Soccer: Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That

Everyone knows only "girly men" play soccer.

Let's hear it for American style football, a sport with men bulking up in padded, tight fitting uniforms. Because nothing says "macho" like a game featuring "tight ends" and "wide receivers".

Yes, that was sarcasm. "Back in the day" I played both sports in high school, they both can be brutal.

Not one of the Onion's best efforts. Not sure why it's relevant here. Pretty much all the criticisms that can legitimately be made against soccer (loutish fans, cheating players, politically-correct central administration) apply just as much to sports like football and basketball. Soccer does reward patience in a way that, say, basketball does not. It's not an instant gratification sport. It is, for my money, one of the few sports worth watching from time to time (and I hear that Benedict XVI has much the same opinion of it).

Don't let your kids read the Onion, btw–it can be very funny, and sometimes even moving (as it was in its first issue after Sept. 11), but it can also be truly foul, at least back in the days when I was picking up its first paper copies in Madison, Wisc.