I will be the first to admit that I'm not really a fan of soccer.
I'm also not a fan of people in the US calling it football. If I may be pedantic for a moment, this is an issue of linguistics more than anything else. The term football refers to an entirely different sport in the US while futbol/soccer refer to what you're trying to say.
So use the right words.
I've heard all the jokes, okay. "Why do they call it football? They should really call it handegg!" Ha ha. You're hilarious.
But back to the topic at hand. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of soccer. As a sport, it just doesn't really excite me. There are aspects of soccer I enjoy. I love corner kicks. I think corner kicks might be the some of the most exciting moments in any athletic event just for the anticipation and the possibilities involved.
With the World Cup in full force right now, there's a lot more soccer talk than normal in the US. It'd be even more prolific if the US National Team had actually done their job and made the field at the 2018 World Cup, but no. That's fine. We don't care about national pride.
Watching the World Cup, though, has me thinking one agonizing thought: How great would it be if we could enjoy an international competition on this scale for football?
I am an avid football fan. I won't deny that. I think Saturdays in the fall should be a national holiday so everyone can enjoy college football. I love watching my Atlanta Falcons, even when they do shred years off my life with every close game. (Sorry, Detroit)
High school football in the South is akin to religion, and the sanctuaries under the lights are a sight to behold.
If we had the opportunity to enjoy an international competition for football, how incredible would that be?
There are obviously several obstacles. First and foremost, you'd have to settle on a set of rules. There are more ways to score in Canadian football than in American football. You can get a point for sending a kickoff through the back of the end zone.
While I love that rule in Canadian football, I think it would pollute the game a little too much to include it in a large scale.
I imagine that other leagues around the world have similar quirks in their rules. I don't know for sure, but I imagine.
One of the other obstacles you have to overcome is the idea that America is the only nation that would ever win.
Imagine getting to showcase this guy on the world stage.
Realistically, if we started a World Cup of American Football right now, the US would probably be guaranteed to win the first three tournaments. There's just no infrastructure in other countries that compares to the American system of getting kids involved in football at a young age.
For several reasons, though, that might not always be the case. The sport of football is gaining a foothold internationally. I recently had dinner with a friend of mine from high school who has lived in the UK and Europe for several years now and he grew up a Dolphins fan. So naturally, when the Dolphins played Wembley Stadium a few years back, he made it a point to go.
It was a bit shameful since they lost to the hapless Jets, but what can you do?
According to him, the crowd was a good mix of American ex-pats and native Europeans who have a thirst for the game.
Football is a fun, exciting sport. If you can develop a fanbase and an interest overseas, I really do see a possibility for it to take off as a more global sport in the next 20 years.
And it isn't hard to look at the NFL and see that they want a team based outside the US very soon. Whether in the UK or Mexico, maybe both, we will certainly see a team outside the US in the next decade.
I'm not convinced that this is the best strategy, of course. I'd advocate for something more along the lines of establishing a Premier League in Europe where teams can rise and be relegated. Give the Europeans a format they're more familiar with and use it, perhaps, as an NFL D-League that Europeans can join. Nothing will progress the advancement of the game more than giving Europeans local athletes they can cheer on.
As for American dominance in football, though, there is another changing tide that could level the playing field. It seems like fewer and fewer kids sign up for little league football every year. If the steady tide of young athletes playing the game keeps to decrease, largely as parent fears of lasting brain damage increase, then you'll see the athletic talent pool become more on-par with the rest of the world.
After all, perhaps the greatest obstacle to global advancement of football is the same obstacle that most people keep using to explain why America lags behind in soccer: Where do the best athletes focus their time?
Soccer just isn't that high on the hierarchy in the US for young athletes. They want to play football, baseball, or basketball. In some areas, hockey holds more sway than soccer.
Globally, the opposite is true. Soccer demands so much attention that there are precious few athletes left for other sports, meaning that the quality of athletes left for the other sports is supposedly lower.
Admittedly, I'm not sure I buy into this argument all that much. For the last several years, you've heard people use LeBron James as a comparison. "What if LeBron had played soccer instead of basketball?"
Well, if he had, I imagine he wouldn't have been nearly as good. Don't get me wrong, there is quite a bit to be said for generic athletic ability, but there are also a ton of nuanced skills particular to any given sport.
I think football might just be the most nuanced of all the sports when it comes to different skill sets. After all, football is one sport where the positions can't really merge the way they have in other sports.
Basketball players can, for the most part, cross train at any other position on the floor. True, you wouldn't have Mugsy Bogues or Spud Webb playing center, but the general idea is there.
In baseball, it really comes down to hitting and pitching. There are precious few true fielders these days. The sport right now is more focused on power hitting than probably in any other era, and we'll just throw that cannon of a bat into the outfield and hope he doesn't cost us the game.
In football, though, you have to know your job and do it. The quarterback has a particular role, the linebackers have a particular role, the receivers have a particular role, the tight ends, the linemen, the guards, the tackles, etc. Every job in football is highly particular.
Realistically, I only think a few positions would be affected by soccer. I can imagine running backs and receivers, especially, being good soccer players. Perhaps linebackers. But a quarterback is a quarterback, at the professional level, at least. Can you imagine a 350-pound lineman playing soccer with any degree of effectiveness?
Better yet, can you imagine a bunch of burly Germans playing linebacker? Think of a whole corps built of Brian Urlachers at least three deep on the chart.
What might make global football interesting is seeing the way different cultures excel at different positions and produce great players at that position year-in and year-out. If the NFL draft were to have a run on Senegalese wide receivers one year, followed by a smattering of Norse linemen, that would be something special.
It's not that different from how different regions in the US tend to produce top-tier talent at certain positions. Think about the Big 10 linemen and the Big 12 quarterbacks for a good example.
When I used to cover high school sports, soccer and football were in different seasons. Most football players would play basketball in the winter and then track and field in the spring in order to stay in shape, but one of our best football players played soccer in the spring.
This is one of those moments when I really wish I still had all my old newspaper photos...because this is hardly the most exciting picture I've ever taken of Joey Junius.
Joey Junius, who is now a football player at Presbyterian College, was a blast to watch on the pitch. He was fast and physical and had an instinct for moving between defenders. And he made it work in both sports. It can be done.
I'm not saying that people who love soccer shouldn't play soccer. All I'm saying is that football would be a great alternative for those soccer players who find out that their athletic skillset doesn't really match soccer.
Have you get a better arm than you do a kick? Can you catch better than pass? Are you really fast, but with terrible ball-handling skills? Then football might just be your outlet.
Sure, different cultures value different athletic skills and body-types differently. Perhaps football just wouldn't catch on no matter what we tried to do globally.
But I really believe that soccer and football can coexist on a global scale and, in time, having a football World Cup might be a sporting event to rival the Olympics if the rest of the world can get on board.
Let me offer one final proof, though. People say that football is an American sport, and this is true. But take a look at the Olympics, and especially the Winter Olympics. How many of those sports could you justifiably say belong to another nation?
What about biathlon and curling? Are these really global events? Not really. These are hyper-regional sports that the rest of the world looked at and said, "Sure. We'll give that a shot." And you know what happened?
The US Men won curling gold for the first time ever in 2018.
When the world decides to give a sport a try, they find a way of rising to the occasion.