The sign that Soccer becomes a real Sport in the USA.
With Bruce Almighty, our Lord and savior having a prime-time spot on SportCenter, some have been saying that Soccer is emerging as a major sport in the USA. Stadiums are being built, highlights are actually being shown on sports broadcasts other than Fox Sports Report. One of the MLS clubs are actually making money and the World Cup should provide a small boost in the fan base in the US. Even with these events, there will be one way all true US soccer fans can tell Soccer has made it to the big time. It will be whenever a player is interviewed on a main stream talk show, be it sports show or not, that player does not get up and teach the interviewer how to juggle a damn ball like a friggin show animal.
Case in point, Freddy Adu makes the rounds in New York a couple of years ago for interviews. He goes on Letterman and Dave has him up there bouncing a ball on his head, catching it on the back of his neck and doing other random juggling things. Landon Donovan last week went on The best Damn Sports Show, Period! and after about only 3 real questions, they get him up and have him start juggling the ball. Is that the only thing TV producers think soccer players can do? Juggle?
When Jerome Betis went on the Tonight Show, did Jay Leno have The Bus show his strength in running through the band? When Michael Jordan goes on Oprah, does he show off his dunking skills? When Letterman has Derek Jetter on, does Dave have him show how he swings? Has there ever been a major interview with Tiger Woods where he re-does the whole bounce the ball on my pitching wedge then launch it into tomorrow bit? No, on all counts.
When a soccer player is brought onto a talk show, the producers obviously assume one of the two following things -
1. That the audience has no absolute interest in hearing about the sport, so just have the player get up and do something visual so that they can go "Oooh," then have the next guess come on, just as Fox did and had Drew Carey immediately take a seat and take over the interview.
2. That they themselves care not two shits about soccer at all, but thought that it would be cool to have a soccer player on due to something that either is about to happen, (insert World Cup), or just happened, (insert World Cup). The only problem is that they do not do enough research to fill the allotted amount of time for that guest, so they just have them juggle. Simple, make the soccer player juggle, and then send them on their way.
When this type of crap ends, I will feel that soccer is nolonger a niche sport in the US.
With Bruce Almighty, our Lord and savior having a prime-time spot on SportCenter, some have been saying that Soccer is emerging as a major sport in the USA. Stadiums are being built, highlights are actually being shown on sports broadcasts other than Fox Sports Report. One of the MLS clubs are actually making money and the World Cup should provide a small boost in the fan base in the US. Even with these events, there will be one way all true US soccer fans can tell Soccer has made it to the big time. It will be whenever a player is interviewed on a main stream talk show, be it sports show or not, that player does not get up and teach the interviewer how to juggle a damn ball like a friggin show animal.
Case in point, Freddy Adu makes the rounds in New York a couple of years ago for interviews. He goes on Letterman and Dave has him up there bouncing a ball on his head, catching it on the back of his neck and doing other random juggling things. Landon Donovan last week went on The best Damn Sports Show, Period! and after about only 3 real questions, they get him up and have him start juggling the ball. Is that the only thing TV producers think soccer players can do? Juggle?
When Jerome Betis went on the Tonight Show, did Jay Leno have The Bus show his strength in running through the band? When Michael Jordan goes on Oprah, does he show off his dunking skills? When Letterman has Derek Jetter on, does Dave have him show how he swings? Has there ever been a major interview with Tiger Woods where he re-does the whole bounce the ball on my pitching wedge then launch it into tomorrow bit? No, on all counts.
When a soccer player is brought onto a talk show, the producers obviously assume one of the two following things -
1. That the audience has no absolute interest in hearing about the sport, so just have the player get up and do something visual so that they can go "Oooh," then have the next guess come on, just as Fox did and had Drew Carey immediately take a seat and take over the interview.
2. That they themselves care not two shits about soccer at all, but thought that it would be cool to have a soccer player on due to something that either is about to happen, (insert World Cup), or just happened, (insert World Cup). The only problem is that they do not do enough research to fill the allotted amount of time for that guest, so they just have them juggle. Simple, make the soccer player juggle, and then send them on their way.
When this type of crap ends, I will feel that soccer is nolonger a niche sport in the US.
posted by Brian at 9:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home