Enough already about David Beckham

Everywhere I turn lately, all I hear about is David Beckham coming to America. Instead of ignoring this over-saturation as I should, I decided to fan the flames a bit and add another world wide web reference to his name. A google seach currently returns 8,990,000. I hope to be 8,990,001.

Before you start thinking that this is an anti-soccer (or football as the rest of the world knows it) writing, it is not. It still amazes me that soccer is such a void here in the United States, while everywhere else on earth it is so popular. I have seen this passion first hand.

I was lucky enough to be in Argentina during the 1990 World Cup. This was the year that Germany narrowly beat Argentina in the finals, 1 to 0 if I remember correctly. I have never been so swept up in a sporting event as I was with that World Cup. I have never seen a nation or a community come together to show their support so fully for a sporting team. When Argentina advanced to the finals, the entire nation erupted into a days-long party. The entire country shut down for that match. I can not recall a single person who was not passionately behind the team and country. And I make this statement even after I was lucky enough to attend a Super Bowl in which my favorite team won.

Fast forward to the now and here. Soccer is a blip on the map of sporting events in the United States. There is hardly ever a televised Major League Soccer game. I can not name a single player on any team (except for David Beckham). Quite frankly, the US is the black hole of the soccer playing world.

So why, David Beckham, are you coming here to play (well, besides the money)? This is not Manchester United. This is not Real Madrid. This is the U.S. where we place soccer somewhere between Poker championships and Rock, Paper, Scissor championships.

Yet every where I turn lately, I get details of David Beckham and his spicy wife. Their every move is detailed in the media. An entire photo layout is dedicated to them in various states of disrobing. And to top it all off, I now hear that there is a Spice Girls reunion tour kicking off in America? The Spice Girls drove a dagger deep into the heart of music and now, just because David Beckham is coming to America, I have to endure this all over again?

If you want to be known more for what you do off the field than on it, congratulations. The American tabloids are going to portray your every move — except for those that you do on the field. We here in the U.S. (and I use the term “we” loosely) have a sick fascination with celebrities and everything that occurs in their lives.

Unfortunately, with all this media attention, you are turning away the sports enthusiasts. I am sure that MLS is giddy over all this attention, but I believe they are going to overshoot the mark. Instead of gaining the viewer ship of serious sports fans, they are going to turn it into a media circus. I am sure the Galaxy will pull in some good crowds and the first few games will be well covered. But I know at least one sports enthusiast, so turned off by this overexposure, that he finds US soccer drifting ever closer to the point of non-relevance.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to go practice my Rock, Paper, Scissors.