What makes this piece bad, Vol 1: Ann Coulter on soccer

[hondo]

I must point out that the Quarterback Princess was a movie. Fiction.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19811111&id=VqkfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ddYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3182,1954453

I must point out that the Quarterback Princess was a movie. Fiction.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19811111&id=VqkfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ddYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3182,1954453

But she was JV ... does it really count?

No. It does not.

 

[hondo]

She is correct that enthusiasts of any other sport don't have to tell the uninitiated how marvelous it is.

I think this is one of the biggest reasons why so many people don't like soccer.

"Yeah, it's not really my thing."

"But, it's the most popular sport in the world."

"So what?"

"It's the fastest growing sport among children."

"Right, because 5-year-olds don't play Pop Warner."

"You just don't understand it."

"I understand it. I just don't like it. I find it boring."

"If you understood it, you wouldn't find it boring."

"I'd rather watch preseason NFL than the World Cup."

(Falls into the fetal position and sobs uncontrollably.)

Nobody does that to people who say "Soccer isn't my thing." But the morons who say the sort of brain-dead stuff like in Coulter's column do get that.

Coulter's column is idiotic, but there are a lot of soccer fans who freak out if you tell them you don't like soccer.

Which makes them different than fans of others sports?

Tell a college football fan their game sucks.

Soccer fans are a lot more fragile when it comes to criticism of
their sport.

Agreed. And you don't even have to say it sucks. All you have to do is say something on the level of "Yeah, well, I'm not real thrilled with it," and you're going to get an earful. Then they'll fall back on the argument that non-soccer fans lack the intellectual capacity to appreciate the sport.
Telling a soccer fan you don't like soccer is like telling a Glee fan you don't like Glee. Get ready to duck.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

There is actually an app that allows you to block soccer posts on Twitter.

 

[SnarkShark]

Why does everyone have to shirt on everything?

I get into soccer every four years. I like the atmosphere and the pageantry, but in between, I watch no soccer, unless I'm working on a story.

I don't need someone telling me I should care about the EPL, La Liga, MLS or anything in between. I don't need someone telling me I shouldn't care about the World Cup, either. I'll chose what I want to watch, thanks. Everyone else should do the same and shut the fork up about it.

 

[Riptide]

Vegan soccer fans are the worst.

 

[Van Lingle Mungo]

Hard to complain about soccer fans

She is correct that enthusiasts of any other sport don't have to tell the uninitiated how marvelous it is.

Hockey fans are notorious for this.

 

[JRoyal]

I love how people turn "I knew one or two fans who reacted this way" into "every soccer fan is like this."

 

[Inky_Wretch]

And a rebuttal ...

Really, it's a matter of style. Coulter's main message is, "soccer is a thing enjoyed by people you don't like, and so it is bad," but it's worth noting that the better part of her gig involves writing the very same sentence and replacing "soccer" with literally any other hot-button cultural or political topic as needed. It is not -- it is never -- about the thing itself. It's always about that thing's perceived affinities and fans.

The result are columns that could have been written as Mad Libs. "The same people trying to push soccer on Americans," Coulter writes, "are the ones demanding that we love HBO's 'Girls,' light-rail, Beyonce and Hillary Clinton." Never mind who is doing the pushing and demanding in that sentence. Never mind what any of those things have to do with each other, let alone the World Cup. Replace soccer with anything you like, the sentence scans the same. That's the idea.

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/6/27/5844602/world-cup-grumps-ann-coulter-dan-shaughnessy

 

[SEC Guy]

Why does everyone have to shirt on everything?

I get into soccer every four years. I like the atmosphere and the pageantry, but in between, I watch no soccer, unless I'm working on a story.

I don't need someone telling me I should care about the EPL, La Liga, MLS or anything in between. I don't need someone telling me I shouldn't care about the World Cup, either. I'll chose what I want to watch, thanks. Everyone else should do the same and shut the fork up about it.

I'm kind of the same way. I covered the 1994 World Cup and it was incredible. The nationalism was far better than anything you ever see at the Olympics.

I usually watch the US matches at the World Cup. It helps that they're on during the summer when our sports menu is limited.

But in most years, I won't watch anything other than football or basketball.

It's always amazing the letters we would get at the paper about not covering enough soccer.

 

[SEC Guy]

I love how people turn "I knew one or two fans who reacted this way" into "every soccer fan is like this."

Sorry, that's bullshirt.

It's obviously not every soccer fan, but it's at a much, much higher level than most other sports. Soccer fans are like prep parents.

We would have people who would call when we didn't travel with the local MLS team. They would call when we didn't send a writer on the road with the national team during qualifying. They would wonder why it wasn't on Page 1. The fan club of the local MLS team sent us a petition to have us travel with the MLS team and when they found out we were sending one person to France for the World Cup in 1998, they were mad that we didn't send as many writers to the Olympics.

 

[Boom_70]

I love how people turn "I knew one or two fans who reacted this way" into "every soccer fan is like this."

Sorry, that's bullshirt.

It's obviously not every soccer fan, but it's at a much, much higher level than most other sports. Soccer fans are like prep parents.

We would have people who would call when we didn't travel with the local MLS team. They would call when we didn't send a writer on the road with the national team during qualifying. They would wonder why it wasn't on Page 1. The fan club of the local MLS team sent us a petition to have us travel with the MLS team and when they found out we were sending one person to France for the World Cup in 1998, they were mad that we didn't send as many writers to the Olympics.

Soccer fans have the zeal of missionaries. It's off-putting to some.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

It's obviously not every soccer fan, but it's at a much, much higher level than most other sports. Soccer fans are like prep parents.

You obviously didn't spend much time around UFC fans when that organization was at its zenith.