From: Jack Hollis on 12 Jun 2010 21:27 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 13 Jun 2010 07:48 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 13 Jun 2010 07:55 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 13 Jun 2010 08:05 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 13 Jun 2010 08:07
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.) |