Enough With The Soccer Whining!

I dig sports. I bought an HDTV so I can be there without being there, I have a ferocious appetite for ESPN, TSN, and sportsnet podcasts, and I follow the scores, standings, gossip, rumours, all that good stuff. So, with this being said, I'm noticing a real annoying trend: soccer bashing.

Soccer has become the latest whipping boy, in part, due to "Beckham Fever". People from all walks are coming out of the wood-work to take pot shots at the "Beautiful Game". They spew the usual rants: its boring, different, foreign, not American.

To you soccer-bashers who don't like any sports:

Just zip it. Complain about something of use, like politics. We get it. You don't like to exert yourself. Sweat is the devil. Turn on "The View", have another donut.

To you soccer-bashers who follow the other North American pro sports:

In top level soccer, you often see some aggressive leg tackles, clash of heads, shoulder-hits, blood is not uncommon. Now, not to name names, but might I remind you, that you follow a North American pro sport where a slap on the arm is considered a "foul". The referee stops play immediately. You follow another one that has extremely rare physical contact, you may see contact during a so-called "play at the plate". You could watch 10 straight games and not see any contact.

In terms of boring? A soccer game is two 45 minute halves with a 15 minute break. A soccer game is done like dinner in under 2 hours. How about baseball. Ever see a two hour MLB game? Ever see a 2 hour NBA game? The final 2 minutes of an NBA game seem like 2 hours with all the time-outs and intentional fouls and free throws, right? And don't get me even started on watching PGA golf. Is soccer 2 hours of pure adrenaline thrills and excitement? Absolutely not. I'm just saying that before you drag out the tired "soccer is boring" argument, you should take a good hard look at the sports that YOU follow.

Hey, soccer is not my favourite sport either. But I've participated in it, taken the time to learn it, and developed some level of appreciation. When did this become a bad thing? When did learning something new become a bad thing?

But, I guess its easier to just give up and hate something rather than invest time and effort to learn, eh? Better stick with something more intellectually stimulating like "The View". At least one won't break a sweat.