It seems that some people just don’t understand what the sport of soccer brings to the table for the hundreds of millions of humans who absolutely adore the sport. In the same vein, these skeptical opinions seem to be rooted in the fundamental idea that American culture and society is too different from the rest of the globe to accept soccer as another mainstream sport.
NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the latest “celebrity” to speak out on soccer and what the growth of the sport means to the United States…if anything (via Time.com).
Is there something fundamentally different about watching soccer that turns people away by the millions? Apparently so. For one thing, there’s a lot of movement but not much action. American audiences see people kicking the ball to a teammate, only to have it intercepted by the other team. A lot.
To the average American used to the hustle of basketball, the clash of titans in football, the suspense of the curve ball in baseball, or the thrilling crack of the slapshot in hockey, the endless meandering back and forth across the soccer field looks less like strategy and more like random luck. It lacks drama. Of course, that’s not true at all, but that is certainly the perception.
To the average American, the game we call football in the states doesn’t represent what we feel to be the best in our society. If Abdul-Jabbar is going to make that point about soccer (futbol), he might want to broach the subject of parents deciding (en masse) to pull their children from the violent game of football that so many glorify as our new national pastime.
The NBA champion continued…
We are a country of pioneers, explorers, and contrarians who only need someone to say it can’t be done to fire us up to prove otherwise. As a result, we like to see extraordinary effort rewarded. The low scoring in soccer frustrates this American impulse.
What exactly does this mean? There aren’t other nations out there who call soccer their pastime that are pioneers, contrarians and explorers? What about the French Revolultion, just to name one?
In what has to be considered a narrow point of view, Abdul-Jabar continues…
Clearly, there are many dedicated soccer fans in the U.S. They play the sport, they watch the sport, they love the sport. But that group, though slowly growing, is not nearly enough to overcome the traditional favorites. To do that, it’s not enough that you’re as good as one of the popular sports, you have to bring something better. More excitement. More skill. More entertainment.
Is it right to show obvious skepticism about our ability as Americans to remain connected with a sport that might not represent the same supposed feverish pace that Abdul-Jabbar suggests our traditional sports do? What about hockey and its low scoring affairs? Talk to any baseball fan out there, and a 1-0 pitcher’s duel is just as entertaining as a high-scoring 10-9 affair.
I for one love a defensive battle on the gridiron of a NFL game. We glorify the 4,000-yard passer, the hat trick and the no-hitter. We reward individual success, even if it doesn’t mean team success. In fact, individual success (in any sector of American society) seems to be rewarded more than the success of a specific group.
Is soccer here to stay? Only time will tell, but the 2014 World Cup proved that it can interest millions of Americans over the course of a couple weeks. That’s a start.
Photo: Parade.com