David Beckham: Thank Him For Making US Fans Care

Against my better judgement i am writing this article. This is a subject that i have strong opinions of, but because of the controversy of it, i decided to leave it be and let it play out on it's own.

However after listening to just about every US sports chat show, radio show, and TV show slate David Beckham, it got me really thinking, and although this might be coming to a bitter divorce, US "soccer" fans should worship the ground that Beckham walks on.

Firstly, lets just start by saying that without Beckham, the MLS gets little to no coverage at all on shows like PTH, ATH, and Jim Rome. It's not an issue, i have been watching these shows for years, and the MLS is perhaps mentioned once every 3 months, if that.

One of the arguments is that he should get out because he doesn't want to be there...fair enough, perhaps it is the crass nature of the US sports host, but this is a perfectly justified point. However, that is exactly what Beckham is trying to do, and who can blame him?

He has been told that he needs to be playing in one of the top leagues in Europe if he wants to be in consideration for next years World Cup in South Africa.

This is Beckham's last chance for international glory, can we slate him for wanting to be a part of his country's quest?

He doesn't want to be remembered in his England career for that incident in 1998, we all know which one I'm talking about. Some people will argue that his penalty against Argentina, or his free kick against Greece in the last minutes were the defining moment, well I'm sorry i just don't buy that.

Michael Wilbon on pardon the interruption tonight said that David Beckham was using the MLS for money. Well I'm sorry to say Michael that the MLS used Beckham just as much as he used them. If it were not for Beckham, many football fans would think that the LA Galaxy was a Hollywood strip club.

I'm not for one minute defending him for his apparent outbursts against the fans in the US, although he said he was just trying to shake there hands. Even so Becks, walk down the tunnel and forget about the morons that are screaming obscenities about your wife.

I'm sure you heard much worse during those dark days in the 1999 season.

So when all is said and done, i hope that Beckham moves back to Europe to play some proper football, and the US soccer fans are happy that the sport in their country will again return to obscurity.

Beckham was the only reason many watched the league, and without it nobody other than you will care.

So it was messy, but at least it got the league some exposure, I still think that Victoria was as much to thank as Beckham for the move over to the US, it came too soon, and it was a ridiculous decision by Beckham. Thankfully he has come to his senses and realised that he can still play at the elite level. Which is around 50-100 levels above the Major League Soccer League.

Welcome back from the asylum Beckham, you took your time to realise the mistake, but at least you are working to rectify it.

The best thing the MLS can do for itself and for the league is to release you and move on.