Yup, I can hear my friends and family back in Texas shitting a brick right now. Being that football in Texas is a well-documented religion and industry unto itself, they would be dumbfounded that someone who grew up under Friday Night Lights, would somehow become all hipster and start liking soccer. It’s true, and then I would correct them and say, “You know it’s called football all over the world.”
Yes, it’s true. I found myself more excited about the Premier League starting up again in Britain than I have been for baseball coming back or the basketball bubble. I haven’t cared about hockey since the Dallas Stars won the cup, and I do respect MLS, but I haven’t been able to get behind the NY Red Bulls (Too Corporate) or NYCFC as they are partly owned by Manchester City, and more about that later. American Football feels like they well screw it up like baseball. My true feeling is that American sports team owners don’t care about their players, and are just trying to throw them out in the mix, to grab what money they can. Baseball clearly hasn’t thought it through, as the 12+ Marlin players contracting Covid in the last 48 hours proves.
I do want sports back, if nothing more than to have something to nap through on a Sunday afternoon, and also to have something to talk to people about. Nothing gets settled in sports discussions, but they sure are fun and do help give you an insight on the person arguing that Charles Barkley was the most revolutionary player in the NBA, period. (Feel free to comment on that.)
It was fun for the past few weeks following my team in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, as they fought for a 6th place finish which qualified them for the Europa League. As I follow the Spurs, I have adopted a dislike for all teams from Manchester, and loath Arsenal. And there is something also about how the Premier League took the virus seriously, especially player health. On the week of July 13th, 2,208 players and staff were tested and zero were found positive. In fact, from May 7th to July 19th, only 20 positive test results came back. They all did what they had to do to have a safe end of the season.
I don’t think America will be able to say the same.
