Friday, June 27, 2014

Thank you, Ann Coulter, for enlightening me about the game of soccer.



Funny, I didn’t realize that individual achievement was the definition of a “real sport”.  All these years of coaching I must have been doing it all wrong…


According to the expert on everything sport related, Ann Coulter in soccer “the blame is dispersed and almost no one scores anyway. There are no heroes, no losers, no accountability, and no child's fragile self-esteem is bruise”.   I didn’t realize she knew so much about the game, this is truly eye opening for me!  I never knew that it is more impressive to catch a fly ball with a wad of tobacco in your mouth than it is to run at speeds of 35mph, with control of a ball while being pushed, pulled, and tackled.  I really do learn something new every day.

Last time I checked every team has a hero on any given day, see Maradona and his Hand of God, there are losers…see every team that played Colombia this World Cup.  There is accountability, which is why some men have literally died when blamed for giving up goals and on a smaller scale, why Geoff Cameron was benched against Germany.  There are MVP’s, in every level of the game, in fact there is an award for MVP of the entire world FIFA Ballon d'Or…just like in football, oh wait no they don’t.

Although I am not sure why this last bit is an issue to discuss…in soccer even kids self-esteem gets bruised from time to time when they get cut from a team, when someone megs them with the ball.  There is not much more embarrassing than that! And also when a teammate calls them out for playing poorly.  Another thing I never knew was that it is more difficult to run past a 300lb “athlete” and score a touchdown than it is to only use your feet and score a goal in soccer?  Amazing how much I have learned from the soccer expert Ms. Ann Coulter. I really can’t thank her enough.

With regards to soccer being the only sport that is played co-ed at the youth level…maybe she never heard of T-ball? Mix doubles tennis? Beach Volleyball? any swim team? Golf? The list goes on…

The only reason soccer has taken longer to “take off” in the USA, is one of the reasons the USA is so great!!  People have choices here.  They can play many sports and it is a wonderful thing…just ask Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Andrew Luck, Usain Bolt what their favorite sport is?  Yup, soccer.   Luck was too slow to play…Bolt not skillful enough (he tried out for MLS); Steve Nash has it written into his contract that he is allowed to play soccer in the off season, and Kobe flew all the way to Brazil to watch and support the USA!  Which by the way, whether you like soccer or not, is something that you should do!  
 
I am at a loss for the idea of the “force-fed aspect of soccer”.  I have been around the game for over 25 years and at no time have I tried to convince someone to love the game.  I answer questions about it when asked, I talk about it with my friends and family, just as any diehard Packers fan would do.  And just like any typical hard-nosed Boston sports fan would say, if you don’t like my sport, I don’t give a rats a@@.  If you don’t like it, don’t watch, it’s that simple.  I personally think watching NBA regular season games is like watching the grass grow but I don’t harp on my basketball loving friends for enjoying it.  I just don’t watch.  What a concept.  

But Ms. Coulter, if you can’t understand “The Beautiful Game” for the skill and athleticism is takes that is fine, but one thing that you can’t overlook is what it does to the world on an actual global scale.  Just like American Football, oh wait, that never happens, ever. 

Soccer can:
          *  literally put a halt to a civil war- Ivory Coast
      *  bring joy to a country in utter despair- Japan women’s soccer winning world cup after tsunami
          *   bring neighboring countries together- Ghana bought energy from the Ivory Coast so the people could watch the games live
      * brings attention to a country operating as a slave state- Qatar
     * gives a voice to the people- Brazil public protests government spending
     * gives a voice to unions- Germany asking government to allow workers to come to work late after Germany soccer games (airing in the middle of the night haha awesome!) and, 
         * brings hope to a country in ruins- Haiti women’s national team

Just to name a few…

You should have just continued your 10 year ban on writing about soccer...



 

1 comment:

  1. Couldn't agree more. Also this: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/shouts/2014/06/things-ann-coulter-said-while-watching-the-us-germany-soccer-game.html?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=facebook&mbid=social_facebook

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