I have to weigh in on Ken Herman’s aggressively dumb anti-soccer rant on Tuesday’s Statesman editorial page: “Paging Joe McCarthy” to counter Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s support for the U.S. bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Herman seems determined to prove he can show off his ignorance on the editorial page (proudly disavowing any “actual knowledge of the game”), as he did for so long on the legislative beat, before following good pal G.W. Bush up to the Washington bureau.
In touting “real football” (aka throwball) and dismissing soccer as “basically a bunch of happy kids running around happily kicking each other,” and of little interest unless “[m]aybe if you are under nine,” Herman shows he’s as out of touch culturally as he is politically. In the latest figures on national sports participation from the National Sporting Goods Association, American football ranks 26th out of 41 sports, and dropping; since those figures came out, it’s been passed up by canoeing and mountain biking and now ranks just ahead of scooter riding in popularity. The only sports losing participants faster are powerboating, roller skating, paintball, airgun shooting, Nordic skiing, and muzzle loading (?!). Among team sports, throwball ranks next-to-last, ahead of only hockey; soccer ranks second, behind basketball, and is the only sport with double-digit growth.
Among adults, of course, the discrepancy is far greater. Austin has two adult flag football leagues, with some 80 teams. Soccer has, literally, too many to count – men, women, co-ed, indoor, outdoor, over-50 – I ran out of time somewhere above 400 teams. And that’s not counting the multiple organized and less-so Hispanic leagues, which largely defy any Internet search. Overall, it’s safe to say that 10 times as many Austin adults play “real football” as play throwball. Your turn, Ken.
This article appears in July 3 • 2009.