Thursday, January 11, 2007

The Real News of the Day

I've been a fan of David Beckham and world-class football (soccer) ever since my year abroad in Britain during college. It's good to see a star player of his caliber come to the States to boost the visibility and, frankly, quality of the game here.

But this reminds me of a story about an old Cold Warrior from the Reagan years who had a young son. His boy was just reaching the age at which he'd start playing competitive sports at school and was looking at his options -- baseball, basketball, football, etc. The man went with his son to school one day to meet with the athletic director, who informed the man that his son ought to try out for the soccer team as he seemed quite talented in the game. Frustrated, the man replied that he hadn't worked for 30 years to defeat communism only to have his son play soccer!

Funny to me on two levels... (1) today soccer is the "cool" sport for young kids, and (2) I sort of long for the good old days of the Cold War.

No comments: