Soccer? Gay? Whaaaaat?

Leave it up to a foreigner to figure out why Americans are so down on soccer. This snippet culled from an editorial on football.uk.com written by Marty Mercado maps out all the reasons the U.S. ignores the sport: overcommercialization, not enough scoring, too multicultural, and, of course, because it's gayer than Easter.

Soccer does not explicitly promote homosexuality, if it does at all, but in America, it is regarded as a "girly sport." ...The low-impact image of soccer makes it appear less manly and boring to the casual sports fan. In addition, the phenomenon of "diving" in soccer has only added to the "gay" image of soccer...[H]omosexuality has always been a controversial issue that Americans have tried to avoid, and a sport like soccer that does not appear to be "manly enough" has failed to attract attention from the US.

Alright, first off, I don't buy that soccer is as unpopular in the U.S. as is reported. Most of the spoiled suburban kids in this country (myself included) most likely started playing soccer as their first official organized sport. (You know, we're too small to play football, and plus, what better excuse was there to get out of church on Sunday? )

Also, granted American soccer isn't as big a television draw as, say, the World's Strongest Man competition, but doesn't that have to do with network visibility more than anything else? I'm not a soccer fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll watch the World Cup. I'll watch Mansfield vs. Chesterborough, or whatever they're called. If it's televised. Sure, it's a little boring to watch sometimes, but come on, baseball can also be as slow as a one-legged turtle orgy too.

And gay? Honestly, has this guy seen the UFC? And we love that shit.

Americans hate soccer because it's gay [Outsports]