Thank you for the spirited debate.
Being an Arizonan, and ashamed to have McCain as a senator, your remark was, unwittingly, a low blow.....:-)
If you want to talk about other American Sports and their position as “World Champions” let’s talk Basketball, there are several nations represented in NBA just as there are in the NFL and MLB. And each year the winners of The NBA Playoffs jump up and down and pronounce themselves “World Champions”.
The trouble with that is - they are not!
Spain is the current World Champion of Basketball.
There is a World Championship held every 4 years sanctioned by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and Spain are the current (2006) champions.
However, USA are now the current number 1 ranked nation, followed by Argentina then Spain, so things are improving.
There are 73 countries in the FIBA rankings. If I remember correctly, the US loaded their 2006 squad with some serious talent for the competition but STILL didn’t win it.
Why do I bring this up? Because, while we all recognize that the NBA is the finest league in the world, it isn’t the ONLY source of talent. And while the NBA may attract the best from all over the world, it is a domestic league with it’s own domestic championship and that event should be called what it is, especially when there is already an International event for the whole world to challenge each other.
The same is true for the NFL. Yes, they are the best teams and the best talent, but you can’t have a World Championship where you exclude the rest of the world from competing.
That sounds more like Hitler’s Olympics to me
But, of course, if you want to call yourselves “World Champions” then go ahead, you can call yorselves what you damn well like, but it’s about as hollow a claim as John McCain calling himself a conservative.
“And while the NBA may attract the best from all over the world, ...”
That is the KEY to my argument with your original question of “How can any domestic team call themselves World Champions when they don’t compete internationally?” The question has been answered by you! The BEST of the world COME TO US to compete! The ONLY thing that keeps exceptional talent OUT of the NBA is repression and communist dictators like that in Cuba and Venezuela. What you have in US Professional sports is the equivalence of an elimination round IN ORDER TO COMPETE HERE. This is the free market system in action! Free enterprise is rewarding “the best” with opportunities to perform and prove that they ARE the best. Does that mean that other talent is ignored? Absolutely not! Other talent from across the globe is constantly scanned, inspected and recorded in order to give NBA teams the new talent to beat the other teams! Scouts fan out to the ends of the earth to find tomorrows super stars! They watch the FIBA teams like hawks (not the Atlanta Hawks!) to get a player that will smoke the hell out of the opposition. What you are saying is that because the team from Upper Volta is not allowed to play for the NBA World Champion title, then the title game has no meaning, you need to adjust your view of the world from that of a United Nations delegate, to that of reality.
Your example of the 2006 is what happens when you take big name players who are NOT used to playing on the same team, jam them together and expect gold. Give that same group of players nothing beyond the the title game and they would’ve blown the other teams out the doors! The ego clashes and attitude of “well, this ain’t like no REAL championship” is what doomed the team. They did not value the title of FIBA world champions.
A perfect example of YOUR type of competition would perhaps be the fiasco of the 1972 Summer Olympics for Basketball when a tight game was fought between the USA and USSR, in which the game, under the eyes of INTERNATIONAL judges, was played and REPLAYED until the USSR won. That one game in itself ruined the future of respect for international title games. The whole WORLD watched a theft by the USSR team and judges on live TV.
The NFL plays AMERICAN football. If other nations don’t like the sport enough to play the sport, there is no reason to force them to play. If, on the other hand, the NFL is successful in developing an substantial audience and following TO MAKE MONEY, then the NFL would branch out (as it has on several occasions) and establish franchises outside the US. It is the MONEY that individuals are willing to EARN that brings out the best. National pride is nice, but cash is better. Call me a crass capitalist or a mercenary, but truth is truth. Good soccer players from the US go to Europe to play and that is fine by me! Go for the gold while you can!
I could have called in the ref’s on the Clinton crack, but I can give it as good as I take it and “in your face” back at you with the McCain jab.
Let the record show that you were the first to introduce the specter of “Hitler” into what had previously been a civil discussion.
Comparisons between your opponent and ANYTHING having to do with Nazi Germany is, according to International Rules for Civil Debate, disqualification by hyperbole and ends the debate.
Therefore, I win.
(grin)