Jim Rome is ignorant even when "apologizing" to futebol fans...

[Shakes McQueen]

He just made fun of soccer for the same stuff most North American sports pundits do

- Lack of scoring
- It's use of "polite" British sounding terminology (i.e. "cross" or "corner", instead of POWER PLAY(!!!) or TOUCHDOWN(!!!))
- The supposed effeteness of soccer players, hence his comment about getting injured by "an underwear model".

Guys like Bob McCown do the same thing, although he will at least give the sport mostly the coverage it deserves, (he did daily updates on Euro 08 while it was occurring).

It's just a difference of cultures. Jim Rome likes sports with lots of scoring, and contact, and general manliness It's ignorant, sure, but all he is doing is putting words to one of the many problems MLS will have to overcome to become one of the "big leagues" in North America - the sports culture.

Oh, and hello everyone. This is my first post, haha.

- Scott

[TFC Via Buffalo]

I stopped listening to Rome along time ago. I don't like my sports being turned into tabloid talk and crap. That's why ESPNEWS stays on and never Sports Center or PTI. Around The Horn is ok because they at least talk about the fucking sport on topic and not the bull shit.

Here is just my little thought on the sport's ability to get over in the US. This I find hilarious. I get ragged on from my friends all the time about having season tickets. I bring one of my friends to 1 game..... now he's hooked. He knows the chants and just bought FIFA 08 for his 360 to get into the sport. He LOVES it now. He's a bit more open minded and obviously took to the sport.

This other friend was giving me an unreal hard time. I just got back from a game(I think the KC game) and met my friends out to eat. This one's giving me shit about driving all the way to TO and the non scoring and all that crap. We hang out the next day and I have on Fox Soccer Report and it is on showing highlights from the Euro 08 finals. Every near goal, he responds with an "OHHHH" and was really taken back from some of the physical play. But, he just brushed it off as saying "I bet the rest of the game was rrrrreal exciting." THAT, my friends, is where the ignorance is and that is why soccer will always have a hard time getting over in America. Too little of my first friend who wants to go to more games this year and has an open mind to something new, and too many of my second friend who was a preconceived notion and won't give it a chance.

[greatwhitenorf]

A friend of mine - a media man - tells me that Rome pulled a massive about face recently on NASCAR. Apparently he used to make all kinds of fun of NASCAR and trash the race scene relentlessly.

Then someone in a position to pull the plug on him let him know that ESPN/ABC was getting back into NASCAR coverage. Shock of shocks, Rome suddenly decides that racing is cool. My friend says he doesn't have a clue about racing and can't talk knowledgeably with callers about it, but has at least stopped bashing it.

So, guess which network has the guts to show MLS and recently ran an MLS-Euro '08 final game doubleheader on a Sunday afternoon?