The myth that America doesn't like football

BBC News ^ | 2nd June 2015 | Nick Bryant

[the scotsman]

'True, football, or soccer as it is known here, is not as central to American as it is to European, African or South and Central American life. Nowhere near.

Up until recently, the game has been unloved by the major US television networks, which have long bemoaned the lack of breaks in play, the paucity of goals and the glut of draws.

Absent from the US game are big-name male stars and big-name clubs. The New York Red Bulls will never rival the New York Yankees. Real Salt Lake pales, rather risibly, alongside Real Madrid.

However, football is no longer met with American indifference. Nor any more does it offer proof of America's sporting isolationism.'

[Colonel_Flagg]

The game will be growing here long after you and I are gone.

[Sergio]

I have a friend who says that, “Soccer is for the homosexuals that don't have the hand-eye-coordination to play badminton.”

Personally, I don't like soccer because it reminds me too much of my high school dating years. A lot of running around, heaving breathing, profuse sweating, very, very little scoring.

[BenLurkin]

Ouch!

[Zeneta]

When real men played real football.

[Crim]

It needs dirt bikes, then maybe I would watch it...

[miss marmelstein]

Growing like a fungus all around the Statue of Liberty.

[Clemenza]

Baseball: Loved by men over 60, Dominicans, and the dumb proles who drool over WFAN. ;)

[miss marmelstein]

I dare you compare baseball to a little girl’s game the next time you sit behind the first baseline and an errant ball comes in your direction from the bat of a huge American or Puerto Rican athlete.

[miss marmelstein]

Oh, the old man who tells kids to get off the grass is back! I always envision you crawling out of a darkened cellar in Queens twice a year.

[lodi90]

The game will be growing here long after you and I are gone.

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More like exploding. The new Major League Soccer club in Orlando is averaging 37,000 fans a game. It was little more than a decade ago when a near bankrupt MLS contracted the two Florida teams. Now MLS is back in Florida and paying some American players 5 million plus a year to play soccer in the US. The times they are a changin’.

[Clemenza]

Yep. The nice Koreans next store made me a lucrative offer on my house so that they can build a Fedders on the property, so now I am in Florida without a basement.

[MinorityRepublican]

I hate soccer, unless it’s late and I can’t sleep...it’s better than a sleeping pill.

I do the same lol

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Hmmm. The popularity of soccer is exploding... and America is devolving into a wussy, pseudo-European, socialist-welfare society. Coincidence? I think not...

[Smokin' Joe]

Personally, I don't like soccer because it reminds me too much of my high school dating years. A lot of running around, heaving breathing, profuse sweating, very, very little scoring.

Well put!

After about three seconds of deep thought, I concur.

[central_va]

I out grew kick ball after the third grade.

[Dartman]

Post 102 wins it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have really been enjoying this thread, but your post was the first to make me laugh out loud. Well done.

[Smokin' Joe]

Yeah. But at least in kickball you could use your hands if you were playing defense.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I can go to a soccer game and enjoy it. I can go to a baseball game and enjoy it. Football would be interesting if they would play the game rather then stand around talking about it. Basketball is unwatchable. Cricket.... I am sorry but I have never been able to figure out cricket.

But hockey, now there is a real sport!

[Gene Eric]

LOL

[lodi90]

Hmmm. The popularity of soccer is exploding... and America is devolving into a wussy, pseudo-European, socialist-welfare society. Coincidence? I think not...

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Wussy? FRiend, learn a little about Orlando’s biggest soccer star:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/i-belong-to-jesus-soccer-superstar-kaka-is-okay-being-second-if-121440/