Soccer

This got on my nerves

I don't hate soccer. I grew up loving it. It was probably my second favorite sport after basketball. Growing up, Cobi Jones, Eric Wynalda, Tony Meola, Alexi Lalas, and Brian McBride were heroes. I remember watching any friendly game I could on ABC and hoping in futility that my dad would flip soccer on the main TV. When we would go to the library on Saturdays I would spend my allotted internet time (Stone Age stuff I know) looking up the MLS team sites. As I grew older, my soccer interest waned as my interest in the finer things in life (football, women, and football) increased.

I'd say my souring on soccer came to a head when I played soccer my senior year in high school. I had a basketball hangover and wanted to squeeze every last drop out of my senior year so I went out for soccer. I had played a lot growing up and was invited to try out for the high school team as an eighth grader but forsake the game for four years. My coach was a former semi-pro soccer Cuban defector. His English wasn't the best and he used words like "pace" and "pitch" that I didn't understand. How was I supposed to put pace on the ball? Did I need to make sure that the ball stayed at a constant speed? How does one go about that? Did I need to sprinkle some salsa on the ball? What would that accomplish? I figured out that meant to kick the ball hard. Why didn't he say that? Why didn't he tell me to put some mustard on the ball? This coach was a masterful tactician and a horrible person. He berated and mocked his players and directed most of his energies, both positive and negative, towards his son. It was a horrible situation. We had a good season but I was glad when it ended.

Fast forward to 7/29/14. The World Cup is over, thank God. Seriously, thank God. I enjoy watching the United States play and will occasionally watch a game without the US but I cannot stand soccer fandom. Stop calling the field the pitch. Stop using the British version of "be" usage (i.e. The English team "are"). Stop calling the games matches. Matches are little sticks that create fire or indicate a combat sports bout.

The coup de grâce is definitely calling soccer "football". We live in America, football is football and soccer is soccer. This isn't an American problem, in Canada "football" means their version of gridiron football. In Australia, "football" means Australian football. In America, "football" means football. I recently read an entry in Der Spiegel that stated that as the word "soccer" has been on an upswing in American print media over the last 30 years, the word is on a downswing in the United Kingdom during the same period. Brits have taken offense at the Americanization of soccer and have stopped using the word. To those soccer fans out there that insist on me calling soccer "football", should I also refer to my truck as a lorry? Do I need to call my Oreos "biscuits"? No, no one suggests that.

Back to the original Facebook post that spurred this blog post. Saturday Night in the South is a sacred time reserved for the 2nd biggest SEC game of the day, not a soccer game. I am proud of the CFC making it to the national finals of their tier of the North American soccer pyramid. 9,000 people attended the semifinal game, yet you constantly hear that soccer is swiftly taking over the American sports landscape. Horsefeathers. In the same stadium, the hapless UTC Mocs averaged 9,900+ this past season. The Mocs are horrible. They've always been horrible. They have almost no following to speak of, no large student presence, yet they pull 9,000+ for trash games. As no one stat tells the story, we need to look at the MLS. For all the touting of MLS attendance figures, the league is not a freight train gaining steam. I constantly see soccer fans online bash the NHL, NBA, and MLB and say that the MLS is averaging more fans per game. Well, duh. When you play fewer games and offer tickets at half the price of your counterparts, of course you will average more fans. This blog post explains it better than I ever could.

The bottom line for me is, hey man, you like soccer? Cool, no need to attack other sports. As for soccer taking over America, stop trying to make it happen and enjoy your game.

The B1G is terrible

...and so is every other conference besides the SEC.

Big Ten
Hapless Penn State wasted Northwestern today and knocked them out of the Top 25. Nebraska will probably be knocked out of the Top 25 after losing to Ohio State. Ohio State is the best Big Tenlevenvle team (and likely will be the only ranked team come tomorrow) but is not eligible for the post season. The rest of the Big Ten is garbage and I won't even discuss them. I cannot wait until Bowl Season when the B1G looks even worse. Lee Corso (this is the last time I will ever reference this "man") said last week that the B1G should do an 11-game round robin and each team should play one OOC game against an FCS team so  it isn't as obvious how weak the B1G is. There are a slew of reasons why this is happening and the armchair economist in me says that the decline of the Rust Belt plays a bigger part in the decline in the B1G than anyone wants to mention. If you were to ask Colin Cowherd, he would tell you that there are more "babydolls" and the weather is better in California and the South and that is why the players and coaches emigrate out of the Rust Belt.

The ACC
Clemson tried to grab the brass ring but EJ pulled it out of reach last week. Clemson will host South Carolina to end their regular season which will end their BCS hopes. Clemson isn't the answer.

Florida State is looking good but plays at Miami, at VA Tech (read this "Va Tech", don't say "Virgina Tech" in your head), and at Maryland. None of these teams are spectacular but methinks they will lose one of these games. They will end their regular season hosting Florida who will end their BCS NCG hopes if one of the aforementioned teams don't beat the Gators to it. Free Shoes U isn't the answer. UPDATE: FSU loses to NC State 17-16. How good is Tennessee?

Virginia Tech. Traditional ACC power Virginia Teach. Wow, what a season Frank Beamer is having. Their loss to Pittsburgh was crippling. Pitt had lost two weeks prior to Youngstown State which is a respectable FCS team. Last week VA Tech lost to Cincinnati. Ouch. This week they lost to basketball school UNC. I can imagine that the pitchfork and torch crowd is assembling in Blacksburg, VA.

Big XII
This isn't football but featured the best thing going in the Big XII.

Vintage Bob Stoops.

JF's prediction: Bob Stoops will take his team to play in the 2013 Bob Stoops Invitational.

Big East
This commercial was originally about Big East football but TMIMITW didn't like picking on the less fortunate.

PAC-12
LSU smothered Washington 41-3. Two weeks later Washington beat #8 Stanford 17-13. During the game Jesse Palmer said that Washington had a "SEC-caliber defense." LSU has a bad SEC offense. Am I missing something?

USC was supposed to be the team to finally take down the SEC but haven't looked remarkable all season.

Oregon is good but still has USC, Washingon, Oregon State, and the PAC-12 CG on tap. I think it is safe to say that they lose one of those contests.

Notre Dame
The Irish are looking good but have to play USC, Stanford, and Oklahoma. Gone are the days of my childhood when Notre Dame ate cupcakes every weekend on NBC. I'd love to see Notre Dame make it to the BCS NCG and face <insert random elite SEC team here>.

SEC
Wow. Wow. Wow.

We can divide the conference into five levels

Alabama - Alabama. (I don't even need to say "'Nuff said.")

The Big Boys - Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, LSU. These guys can scare Alabama before losing. They can beat one another and should beat all the underlings of the conference. Yes, Florida is back.

Not Ready for Primetime Players - Tennessee and Mississippi State. Up and coming teams. Good enough to compete with anyone but not ready for the SEC CG. Tennessee beat NC State handily. Florida's win over LSU makes the Florida loss look better but Georgia's loss to Sakerlina makes the Vols look worse. Can comparative scoring ever be trusted? Yes, when it benefits your team.

Hoping for a Bowl - Auburn, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Missouri, Ole Miss. Ole Miss is the only team happy to be at this level. Vanderbilt thought that their Thursday night home opener against the Gamecocks was going to be their coming out party. Missouri and A&M said all summer that they didn't take kindly to the notion that they wouldn't immediately compete in the SEC. I wouldn't have taken kindly to it either but it doesn't make it any less true. Gene Chizik will be fired at the end of the season if he has a losing record.

Kentucky - Kentucky and Arkansas. Do we need details?


Class dismissed, enjoy Fall Break.

Pledging Allegiance

Here in the South, there are a few things that are just understood.    When it snows in the winter, you are required to go to the Bi-Lo and buy as much milk, eggs and bread as you possibly can.  You watch the Braves whether you like baseball or not.  When you ask for tea, it is understood that it is supposed to be sweet.  And in the fall, you have a college football team you root for.

Until I got into high school, I had never really met anyone that denied having a football team.  I'm sure I had, but I never thought about it.  It just seemed everyone I knew had a team they were a fan of.  My guess as to why college football is so popular in the South dates back to the mid 1800's.  When the War of Northern Aggression was launched in 1861, the people of the South set up a Confederate government that hinged upon states rights.  This government had many flaws and, in fact, some Southern states even tried to secede from the Confederacy because they believed they were being wronged.  The people of the South have immense regional and state pride and I believe it stems from the "Us-versus-Them" mentality that was fostered by the War.  Today, people identify with their state/school and this is where I believe the intense "fandom" comes from.  

But I digress.

I am a Tennessee fan.  I didn't choose the team.  I didn't  pick them because I came of age in the 90's when they were very dominate.  I didn't choose them because they played in the SEC.  I didn't pick them because I like the color orange.  I follow the University of Tennessee because some of the first games I remember seeing on our TV (that got 12 channels) were Tennessee football games.  Those games were on there because my dad turned them on.  He was watching them because he always had.  He started following them because his Daddy listened to them on the radio in their home when my father was young.  My grandfather didn't buy a TV until my dad was in high school.  Being a farmer, he never had much time to watch.  But when he did the Braves and SEC football games, more importantly UT games, would be tuned into.  You see, allegiances are passed down.  Inherited.  That is just good form.

Teaching and coaching  middle school boys, I hear about sports all day.  Who won last night, who plays tonight, who likes which team, who hates which team, and who has tickets for this Saturdays game.  One thing that I am seeing as a trend is that most student age kids nowadays have multiple "teams" i.e. " Oh, yeah, I watched that game last night.  That's my 3rd favorite team!".  These ideas are very foreign to me.  Isn't the point of having a favorite team stem from the fact that they are your FAVORITE team.  I have taken more class time then I should probably admit to correct the error of these adolescents' ways.  They will thank me one day.
The fact is, I feel blessed to have the father I did, to have been raised watching football in the Greatest Conference in the Milky Way galaxy and having born witness to things like Stoerner's Stumble, Peyton's Naked bootleg at Alabama, Draining the Swamp in '01 and watching Fulmer hoist a crystal ball in '98.
As a Tennessee fan, it is my right and duty to disparage every Georgia, Alabama and Florida fan whenever the good Lord gives me an opportunity.  But what really puzzles and disappoints me is when I see a father and son who have gone their separate ways in the area of fandom.  What went wrong in that house?  By God's grace, I plan exercise the admonishment of Proverbs 22:6 with my sons.

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." 

In summary, just like who your daddy likes.  It is what the Lord intended.

So let it be written, so let it be done.