Hey Beckham! Get Bent!
I will never understand the world’s obsession with soccer. I have no desire to watch it, write about it, or play it more than I did during the required gym class in school. That being said, I was once again desperate here and David Beckham’s coming to America provided an out. I tried to think of the most stereotypical European soccer fan I could think of, possibly British, heckling Beckham, and mocking him with a take on the infamous movie title. The result wrote itself.
The less responses my column got, the more bold and more insulting I tried to become, trying to get some people to post comments, even if they were just telling me I was a moron. I started thinking like an actor - that if it started to work, I would adopt it as a persona. In the column I figured that if I came out and insulted every soccer fan, I would at least get some responses this time. No such luck.
Geoff the Ref
Sunday, July 15, 2007
"Geoff the Ref"
Bending for Beckham
By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv
You've got to admire what David Beckham wants to do for the sport of soccer here in the U.S. When he was introduced as the newest member of the LA Galaxy, he said he wanted to make soccer as popular in this country as it is in the rest of the world. That's a noble thing, I mean, who doesn't want riots breaking out at every single game? Who doesn't want their neighbor breaking off the back of a chair and beating them over the head with it? (That kind of thing happens every day in the City of Angels, and you don't have to buy a ticket to be a spectator -- you just take a drive over to South Central.) Who doesn't want to waste their time watching two dozen guys run back and forth on an oversized field that's just too large and not score very often?
Who cares? Really? Certainly not Americans -- we have enough sports to occupy our plates with the Big Four (baseball, football, basketball and hockey). England and Real Madrid (Beckham's former team) are happy to see the man go as his ego and behavior began overshadowing the club. In this country it will be exactly the same, as Beckham isn't a part of a team, he IS the team. A sideshow headliner meant to sell tickets, he's now the Alex Rodriguez of US soccer now thanks to his sky-high salary, as well as becoming Mr. Front and Back Page (at least in the LA papers). Pele was billed the same way as Beckham is now -- a foreign-born "savior" of American soccer, but that didn't work out either. Outside of the occasional suburban youth group soccer is what it is in this country: a fringe sport that no one really has any interest in, or that is even marginally cared about, especially in the urban or metropolitan cities. Beckham's presence can't change that, and nothing will.
Wanna argue with the Ref? Don't like the call? Go ahead and make your own!
