ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser: “Soccer will never touch baseball, touch basketball, touch football in America. It’s just not gonna happen!”
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
One of the most interesting aspects to come out of the Confederations Cup, after the United States came from nowhere to end up as the runners-up to Brazil, was observation of the reaction to Team America’s successes back home.
As is common knowledge, American TV has never been a huge fan of soccer as a whole and many of America’s top sports pundits are clueless when it comes to the world’s most popular pastime. That said, US “soccer-heads” will likely have been driven up the wall by the punditry offered by ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on the popular “Pardon the Interruption” show, or “PTI” as it is more commonly referred to as they attempted to decipher the impact that being in the FIFA final will have domestically.
Wilbon was the first to shoot his mouth off, claiming that the international perspective towards Team America will barely have shifted, arguing “you’ve gotta win the World Cup. Winning this tournament is not a world impact. Winning the World Cup is a world impact.”
Kornheiser, dressed strangely in a jacket, tie and policeman’s hat, was then quick to jump on US soccer’s back and talk down the achievements of the national team. Kornheiser pointed to a baseball stat that one season Seattle won more matches than every other team, but as they never reached the World Series no-one today cares.
That lead to Kornheiser making his main point. While accepting that there will be “a small bubbling up of soccer in America” the commentator then quickly squashed suggestions that soccer could one day rival the US’s main sports claiming soccer “will never touch baseball, touch basketball, touch football in America. It’s just not gonna happen! You’ve gotta win the World Cup!”
The discussion from ESPN’s PTI can be seen here.
10 Responses to “ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser: “Soccer will never touch baseball, touch basketball, touch football in America. It’s just not gonna happen!””
Leave a Reply (replies may take up to 60 seconds to appear)
June 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Yeah, you have to win the world cup or it means nothing! No wonder these simpletons are massive fans of sports like Basketball, American Football and Baseball where they can be “world” champions every year because no one bar a handful of countries actually give a toss about them. Welcome to the world game, ever consider that the vast majority might be on to something!
June 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
It finally dawned on me why, after more than two generations of kids have grown up playing soccer in America, the game with its obvious superiority by any metric to baseball or American football, has yet to take off in this country. I used to think it was because professional sports in America were locked up in corporate funding and bringing in soccer was a little like trying to introduce a third party on the national political scene. And you hear silly theories about there not being enough goals or the ref having too much influence over the game. But here’s what I really think it is: so many of us played at least some soccer in our childhoods – but not everyone has the natural athleticism to stick with it. So where do those kids turn? They know as men, they are going to have to have some kind of sport credentials. But they’re too fat and clumsy to run the length of the pitch. So they invest themselves in voyeuristic games like American football or baseball, spitting and prancing around in tight leotards are spun as athleticism. Or they flex their ghetto creds and go ringside for basketball. Maybe they even go “international” and follow Hockey. In other words, they claim to be bored by soccer, but the truth is, they resent it for reminding them of their early departure in childhood down the path of consumption and sloth. Baseball and American football embrace their lifestyle. You’re encouraged to eat mystery meat and drink vast volumes of shitty beer. The actual game down on the pitch is almost irrelevant. Two games a week in soccer is brutal on a player. In baseball, they can play (eat, drink and sit on their asses) every night. You know these fans. You knew them in your childhood. They sucked at soccer, didn’t they?
June 30th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
As an American who loves football/soccer, I am deeply ashamed by the comments made by these idiots from PTI on the WORLD’S beautiful game. Believe it or not these assholes who get to go on camera and spread this bullshit DO NOT represent all of America, only the lazy incompetent ones. Also, YNWA!
June 30th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
There’s a reason Tony Kornheiser isn’t on Monday Night Football any more. It’s because he has no idea what he’s talking about. This just proves it. Idiots like Tony Kornheiser and Jim “Rome is Flaming” don’t understand and aren’t man enough to want to learn. And there are people who are happy ESPN picked up Setanta’s contracts?
June 30th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Why you keep giving this idiots attention?
This post is useless we already know this guys opinions…
They are so close minded is not even news anymore…
July 1st, 2009 at 12:49 am
Please quit posting stories about the morons at PTI. If I wanted to see them I would watch ESPN which, luckily, I do not. The fact is if NASCAR could see a boom in America then Soccer can too. End of story.
July 1st, 2009 at 1:31 am
These guys only know about main sports. They make vague and idiotic comments about the sports they don’t know. Whether it is football(soccer), tennis, or anything else. If it isn’t gridiron, baseball, or basketball, they don’t know what they are saying.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:22 am
notice they left out hockey?
Soccer is not #4 in the US right now, but it will be in about a decade or two, if not sooner.
What soccer needs is more tradition in this country – Generations of fans who can compare stories and personalities in the present with those from the past. That takes time, which the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL all have.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:43 am
Ignorant twats. I can’t even stand to listen to ESPN opine on the Final Four. They show no respect to any team that doesn’t come from a “traditional” power conference. Its a joke these a-holes cling to “tradition” and “history” to justify their fear of new sports. Globalization means that Sports will continue to make inroads out of their dominant areas. Basketball and American Football is growing in popularity in Europe just as Soccer is taking off over here. A World Cup win for the U.S. would raise the profile in the mainstream definitely, but there is already a grassroots faction of hardcore fans here that will not go away anytime soon and will only continue to grow in numbers with time.
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:08 pm
US Landon Goal in the 91st minute to go on in World Cup!: US Football i.e., Soccer, dominates, for me, the other US spectator sports to date 6.23.2010! X o—–O[ * ] x