He originally hated NASCAR, and was not afraid to say it on air. Now he's a NASCAR fan. What changed? Well, first, enough of his listeners are NASCAR fans and instead of just tuning him out and throwing up a wall, kept talking about NASCAR, enough to make him understand that his audience (customers if you want to really look at it) demanded he cover NASCAR. The other thing that won him over is that NASCAR worked with him. Whenever he wanted a NASCAR driver on the show, they called, called on time and were great interviews. One thing to understand about Rome, he hates interviews that are just one tired cliche after another and just average. He likes interviews that are not the same tired stuff over and over. Either be really good, or really bad, but be different. Soccer has not made much of an approach to Rome. The only soccer person to really show up on Rome's show is Eric Wynalda, who is annoying as hell. Yes he was a great player, but that was like 15 years ago. I think it's more of an indication of soccer in America that there really aren't that many personalities in the sport who are American and have personality. Who is he going to get, Landon Donovan? About the only American player I can think of who would be the type of interview Rome wants is Clint Dempsey and even then that's not a great match. Otherwise, there really isn't a good personality in MLS or on the US national team who would show some good personality.
Brad Rock's article in the
Deseret News also raised some hackles in the soccer community. Again, really look what he talked about. Is RSL in financial trouble? Good question, from what I gather, yes they are a bit. Is Sandy really the best choice for a stadium? Probably not, in fact, a lot of what he really is saying is the same things that were said by a lot of the soccer fans in Utah about Sandy. Talking about Beckham being more interested in being on Entertainment Tonight has been thrown around the soccer community too, the Fox Football Fone-in people have talked about and wanted him on their show. The Beckham circus is less about soccer than it is about selling the Beckham brand. And his take about RSL being bad, well, really he's not too far off on that one too. I think really his only blast about soccer was talking about the 0-0 scoreline. Ok, fine, if your attention span is so short it requires you to see someone score every 30 seconds to hold your attention, maybe you need to be on Ritalin again.
Soccer fans, stop the knee jerk reaction about the "haters" who bash soccer. I can't tell you how many times I've heard soccer fans, myself include, see above, bash other sports. How many soccer fans refer to American football as "pointy ball" or "gridball" or some other term? Realistically, I think soccer gets the bashing it does while other minor sports don't is because sports like ski racing understand they are minor sports in this county and don't expect to be treated like they are major sports. Let's face it, it will be a long time before soccer is on the level of the NFL. Super Bowl Sunday may as well be a national holiday. And really, football didn't replace baseball as our true national sport until about the 1960s (I would say starting with Super Bowl III with Namath and Unitas). Soccer, I think, will eventually get to the point where it can challenge football's supremacy, but it will take time. I think really, it will take the United States being competitive internationally (not just in North America either, nobody gives a shit about beating Mexico twice a year). The US needs also an American spokesman for the game, not some pretty boy, has-been Englishman who is just pushing his brand name. Americans want a winner and want an American winner. Where oh where did the pre-injury Clint Mathis go? The one who was a great player and had the personality to really have an appeal other than to a bunch of prissy metrosexuals. Sorry, Landon Donovan is not that person, I think our only real hope is Jozy Altidore in the near future. Other than him, there aren't many on the horizon who can fit that mold.
