From: Jack Hollis on
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:48:04 -0700, Dwight Beers <hdbeers(a)gmail.com>
wrote:

>On 06/10/2010 08:37 AM, Jack Hollis wrote:
>> On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:45:17 -0700, Dwight Beers<hdbeers(a)gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>> 2. In 1875, Ivy League schools, much like their upper crust
>>>> counterparts in England, chose to play with Rugby rules in favor of
>>>> soccer. Thus evolved American Football. Had the Ivy League choose to
>>>> keep playing soccer, American Football never would have existed and
>>>> soccer would have been a major sport in the US long ago.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Fact #2: The first Harvard-Yale football game was in 1820.
>>
>> I think you might want to check on that. The first Harvard - Yale
>> game in 1875 was what led to the Ivy League to adopt Rugby Football
>> Union rules.
>>
> <snip>
>
>And, you might want to check the newspaper accounts from Boston,
>Portland, New Haven, etc. from around the period 1820-1823 (I'm not 100
>per cent certain of the date).

I'm not sure how I would do that, but there are a number of reliable
sources like Ivy League Sports and both the Harvard and Yale sites
that say the first Harvard vs Yale football game was played in 1875.
Obviously, both schools had been around for many years prior to 1875
so there may have been previous competitions.

In any case, the actual year of the first game is irrelevant to the
point that after that 1875 game the Ivy League adopted rugby rules
rather than soccer rules. I would imagine that if the Ivy League had
adopted association football rules that American Football wouldn't
exist and soccer would be a major sport in the US.

Of course, all this is conjecture.
From: Jesper Lauridsen on
On 2010-06-10, Manx Gunner <goal(a)4thegunners!com> wrote:
>
> I've explained this before but I shall be happy to do so again.
>
> Let's consider a 10-year-old athlete, gifted with the talent to become
> world class at whatever sport he chooses to pursue. That athlete has
> grown up watching LeBron James (NBA, $100M+ by 21), Steven Strasburg
> (MLB, $20M+ by 21), Matthew Stafford (NFL, $50M+ by 21), and Freddy Adu
> (MLS, $3M+ by 21). Gee, which do you think he's going to pick?

If Messi had been born in the US, what sport would he have played?
From: Manx Gunner on
On Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:48:27 +0000 (UTC), Jesper Lauridsen wrote...

> On 2010-06-10, Manx Gunner <goal(a)4thegunners!com> wrote:
> >
> > I've explained this before but I shall be happy to do so again.
> >
> > Let's consider a 10-year-old athlete, gifted with the talent to become
> > world class at whatever sport he chooses to pursue. That athlete has
> > grown up watching LeBron James (NBA, $100M+ by 21), Steven Strasburg
> > (MLB, $20M+ by 21), Matthew Stafford (NFL, $50M+ by 21), and Freddy Adu
> > (MLS, $3M+ by 21). Gee, which do you think he's going to pick?
>
> If Messi had been born in the US, what sport would he have played?

Probably baseball, if anything at all.
From: Insane Ranter on
On Jun 13, 7:48 am, Jesper Lauridsen <rorsc...(a)sorrystofanet.dk>
wrote:
> On 2010-06-10, Manx Gunner <goal(a)4thegunners!com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I've explained this before but I shall be happy to do so again.
>
> > Let's consider a 10-year-old athlete, gifted with the talent to become
> > world class at whatever sport he chooses to pursue.  That athlete has
> > grown up watching LeBron James (NBA, $100M+ by 21), Steven Strasburg
> > (MLB, $20M+ by 21), Matthew Stafford (NFL, $50M+ by 21), and Freddy Adu
> > (MLS, $3M+ by 21).  Gee, which do you think he's going to pick?
>
> If Messi had been born in the US, what sport would he have played?

Ice Hockey? But as we see by the list given the US is still looking
for that one player that is a super star that every kid wants to be
like. Adu as much as we want to wish it isn't it. All we have is GKs
really. Can Jozy turn into it? Maybe. Donovan isn't it. Dempsey almost
seems hidden. Ask the average American to name a soccer player you'll
still get a ton of Pele and maybe Beckham. Or Mia might pop up. But as
good as the three of them are they aren't the iconic model that soccer
in the USA needs for soccer to pick up and the best and brightest
youngster (male) to pick it up and run with it and the expense of
other sports.
From: ken.overton on
On Jun 13, 7:48 am, Jesper Lauridsen <rorsc...(a)sorrystofanet.dk>
wrote:
> If Messi had been born in the US, what sport would he have played?

He'd be 4 and a half feet tall but he'd still be a starter in MLS.

Seriously though, I don't know where to start with this whole line of
reasoning. I see no reason to think that Lebron would inevitably
amount to anything with his feet. But it does seem pretty clear that
there are *major* sports that attract the major talents, whether the
money drives that or is merely effect.

I'd say the biggest reason we (USA) are not major players in the sport
is due to our substandard model for development of talent. If
anybody's actually interested in this (and I don't blame anyone for
not caring) there was an excellent NYTimes article about it. Our
player development model in all sports sacrifices a tragic number of
young men on the altar of injuries due to excessive competitive
matches and lack of skill development.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?sq=Ajax&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all

(Have to do the whole 'free registration' thing to read it.)