The totally predictable Beckham backlash has begun. Newspaper sports columnists all over the country are using the hype surrounding Golden Balls’ arrival to bash Association football.
We’ve seen it before, albeit on a smaller scale, when Pele came to the United States in the 1970s to make soccer as popular as the Ford Pinto. It didn’t work then, and it didn’t work in 1999 when Brandi Chastain and the U.S. national team were hailed as saviors of the game only to see their attempt at a professional league flop miserably…
Beckham isn’t going to change that, no matter how much ESPN, Adidas and Motorola try. Americans may be fascinated by beautiful people, but for the most part they’re bored by a game where one goal is cause for celebration and is often played so defensively that even open shots are a rarity.
Yet, soccer was supposed to be the sport of the 1970s in the United States. Then the ’80s, then the ’90s, then the new millennium. It has never quite gotten there. Boys and girls play soccer, then move on to other things. (A majority of) people in the U.S. who didn’t immigrate here from other countries don’t seem to care much about soccer unless a women’s team wins a World Cup championship and Brandi Chastain celebrates by twirling her jersey. Most people in this country are interested in 1-0 scores only when The Rocket hurls or Bonds homers.
We already have football here. That’s our game and we love it. Until we stop calling our favorite sport “football” and start calling it “incredibly massive men on steroids and human-growth hormone trying to dismember each other,” and start calling Beckham’s favorite sport “football,” no amount of his celebrity will change the fate of American soccer.
It’s basically the same tired old argument from the same tired old sports media establishment. Soccer failed in America before. It’s never been more than a niche sport played by kids who always outgrow it. It won’t catch on here. We’ve got our own football game. Yadda yadda yadda.
Most of these guys have probably kept this column in a drawer since the 1994 World Cup. They bring it back out whenever some big soccer-related event happens in America, re-edit it and republish it, just so they can remind us that this foreign football game will never really catch on here — as if there’s no room in America for a different football code.
Seriously, have you looked around the developed world lately? Have you noticed how many countries are perfectly capable of supporting multiple football codes? Half of Europe plays both soccer and rugby. Ireland has its own football, plus soccer and rugby. Australia has its own form of football, plus two forms of rugby, plus soccer. So why does the American media keep acting like the gridiron game must be the only football game Americans should ever accept?
Sure, pro soccer isn’t quite a major American sport. Rugby isn’t a major European sport, but it seems to get along okay there. The Guinness Premiership is the top rugby union competition in England, but it’s average attendance is only 11,662, smaller than both the Premier League (34,363) and the Coca-Cola Championship (18,221). The top rugby league competition, Super League, pulls only 9,026. Yet rugby union and rugby league keep right on going, don’t they?
And what about Australia, where the soccer haters are just as fierce as they are in America? Has this stopped the A-League? The average attendance for A-League matches is 14,042 — less than the Australian Football League (35,250) and the National Rugby League (16,485). NRL and A-League are awfully close, though, aren’t they? Perhaps the rugby fans feel a little threatened by the socceroos? Perhaps the old guard media in Australia feel the same way?
Maybe that’s why these columnists are lashing out against soccer. They feel threatened by a game they don’t understand. They grew up with the gridiron, just like Aussies grew up with their games, and they can’t stand some foreign football game encroaching on their territory. Never mind that there’s plenty of room for all these games here. MLS actually has higher average attendance (15,504) than the A-League. Neither league is perfect, but they aren’t exactly on the verge of collapse, either, much as the old-guard pundits would like to see that.
So soccer may never be the dominant form of football in America. So freaking what? Does that mean MLS shouldn’t try to market itself a little? Does that mean people who actually like this football code should just give up on American leagues and stay home? Does it really matter that much if a successful Association football league always comes in second to the NFL in America? Come on, guys. We’re perfectly capable of enjoying multiple forms of football in this country, just like they do in plenty of other countries around the world.
But I’m preaching to the choir here. Newspaper columnists aren’t paid to be this reasonable. It’s like Scott at Battle Red Blog said:
Why is the blogosphere exploding? Because our sports columnists choose to try and incite readers by calling them names and trashing their favorite teams rather than engaging in any thoughtful analysis or commentary.
That’s today’s mainstream sports media for you. They provoke for the sake of provocation. It’s the only way they know how to keep your attention.
(Sports attendance figures taken from Wikipedia. Thanks to Gary and Stephanie for some of those links.)
