B-Day

Filed in archive US Soccer on July 13, 2007

It's B-Day today, as LA Galaxy unveil David Beckham (maybe literally?) at a press conference and the new dawn of soccer arrives in America. Maybe.

As a PR man for the sport, Beckham is fantastic. Not least because for all his celebrity he never seems too important for anyone. Consider this anecdote taken from a recent Sports Illustrated article by the always always excellent Grant Wahl:

At the end of an hourlong photo shoot he individually thanks the small army of assistants, not once but twice. "I've never had that happen before," says one.

If MLS were hoping for a big name celebrity player willing to be a promotional work horse they've got the right man, but I'm still a little worried. As an English football fan living in the US, I'm obviously rooting for Beckham to succeed. After a thorough review of foreign policy, campaign finance reform and the implementation of universal healthcare, the mainstream popularization of soccer is my biggest hope for the United States. And Beckham succeeding as a celebrity as well as a player looks like the thing most likely to make that happen. So what I'm about to say is by no means an attack on Beckham, who seems to me a thoroughly nice guy who I'm still grateful to for that goal against Greece that got England to World Cup 2002 (though not for shirking that tackle against Brazil that helped us exit the tournament.)

The problem is that Beckham is a bit... boring. His playing style is not Brazilian. It's hard work, long passes and excellent set pieces. It's going to be tough for new American audiences to see him play and get excited. And while he's great on talk shows and the like in England because he's unfailingly polite and sincerely humble, when he's on an English talk show the majority of the audience already worships his footballing ability. If he goes on an American talks show the majority of the audience will be unimpressed by him being great at a sport they don't care about, so his star wattage will depend on what he says. And what he says will be nice, but inevitably dull and PR-ish.

I truly truly truly hope I'm wrong, but my even bigger fear is that a good many people in the American press and the entertainment industry (not to mention the loud band of soccer-haters like Jim Rome) are sharpening their knives. If Becks doesn't produce fireworks both on and off the pitch, then there'll be a backlash from those looking to bury soccer. It won't kill the game in America - just as fireworks on and off the pitch won't suddenly make it the #1 sport - but it won't be pretty to watch.