Soccer

For the past year, I've noticed something odd about SportsCenter. Usually, the hour long program is filled with year-round news about the NFL & periodically slides in some bullet-points concerning the rest of the sporting world. But like I said, I smelt the something rotting in Denmark. Soccer began making brief appearances. This was strange because the World Cup was over . . . for two years. The announcers casually spoke of Manchester United & Chelsea like they where the Dallas Cowboys or Atlanta Braves. Hell, some even had above passing knowledge of the players. It takes skill to memorize rosters. Did I mention the World Cup was over? The soccer segments got longer as the baseball & hockey (which barely makes it on the damn show as it is) got shorter. Now, soccer makes regular appearances. What gives?

I'm not a complete moron. I realize soccer is king in countries that have been waging wars on each other through several metallic-themed ages, but it was barely a blimp on the USA's radar. Every kid plays soccer for a year, maybe two, in their developmental phase, but its usually replaced by more American sports like baseball & football & hunting or whatever. Point is, not a ton of people like soccer over here. So why is ESPN trying to brainwash us?

And why is it working! I hear customers at Sheetz talk about match-ups over in jolly-old England. I see shirts for different clubs & my cousins have been playing fake-football for years. ESPN shows a game thrice a week & they're getting good ratings & making money off . . . oh.

Mystery solved. 

I applaud ESPN for finding a way to make even more revenue than they already rake it. They've tapped into a market that was always there. They did what the NFL is trying to do overseas and MLB is struggling to do with our Neighbors to the North. It hasn't worked on me, however. I'm sticking to my ignorant guns. So far.