Why Frank Deford is an idiot.
Here is a bit from a column in USA Today:
“Soccer in America has had every chance. We reject soccer, that’s fair to say,” says sports pundit Frank Deford, who is happy to lay out the reasons soccer causes him to hold his nose. “There’s not enough scoring, and ties make no sense.”
This World Cup isn’t helping the pro-soccer cause. Two elimination games have been decided on penalty kicks after zero goals in 120 minutes of play; the tournament has posted a 2.36 goals-per-game average, the lowest since 1990.
Deford isn’t finished. “There’s really a lack of proficiency in the game. God didn’t intend for us to use our feet and our heads. Though what soccer players do with their feet and their heads is extraordinary, it is in the same way that spinning plates is extraordinary.”
And don’t get him started on soccer’s offside rule, which prevents attacking players from standing any closer to the opposing goal than the other team’s last defender.
“That’s simply un-American,” Deford says. “We’re all about forward, forward, forward, in sports and in our society. From the 19th century onward, we have not taken to soccer. It’s almost as if it’s not in our DNA to like it.”
Ok. Let’s take this point by pointless point
“Soccer in America has had every chance. We reject soccer, that’s fair to say,”
Uh, no. In 1990 I knew 2 other people who knew anything about soccer. My bud Mark whom I watched matches with and our friend Marco who is an Arsenal supporter. In 2006 I am literally surrounded by people who discovered the game since 1990.Â
In 1992 I wore my Manchester United jerseys to school and to the mall and the only people that said anything had foreign accents, and I NEVER saw ANYONE ELSE wearing any soccer paraphernalia of any kind. In 2006 you cannot go to the mall without seeing at least 3 or 4 people with Arsenal, Man Utd, MLS, US Nats, Brasil, or some other soccer colors.
In 1992 there was one channel showing any form of soccer at all and even then it was just some highlight shows. In 2006 I cannot physically watch all of the soccer available to me. Between ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Soccer Channel, Gol TV, Setanta Sports, Univision, Galavision, Telemundo, and Pay-Per-View there are easily dozens of live matches every week from nearly a dozen countries. I can even watch the Guatamalan league IN ENGLISH if I wanted to.
In 1993 the only professional league here in the US was a local semi-pro team that got 600 to 1500 fans per match. Today we have a true pro league that is over 10 years old that averages 15,000 fans per match. In 1990 we had ZERO American players (well near zero anyway) playing in top flight professional leagues around the world. Today we have dozens of players in the top tiers in England, Germany, Holland, Norway, and more. There is an entire site dedicated to tracking our players overseas.
Verdict - Frank Deford earns 1 idiot point.
“There’s not enough scoring, and ties make no sense.”
What? This is the man who praises the no-hitter as a marvel of baseball. Frank - a no hitter means that NOTHING HAPPENED! Egads. Ok let’s do a comparision what is the average number of touch downs per NFL game? Last season it was 4.4. Last season in the English Premier League the average was 3.75 goals per match. Apparently .65 is a big difference to Frank. Unless he is a fan of the field goal.
Ties make no sense? Here is what makes no sense. Football games are typically won in overtime by the coin toss. The team that wins the toss typically drives close enough to score a field goal and the game ends. How does that make sense? Oh, Frank is a baseball fan. He likes games that go until 3 freaking AM because ties make no sense. No Frank - watching a baseball game for 8 hours makes no sense.
2 more idiot points in the bag - Frank now has 3 idiot points. He’s earned his hat trick.
“There’s really a lack of proficiency in the game. God didn’t intend for us to use our feet and our heads. Though what soccer players do with their feet and their heads is extraordinary, it is in the same way that spinning plates is extraordinary.”
WTF? Has he watched Zidane when he has the ball at his feet? Has he seen Joe Cole’s goal from the first round? Did he see Henry’s goal vs Brasil? Heck - did he see Demarcus Beasly set up Clint Dempsy with a perfect pass to score our only real goal of the tournament? Back in 1994 a friend of mine was in the hotel where the Brazilian Nats were staying. They were playing the soccer equivalent of hackey sack with a Dixie Cup. Yes a little plastic cup. Lack of proficiency? Now that statement is just blind ignorance.
Frank Deford scores another brace - 2 more idiot points for Frank for a total of 5 idiot points.
And don’t get him started on soccer’s offside rule, which prevents attacking players from standing any closer to the opposing goal than the other team’s last defender.
“That’s simply un-American,” Deford says. “We’re all about forward, forward, forward, in sports and in our society. From the 19th century onward, we have not taken to soccer. It’s almost as if it’s not in our DNA to like it.”
What a block head. American sports are laden with rule that slow down the offense. There is offsides in hockey. Three strikes in baseball, offsides in football, offensive fouls in basketball and the list goes on and on. No Frank - American sports are about forward, stop play, forward, stop play for a commercial, forward unless a foul is called, forward, another commercial. Soccer is always moving with true stoppages for subs, fouls, and injuries only. There is more actual play time in soccer than in ANY “American” sport.
Frank gets 2 more idiot points to bring his total to 7 and he gets 10 bonus idiot points for the xenophobic/nearly racist DNA comment.
Frank Deford - you are an idiot, that’s fair to say.
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NPR sometimes plays commentaries from DeFord. I usually can’t get to the radio button fast enough to change the station. His opinions range from self-serving to downright idiotic. Of course, that can be said about much of the American sports media. Most of them are out to promote their own interests and discredit or downplay that which they don’t like.
I’m so sick of the “not enough scoring” argument about soccer. I just don’t buy it. If that were really the reason that people don’t like the sport, then surely they would love indoor soccer. Plenty of scoring there, right? The last Kixx game I went to was like a ghost town. (And, as an aside, is the offside rule really that difficult to understand?)
I still can’t figure out the dislike for soccer here. Maybe just the plain fact that it wasn’t created and cultivated here like baseball, football and basketball were. It is a sport that was developed elsewhere, and is played at a higher level around the world. I think a lot of American egos can’t deal with the fact that we’re not better than everyone else in something.
Oh well, we could just bomb the h*ll out of the world to make them worse at soccer. We’re pretty good at that.
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Paul,
My favorite bit was on the Daily Show - soccer ia a metaphor for war and we don’t need it because we have the real thing.
I really think it comes down to xenophobia. Anyone who can claim that baseball is more exciting than soccer has got some kind of bias - clearly. Baseball is a great sport to have on in the background or live with hot dogs, sun screen and someone to talk to because the action on the field is not something that will hold your attention for the entirety of the game.