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. . . soccer requires a level of athleticism no major American sport requires . . .

I once got into a conversation with a guy who claimed that hockey players weren't good athletes because they changed lines during the course of the game and didn't play a full 60 minutes. He was a distance runner, so he challenged me to run a 5K race against him to prove his point.

"OK," I said, "but we'll do it like a hockey game just to see how 'athletic' you REALLY are. We'll sprint for 40-60 seconds at a time, then stop and rest for two minutes. We'll keep doing this until we cover the 5K."

"Oh, and by the way," I added, "You might want to wear some padding as you run, because I am going to knock you on your @ss every step of the way."

I once got into a conversation with a guy who claimed that hockey players weren't good athletes because they changed lines during the course of the game and didn't play a full 60 minutes. He was a distance runner, so he challenged me to run a 5K race against him to prove his point.
"OK," I said, "but we'll do it like a hockey game just to see how 'athletic' you REALLY are. We'll sprint for 40-60 seconds at a time, then stop and rest for two minutes. We'll keep doing this until we cover the 5K."

"Oh, and by the way," I added, "You might want to wear some padding as you run, because I am going to knock you on your @ss every step of the way."

When I was still playing lacrosse, a few of the players also played hockey, and they used a lot of the same pads for both sports... One of them mentioned that the opposing hockey team players were worried about playing against someone who had "turf" on his pads!

Hockey and Lax are very much alike, but in Lax, you can get away with much more violent checking! No boards, but some of those poke checks will break your ribs and bruise kidneys. I had my ulna broken, as well as a broken collerbone from another game!

Mark

soccer requires a level of athleticism no major American sport requires . . .

gag. I guess thats why Americans are the top triatheletes. take the number of "major American" pro atheletes, mulitply that by 100, and you'll almost have the number of triatheltes.

The runner is setting up a false argument as athletic talent takes in more than just raw endurance. Your rebuttal to him was excellent. Hockey players are among the most skilled of all athletes as well as being among the toughest. Heck, it takes skill just to be able to skate well enough to play. Hockey is actually the fairest of all sports as far as not placing far more value on one particular player than another. Some skeptics might say a great goalie compensates for everything, but even Roy (snicker, snicker) or whoever is between the pipes can't stop countless shots from point blank range. Great goalies usually have great defenses in front of them. I say this as person who never played the sport but finds himself watching the Stanley Cup every year. It's the only pro championship I'll watch. Go Wings!