When you are 11 years old, the word “gay” has a very specific meaning. It has nothing to do with homosexuality. It is all-purpose adjective that refers to some activity or event that no self-respecting 11 year old boy would want anything to do with. Classical music was gay. Picnics with egg salad sandwiches were gay. The “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland was gay.
When I was 11, I thought soccer was gay.
How could it not be? Sports was an activity broadcast on network television with production values and drunken announcers like Howard Cosell. Soccer was (at least in Los Angeles) a grainy, week-old, video of a Bundesliga game broadcast on PBS (which in itself is gay) narrated by some guy with a British accent. I played Little League and basketball, and one year my mom signed me up for soccer because she thought it was European, and thus cultural (i.e. gay). Our team name was The Leprechauns (how gay is that?) because some kid’s Irish dad was the coach. No thanks to my skills, we ended up winning our league, and I hid that trophy way back in the closet where nobody would ever see it and told my mom that I never wanted to play that dumb sport again.
That opinion about soccer pretty much stayed unchanged until 1994. To be specific, June 28, 1994. I was living in Washington DC, and a friend had invited me to see Italy play Mexico in the World Cup at RFK Stadium. I understood that the World Cup was a big deal, and that a lot of people were into it. Having been in Los Angeles for the Olympics a decade before, I learned that you could go to sporting events for which you had no interest (I saw West Germany beat Romania in Team Handball!) and still have a good time, so I went.
That game was like nothing I have ever seen. The Olympics were filled with singing and dancing and that stupid flag and lots of polite cheering. In fact, if I was 11 at the time, I would have called the Olympics gay. This, on the other hand, was about naked nationalism, unbridled passion, and an unalloyed desire to see your team triumph. When the Italians scored just after halftime, their fans were in ecstasy. Kirk Gibson home run ecstasy. The Mexican fans emotionally crumbled. When Mexico scored 10 minutes later, the emotions reversed. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, and even though cynical American sports fans were supposed to feel unsatisfied at a draw, I was enraptured. Totally hooked. And, eventually, obsessed.
It is an obsession that has never really slacked. Someone gave me Fever Pitch and I became an Arsenal fan. The MLS started and I became a Galaxy fan. Every four summers I devoted myself to what I came to accept as the greatest piece of sporting entertainment that existed. I read about soccer. I surf the net about soccer. And, if you are reading this, you will know that I write about soccer.
I still like baseball and love college football and basketball, but soccer is my chief obsession. I try not to be evangelical about soccer with my friends. People who harp about how great the sport is often come off as sounding a little snooty to the uninitiated. Nevertheless, I try to lasso at least a few people every World Cup into following the tournament. “Watch a few games, and I bet you will not be able to let it go.” Those that I can convince end up loving the tournament, and though not all become fanatics about the sport, at least they can appreciate what I see in it.
So, that is my advice to you, the American reader of World Cup Buzz. Don’t jump on a soapbox about the World Cup. Don’t preach to the world about “The Beautiful Game.” Don’t get into inane arguments with people who parrot Jim Rome’s nonsense. Just get a couple of close friends to commit to watching the World Cup this summer. Let them soak in the experience. In all likelihood, you will create a soccer fan.
And, perhaps, a soccer obsessive.
Just a side note on the Jim Rome thing, Alexi Lalas is gonna be his guest on JRIB (Jim Rome is burning) tomorrow so MAYBE he’s finally giving in a little bit to soccer, if not it should still be interesting to see soccer actually discussed in the middle of his program and not on one of his “burns” like it always is.
I think Jim Rome was forced to give soccer some respect by ESPN. He still feels the same way about the sport and it showed in his expressions during the interview.
I had the same experience from the WC06 in Germany. Went to go to Europe and have a good time, ended up falling in love with the whole sport.
Great blog, really captires what it is to be a football fan.
Hilarious story. You’re a good writer, Eric.
I feel the same exact way, Eric. The World Cup has catapulted soccer fandom for a lot of people. World Cup 2006 is a great memory of mine. It was the only World Cup to have taken place during my college career. I had been a fan of the game for years, but 2006 was the summer a handful of my friends got into it. It was summer and we had nothing to do so we watched games together everyday, and played the World Cup game on Xbox for much of the other time. Just as you said, allowing others to just experience the World Cup and soak it in was enough. A few of my friends have become big soccer fans and got into the EPL, all thanks to the last World Cup.
loved the blog mate!