Thursday, January 11, 2007

Coming To America

Reports are that Real Madrid superstar David Beckham could be coming to America to play football. Now, for those of you who don't follow the game, I'm sure you couldn't give a rats ass about this, but this is big news. Is he in the waining days of his career? Yes, but his is one of the biggest names in the game and him coming to play for a U.S. team could finally bring the recognition the sport deserves.
Story

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't care for soccer much. You do have to be in great shape to play it well; but it is sort of a feminine game. Just my opinion though.

Christopher Lee said...

Well, it ain't a bunch of guys patting each other on the ass after a touchdown or homerun but it works for me.

If you get it, there's a game coming up on Fox Soccer Channel between Arsenal and Manchester United later this month. You should really watch it. They display everything that makes it a great game.

Anonymous said...

$300+m I think he'd play for an 'outer hebrides' 3rd's team.

Soccer has never done it for me, but a 'feminine' game? (how is not a sexist comment?... do you mean prissy?... soft?)
I think that American football (the one where they only seem to throw the ball), with guys in lycra over padding and body-armour, helmets and stuff, has got to get the award for the soft fairy-sports.

If it's a contact sport, players should 'own' the hits they put on other players, not hide behind all that protective gear. From what I've seen of it, players have no problem crunching someone who's sitting under a 'hospital ball', when they are at little risk themselves in a helmet that doubles as a battering ram. The rest of the world plays their full-contact football without all the padding. It invariable makes them meat-headed thugs, but I put that one rung above prissy/coward American football players

It's about as cowardly as beating someone with a bar of soap in a sock while they are asleep!

Anonymous said...

The padding in American Football is to keep people from being killed. The men who play that game outsize the worlds "Unpadded" Players by more than 40% and usually are around 300pds with the speed and agility of a sprinter.

Anonymous said...

"The padding in American Football is to keep people from being killed."
... yeah and allows them to play in a way that they otherwise wouldn't ...especially the people doing the crunching, they aren't holding back (and people who cop the hit, still get hurt)... I just think that the guys putting hits on the others, wouldn't be so 'brave' without all that protection...
They don't give a damn about the person they are hitting, so I assume that the padding just gives them the confidence/'bravery' to go through them like a dose of salts....
How keen are they going to be to hit someone, if that hit presents the same risk to themselves, as it does to their victim?

Comparing the size of American footballers (or is that 'ball-handlers', since scarcely a person kicks a ball) compared to the average of all other football coded is pointless.
Players of say thugby, I mean Rugby, are as big (bigger?), teams of Pacific islanders (such as Maori) dominate, with characters such as Jonah Lomu of NZ, 120Kg (275 pounds in old measure), runs 100 metres in 10.8 seconds (Anglo and European teams are normally massive, thick-necked, guys too). Then there's Gaelic football, where being smaller and more agile is an advantage, it's also an amateur-only sport.
They all do it without padding, and it means if you want to fuck-someone-up, you have to pay equally, and know the consequence. I think that padding makes it easy for cowards to avoid the consequences, and avoid 'owning' their hit.

Regardless of how you justify the padding, it still looks like American Football is the sissy-sport (I assume that's what you meant by "feminine", John? I'm not so keen to make 'feminine' a derogatory term)

Anonymous said...

Can Females play Professional soccer with or without males and not die in the process? Yes.
Can Females play Professional American Football all things being equal? No.

If a woman can play the game at a professional level equal to men; then its not a "Mans" game.
That makes it "Effeminate" in my book. Just my opinion; nothing more.
Murphy; please stop trying to insult me. It grows very tiresome and shows people what a putz you are.

Anonymous said...

If a woman can play the game at a professional level equal to men; then its not a "Mans" game.
Why does it have to not have women play to be "masculine"? My ex-girlfriend was a taekwondo blackbelt - she could kick the crap through most males. My mother is a cycling champion (ex-duathlete), and could outrun or outcycle most males. Does that make combat or running or cycling "feminine" sports?

I agree with Murphy, and it's got nothing to do with being insulting. If they have to wear kevlar armour to play the game, then they aren't being "macho" on their own merit. They're doing it because there's nothing to be scared of. Guys lay into each other a lot in the various footballs played in Australia without needing the padding - full on tackles and so forth.

And as Chris says... guys patting each other on the butt is questionably macho.

Anonymous said...

"Murphy; please stop trying to insult me"
no. I'm not trying to insult you, in fact, I've been very careful to separate the content of your opinion (and criticism of the argument you make), from you personally. I respect your right to an opinion, and was debating the topic. I presentedd an organised, logical argument. The only time I even mentioned you John, was in an attempt to clarify what you meant by 'a feminine game', an interpretation that Chris seems to have shared in some sense "it ain't a bunch of guys patting each other on the ass"

However, I have trouble seeing how this...
"shows people what a putz you are"
isn't a direct insult. Can't you debate the topic without becoming abusive? It's just an intellectual exercise (at least so I thought), there's no need to be rude.

Anonymous said...

"Putz" was not meant to be rude. Where I live the term is meant the same as "Goof-Off" or "Jokester" or other similar words. Thats all.
We all like different sports for different reasons.
And Za; I have a parent also who was a professional athlete; so I still do not know what your statements have anything to do with anything. You are no more qualifyed than anyone else to speak on the subject.

Anonymous said...

Soccer is still a Pussy sport though..Heh..

Anonymous said...

I have a parent also who was a professional athlete; so I still do not know what your statements have anything to do with anything.
Allow me to spell my argument out then:

JUST BECAUSE WOMEN CAN PLAY A SPORT DOES NOT MAKE IT "FEMININE".

Now go back to my examples, and they might become self-explanatory.