This article may seem a little out of character for those who have read my columns before. If I offend anyone with my words here, all I can say is: Allow me to introduce you to the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Onward we go...
I played soccer in elementary school.
I was good at it, too—led the team in shots on goal as a winger, and made the All-Star team in the eighth grade. My team won, 3-2. I scored one goal in that game.
My kids played soccer as young children. I even coached a year for my oldest son. He was long-legged and deceptively quick, and was on the path to becoming one of the best sweepers in the league.
Until, that is, he had a head-on collision with a charging center on a breakaway and sustained a broken collarbone.
He lost his taste for the game after that.
I know what the MLS and EPL are. I know who David Beckham is. I've heard of the World Cup.
I was on shore leave in Torremolinos, Spain during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Wall-to-wall soccer fans, some of them half naked, all of them drunk, and all raucously rooting for and ferociously defending their team.
Which brings me to my point.
I really could care less for any of it.
Oh, I've tried. I cheered for the US women when they won the Gold in the Olympics in Greece. I paid mild attention as the US men's team tried to qualify for the World Cup.
But my heart truly wasn't in it. And it all boils down to one word, one aspect of the game that I truly cannot stand. No matter how hard I try, I cannot overlook it. It spoils the game for me.
The word?
Hooliganism.
Organized groups, or clubs, of soccer fans whose sole reason for existence is to vandalize, intimidate, and utterly destroy anything and everything that stands against their chosen team.
Including, in some cases opposing fans, whether they are recognized hooligans or not.
Win or lose, they fight for their team.
This is not a racial problem; while some groups are associated with or promote racist, anti-liberal, ultra-liberal, or anti-racist agendas and organizations, this transcends any cultural lines. Hooligan "associations" can be found in all corners of the globe, and they are all equally as violent, equally as lawless, and equally as dangerous.
And they all share equal responsibility for soccer's continued bad reputation.
Occasionally the clubs will organize brawls well away from the stadium at a pre-arranged place and time so that they can carry on without too much fear of police intervention.
Can anyone say gang fight?
Just as often, though, brawls will break out spontaneously in the stadium, in some cases killing not only members of the "fight clubs," but innocent bystanders and police as well. Occasionally players lives are endangered as the violence escalates and spirals out of control, or they are specifically targeted by the opposing fans.
Can anyone say reckless endangerment?
Come on, admit it. You've seen the videos. Fans pressed up against fences, trying desperately to escape the chaos, projectiles flying willy-nilly through the stands, soccer players running for cover as "roughs" pelt them with anything they can get their hands on. I would dare say at least one person reading this has seen it in person, maybe even participated.
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