Stephen A. Smith is Right About Something

RAZO

Mayor of Southtown
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I was referring more to the Olympic sports where we consistently medal in pretty much everything that isn't distance running. Gymnastics, Swimming, Track (pre-Bolt), etc. I guess there aren't all that many team sports outside of the ones mentioned already. <shrug> Also we medal in hockey just about every Olympics (pretty much the only international tournament for hockey) despite it being the like the 5th most important sport in this country and only really played regionally.



Right but the infrastructure in this country for soccer is shit and most parents (that aren't rich, self-involved WASPs) aren't interested in driving their kids 100 miles to tournaments on the weekends to play a sport where they have to play in Europe to make any money when it's so much easier, less expensive and more lucrative to just play basketball, football or baseball (or hockey if you live in the frozen parts of the country). Like I said, that could certainly change but none of the indicators say it will and people have been talking about the rise of soccer in the US for 40 years (since Pele came to play in the US in the 70s at the end of his career) and it never happens.

I'm not trying to shit on people who like soccer. It is one of the great spectator sports (both live and on TV) and SHOULD be more popular in this country. It just isn't.

C'mon bro, we all know Canada has the best hockey players. I'm all for America being the best at something but they are not the best @ hockey. They have the best hockey league but not best players. The US has produced some great hockey talent.

Some might even argue that Russia has more hockey talent.
 

RAZO

Mayor of Southtown
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I've been coaching soccer a few years now. As has been said - each year we lose about half our kids. They want to play hockey, baseball, football or basketball. You get to an age where the seasons are longer and you have to make a choice. Some really talented kids each year drop out - a top 5 league player in soccer wants to go be in the middle of the pack on the JV football team. Football has cheerleaders, homecoming, names on jerseys, and 300 people in the stands. Soccer has none of those things.

Case in point - when my oldest son was U8 we had 6 teams of 13. When he was U10 it was 4 teams of 14. When he was U12 it was 2 teams of 13. Now at U14 it was 1 team of 11. We had to call up some U12 players just to have enough to play some nights. Literally losing more than half our players each year. Because a 5' kid in Minnesota really believes he's gonna make millions playing along side a 35yo Steph Curry.

Our high school team doesn't have enough for a team - we partner up with the next town over. The football team dresses 80.

100proof is on point tho - a much better watch than baseball. The live action of football or basketball is as good, but so many breaks. Watching live soccer is fantastic.

I get it. When compared to other major sports in this country it comes in last but I guess it also depends what part of the states you live in. Here on the east coast the youth soccer programs are pretty solid and high school soccer games attract alot of people. Plenty of Soccer bars in the NJ/NYC/CT areas. I could imagine it's probably the same thing on the west coast.
 
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evil wasabi

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C'mon bro, we all know Canada has the best hockey players. I'm all for America being the best at something but they are not the best @ hockey. They have the best hockey league but not best players. The US has produced some great hockey talent.

Some might even argue that Russia has more hockey talent.

The olympics are a joke. Only old farts and wrecked vaginas watch that shit.
 

100proof

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C'mon bro, we all know Canada has the best hockey players. I'm all for America being the best at something but they are not the best @ hockey. They have the best hockey league but not best players. The US has produced some great hockey talent.

Some might even argue that Russia has more hockey talent.

Obviously Canada is better. It's also by far their most popular sport so all of their best athletes are playing it. I would agree about Russia as well. Despite that, we still win medals consistently at the Winter Olympics, generally only losing to Canada, Russia or the occasional Scandinavian country where as in soccer, we can't even qualify to be in an international tournament and, when we do, we're an afterthought.

Anyway, MJM's anecdote makes my point for me and I've banged this drum enough. Soccer is irrelevant culturally in America and the "soccer is the next big thing!" talk has been and continues to be wishful thinking.
 

100proof

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The olympics are a joke. Only old farts and wrecked vaginas watch that shit.

Also true... though if I could watch it with no commentators and no human interest sob stories about people's dead relatives or their brave triumph over a nasty bout of diarrhea, I'd probably be more inclined to spend non-zero amount of time watching them. There are some cool/weird sports out there. Also no more gymnastics/figure skating. Fuck that beauty pageant nonsense.
 

Tw3ek

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The olympics are a joke. Only old farts and wrecked vaginas watch that shit.

Hands down the best summary of the Olympics ever. The fact that they stretch it out over weeks and show every damn moment on multiple channels only adds to the joke factor too.
 

evil wasabi

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Also true... though if I could watch it with no commentators and no human interest sob stories about people's dead relatives or their brave triumph over a nasty bout of diarrhea, I'd probably be more inclined to spend non-zero amount of time watching them. There are some cool/weird sports out there. Also no more gymnastics/figure skating. Fuck that beauty pageant nonsense.

When the olympics brings in buzkashi, I will watch that. The original olympics were somewhat interesting - wrestling, footraces, horseback riding, martial arts. None of that beauty pageant shit.
 

Marek

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The olympics are a joke. Only old farts and wrecked vaginas watch that shit.

I watch all the winter Olympics

If you can't appreciate the skeleton sled then you're beyond hope.

Also the summer. America rules at a lot of stuff.
 

Lets Gekiga In

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I watch all the winter Olympics

If you can't appreciate the skeleton sled then you're beyond hope.

Also the summer. America rules at a lot of stuff.
Winter Olympics are best Olympics. Skiing, speed skating, and skeleton are my favorites.
 
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