Of contact sports and professional cowards
by Steve Davis on Oct 24, 2010 2:05 PM EDT
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Talking about head injuries and other trauma from athletics is de rigueur in the sporty places of our media world after a weekend full of huge hits in the NFL, some that were merely controversial and some that were pretty dire.
So … let’s talk about head injuries and other trauma as they touch our sport. And that is what we’re talking about, right? Serious injuries?
So why have a couple of media knuckleheads taken the opportunity to harken back to a better day for them – when it was cool to be lunch room bullies, to go spill some trays at the uncool kids’ table, to take a gratuitous pot shot at soccer?
ESPN’s Mark Schlereth thought he was being cute to suggest that removing big hits from football would turn the game into soccer. (Good on young U.S. forward Jozy Altidore to throw a Twitter dart at Schlereth in soccer’s defense.) I also heard some disembodied voice on Colin Cowherd’s ESPN national radio show line up soccer and kick it squarely between the legs.
Aside from the first point, that this is serious business and that they really should leave the zingers on the sidelines, it's a terribly ignorant comment. There's plenty of contact in soccer. Is it American football? Of course not. That's the king daddy of violent sports. But there is contact.
And from a media standpoint, here’s the thing: this is just professional cowardice. Why? Because taking a shot at soccer is easy. As I said before, it’s like pushing around the smaller kid in the lunchroom just to look like a big man around your buds. Meanwhile, there are bigger boys around … but the bullies don’t mess with them.
There’s surely a lot more contact in soccer than in baseball, right? Yes, I understand that batters stand in a small box while someone throws hard objects upwards of 90 mph. But that’s not what we’re talking about here, is it? We’re talking about contact, about collisions between human beings that are part of so many sports.
How about golf? There’s no contact. It’s a sport. So why wouldn’t Schlereth or Cowherd’s minions kick those sports in the nuts? I tell you why: because they know that more fans and advertisers like them. See, there’s real risk in lobbing verbal grenades those directions. Not so much for soccer – so it’s “game on.” And that’s professional cowardice.
I also wonder what Schlereth and others, those who like to slyly question soccer’s manliness, would say to Alecko Eskandarian, whose career appears to be over due to concussion-related problems? What would they say to Preston Burpo, who had his leg snapped nearly in half in one of those less-than-manly collisions that sometimes happen in soccer?
I could go on with other examples … but you get the idea.
Word to you professional cowards: go pick on someone your own size.
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I think, if anything, this kind of response makes soccer look petty and defensive . . . little man’s syndrome, if you will. I’m a huge soccer fan, as well as American Football and Rugby. However, soccer is the obvious choice to jump to if a commentator is going to make this kind of comment. Golf and baseball are not field sports, first of all. Soccer is – it is also 10 on 10 (and gridiron is 11 on 11) – the sports are actually related in their pedigree as well. Not to mention it is well known and despised even among soccer fans that diving and exaggerated injury is part of the professional game, especially amongst international competition. Was it classy to make light of serious injuries on any level in the NFL? No. But a whole post in response to some flippant comments on ESPN just fuels the misconception that soccer fans/players are weak and petty.
Love your blog, but this sounded like whining more than making any kind of valid point.
Nope, You're dead on Steve.
he was clearly going out of his way to take a dig at soccer because he was trying to defend the indefensible: illegal dangerous tackling. You can’t argue that an unnecessary play and one just as dangerous to the tackler is an acceptable part of the game.
So what do you do? You trot out the ’we’re tough men, ‘we can handle it’ arguments. "We’re not wimps, like soccer!’ Accept that football without helmets is…RUGBY! A sport played by people who are, possibly, as a whole far tougher the football players. No kickers or punters there. Sure, football evolved from soccer but getting rid of helmets doesn’t make it soccer again just like adding restrictor plates to a stock car doesn’t make it horse racing.
Shlereth should be at least respect all sports and not treat one as any less than another. Very poor journalism.
Captain, there are doubt's...
by Match Day 5 on Oct 24, 2010 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions
and very poor proofreading on my part!
Captain, there are doubt's...
by Match Day 5 on Oct 24, 2010 10:53 PM EDT up reply actions
"Professional cowardice"
I thought that was the industry that Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo worked in.
"We don't want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object," said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.
Your real problem is listening to anyone at ESPN
Sure they’ve started to pay attention to soccer this year but that’s only because they acquired the rights to some EPL matches. They really have been left with a skeleton crew of talent…the only reason to check out ESPN these days is Rob Neyer.
by Tyler Bleszinski on Oct 25, 2010 3:56 AM EDT reply actions
I have to agree...
taking anything the Four Letter Network says seriously is a waste of time.
by Shawn Gillogly on Oct 25, 2010 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Hey TB, we're making progress
Stink didn’t use a homosexual slur to describe footballers. Progress, Tyler. Progress.
Will somebody please pass the f**king asparagus?
by Kevin McCauley on Oct 25, 2010 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Golf...
… not a sport.
A game, yes.
Exhibit A: John Daly
The Real Question
why anyone on earth would waste any time at all even listening to Colin Cowherd, let alone caring about what he says. (well, I guess I’ve listened just enough to know that I don’t ever want to hear anymore. Ever. Thank god I have other sports radio options besides ESPN)
At least Schlereth has a tough-guy pedigree, considering he was a lineman for so many years. At least for the NFL guys its kind of ingrained to bash soccer, (and no one can pretend that soccer has as much contact as gridirion football,) I’m more irritated by faux-badass Cowherd who doesnt look like he could hold his own on the Bocce court, let alone a soccer ptich.
Anyway, if they want to see what the NFL without helmets would look like they should check out Australia’s National Rugby League, which I think I saw late night on Spike this last season. The main impression I got was of 12 pro wrestlers launching into each other, with the ball carrier fighting to stay on his feet, or even to pass the ball away, while in the grips of the tackler. On most plays the guy could barely take three steps before he was blasted by a defender. And in Rugby you are taught to make sure your man enagages you before you get the ball out. I don’t think any fan of senseless carnage in sports could be opposed to it, not even a former NFL lineman
US vs THEM
I think part of why people spend enough money/time/energy on sports to support billion (with a B!) dollar teams and stadia is that sports get to the core of people’s US vs THEM instinct. Soccer is still a “them” in this country, a small sporting fish in the US sporting pond and one that wasn’t invented here. So it gets picked on, for some (not all) of the same reasons that France, homosexuals, and Muslims get picked on in this country.
So it is that ESPN Sportscenter anchors belittled soccer regularly—until ESPN bought the rights to the WC’10. So it is that Sports Illustrated’s “This Week’s Sign of the Apocalypse” comes from the world of soccer more often than from other sports.
I voted recently with my wallet, opting not to renew my decades-old subscription to SI. I’ve been frustrated with the magazine’s inadequate coverage of soccer, but the failure to do more than was done this year was the last straw.
This is how things evolve: media outlets present what sells. To me, the best indication that soccer has gained really solid footing in this country isn’t the fact that NYRB signed Marquez or Henry, that the USMNT is getting more competitive, or that MLS is expanding. All those things are encouraging, but I’m feeling confident that soccer has come of age because ESPN invested heavily in it. Now that the cool guys behind those desks on ESPN have to try to sell soccer, soccer is an “US.”
I hadn't thought about it that way...
…But you make a great point regarding US vs THEM.
Burpo
Burpo’s broken leg was the worst sports related injury that I’ve ever seen(in person). We heard it snap, from the opposite corner of the field, like someone had a twig next to my ear. Players on the field looked to be hunched over and dry heaving. It was awful. It doesnt matter what anyone says about the game. Its not going anywhere.
"I've gotto go with PSU. Ill make that pick every year till I die, and eventually it's gonna happen. Hear me now."- LL Cool J
ESPN pundits (ie knuckleheads) taking potshots?
This is not a new phenomenon. I don’t put much stock in anything that most of the no-nothings about the simplest game have to say. But I will give them this much credit: The number of these zingers is decreasing. Who knows, there may even be an MLS highlight during the playoff run this year!
Chad the Ref
Soccer has about the same amount of contact as basketball, same type, bumping bodies, jumping in the air to get the ball, and the similar rules to personal fouls. I don’t even think anyone really even really thinks about or cares about the level of physicality or lack thereof in basketball.
I don’t mind seeing physical contests, it just that the type of contact that ends up being rough cause a lot of damage like heads banging and legs getting hit at a high velocity, and just isn’t safe, so a lot of contact doesn’t really work with either game.
Not sure there is much more to write into it than ignorance, but you know, I have to agree with some of the posters, if someone attacked basketball or baseball, no would care because it would just be stupid. But in dissecting the stupidity, really if you were going to compare, you would compare it to Australian rules football or rugby. You can’t even use your hands in soccer, it would be pretty amusing seeing guys go at it tackling and jostling each other just with their legs, torso, and head. Just the mental picture there is pretty amusing, absurd, and enough to leave it at that.
