NLUs appeal to me has always been it’s independence and it’s ability to talk about golf in a way and level of detail you wouldn’t see from let’s call it mainstream coverage.
Jamie represents the opposite of all of that.
His eyes glazed over when Tron spoke about grass type early on in the episode, probably the time he started to think about something silly to say to spark up debate - the essence of any sports ‘analyst’ on TV these days.
The team sport stuff is a dumb take & he knows it but, he has nothing else of real substance to say.
I agree with this, the team sport stuff is false-high-minded bollocks and saying it with that kind of tone, wearing a signant ring on his pinky just makes him look like a bit of a Kant.
I found it absolutely ridiculous that one of the main premises of the pod was for each of them to lay out their teams for the Ryder Cup, and two of them leave the final spots empty/TBD
We are pretty dang good at hockey too! However I’m sure that doesn’t count since it’s not main sport in the UK. Jamie 100% had soccer, cricket, and rugby in mind with that point.
Soccer is a sport that Americans should be good at playing. It’s the only true global sport, the one that requires genuine teamwork, and it is embarrassing that a country with 1 percent of our population like Uruguay could be better than us.
The rest of the sports Jamie points to are just silly. What makes cricket any more relevant than basketball or NFL football? What makes rugby? How much rugby are they playing in Russia? Or Japan? Or Cameroon? How good is France at hockey? How good is Sweden at rugby?
Americans are not really any one thing as a culture, which is why broad statements are often dumb. Is individualism part of our ethos? Yeah, for a lot of us. But so is the idea of community and collective.
Here is a harsh truth no Englishman could wrap his brain around: If soccer was seen as a ticket out of poverty the way basketball and football is in America, we would soon build teams that would DESTROY Europe. Soccer in America is broken because it’s a babysitting endeavor until you reach at 10, and then it’s a rich kids’ sport beyond. Can you imagine what kind of soccer squad we’d have if we got to pick from a range of Tyreek Hill to Anthony Edwards to Lamar Jackson to Josh Allen in terms of athletic ability? We are the 16th best soccer team in the world with our 10,000 best athletes removed from the pool.
Does anyone really think Cristiano Ronaldo is a GOOD teammate? Or Zlatan? If England are such a wonderful collective of good teammates, why can’t they win a World Cup at a sport that is their whole identity?
All of this thesis overlooks the fact that they had to change the rules of the Ryder Cup because the jolly lads who worked so well together from GB&I were getting stuffed into lockers for thirty years by the selfish Americans.
American Ryder Cup teams, we can definitively say, have struggled in Europe because they don’t have a plan or a cohesive approach, or boys who like foursomes. That’s about as far as I’d go with sweeping statements.
I haven’t ruled out rooting for Team Euro this go around because other than Scottie and Spieth I don’t find any of the locks on the American team to be as likable as Rory, Shane et. al.
And, even Scottie and Spieth aren’t as likable as some of the Euro guys.
Well - this post should definitely shake the trees a bit and get the discussion going:
Probably because it is played in more countries and by more people than American football but much of that is driven by India and Pakistan. I’m Canadian, knew nothing about cricket when I moved to the UK 24 years ago. It is a fun sport, a great day out and an enjoyable watch on TV.
They are ranked 13th in the world and hosted a very successful World Cup of Rugby in 2019. Japan got to the Qtr finals before being knocked out by the eventual champs, South Africa.
Is it not? There are guys in the UK and Spain on more than £500k a week salaries (that’s how salaries are referenced in Europe rather than total yearly wage). I’m assuming that Messi, et al are driving salaries up in the MLS? I get what you mean though, it will take a few generations before soccer is seen as a legitimate sport for top athletes in the US.
Hey! Remember 1966??!! Also, we (I’m British now too) are getting better and have been in the finals of last 2 Euros (lost em both!) and the semi’s of the World Cup in 2018 (lost that too!).
Looking forward to the Brits / Irish wading in here now.
You are missing the point. The US does not have the publicly funded systems in place to give impoverished kids a chance to excel at soccer. You can play american football for free at school and get recruited to college for free and then play in the NFL.
If you want to get to the MLS you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year playing travel ball.
In europe the soccer teams all have massive academies and scout kids super young all over the world. That doesn’t happen in the US, at least not yet. Some MLS teams are trying.
