Frank Deford Will Not Listen

Filed in archive US Soccer on July 27, 2006

image: lyon.edu

If Bill Simmons recent embrace of Premiership football is the positive side of the soccer in America coin, then Frank Deford's (pictured) stubbornness is the negative.

In a PBS television interview with Soccer America publisher lynn Berling-Manuel, he illustrates all that's wrong with the anti-soccer crowd. Rather than participating in an informed debate Deford talks loudly over Berling-Manuel, and trots out the old argument about Americans only playing sports with their hands.

See the television interview by clicking here or read the transcript here, or if you see Deford in the street then give his villainous little moustache a tweak from me.

Tip of the Soccer-Weblog hat to the always informative Du Nord.

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Rating: 6.00 out of 3 vote(s) cast.

Response from: Os (08/01/06 5:08am)

Hey Daryl,

I followed you over from WorldCupBlog. Nice work on this one, too.

Thanks for the heads up regarding Mr. Deford. It's not surprising that, in the piece, Deford keeps going back to "35 years ago." That's when baseball was king, Monday Night Football was still a big deal and Deford was in his prime.

It seems to me that, as far as the popularity of soccer as a spectator sport in America goes, the game occupies that strange nethersphere between the top and the niche along with hockey.

Probably the main problem with fan support in the U.S. is the lack of a minor league. On a real hands-on level, nothing can inspire a young boy or girl to become a baseball fan than attending an honest-to-doubleday pro-level game in a real ballpark. MLS has little trouble drawing in most of the (major) media markets in which it operates.

Deford's ranting just shows why SI.com readership is well below that of ESPN.com. Hurry for Bill Simmons, truly the best sportswriter in America. If the "Sports Guy" is serious about covering the Premiership, this will probably automatically make Tottenham Hotspurs #1 British team in America and the British FA should immediately send a letter of thanks.

Among literate sports fans, one positive Simmons could do a hell of a lot more than two dozen negative Defords. Let ol' Frank continue to believe the young ones really care who Bobby Abreu is while a potential soccer Jordan (at least in terms of marketing) is there in Freddy Adu.

Cheers,

Os.
(http://sports.candyham.com)

Response from: daryl (08/04/06 9:31pm)

Hey Os,

Thanks for coming over. Totally agree with your comment. With all due respect to Deford (which isn't that much) he represents an older generation.

Younger guys like Bill Simmons are a little more open minded and don't have a knee-jerk anti-soccer reaction. I feel like with enough time (and patience) soccer will establish itself to the extent that the arguments of Deford (and a few other knee-jerkers) will be obsolete.