Posted in On the DL Podcast
2 comments
12/3 2010

DL487: LeBron, NFL v NBA, Ron Santo & Soccer’s Future in a Cupless USA with Jon Tannenwald

Posted by Dan Levy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Second show of two today. It would be odd to not have Tannenwald on the show after the World Cup announcement, given how much time he and I talked about this day for the last six months.

Alas, it’s Qatar. We talk about the bid, what this means for the growth of soccer in America and what it might mean for the head of US Soccer, Sunil Gulati. Tannenwald is, to understate, mild-mannered. This is as heated as he gets.

But first, we discuss the passing of Ron Santo before talking about LeBron’s return to Cleveland. Is it just me, or my Philly sensibilities, or did nothing really happen? There was booing, there was a blowout and that’s about it. I actually expected worse, and while it’s good that most Clevelanders handled themselves calmly (there were tweets of inappropriate slurs thrown his way during the game and the TNT online cameras caught at least one fan in the stands trying to goad LeBron into a war of words (or more).

But it all seemed rather…predictable. We do wonder if this game will be the catalyst for the Heat’s season. If they rattle off a series of huge wins, someone will point back to this game (Wade, Bosh) and it’s going to burn Cleveland up even more.

We talk a little about the Thursday Night Football game on NFL Network and wonder if the NFL has so much cache that a game on NFLN could do better than the LeBronathon on TNT.

SPECULATION STATION:

All that soccer nonsense. Qatar? Really? This begs the question: if everyone else is lining pockets, should the US (and England for 2018) have done the same? If you’re playing poker with a bunch of cheaters and you aren’t cheating, is it enough to hold your head high and say you lost your money but kept your dignity, or is the goal to win money however you can win it?

Are we okay if the US had won the World Cup by any means necessary? Of course, if you believe reports, that didn’t exactly work for Spain, so being dirty doesn’t always mean winning.

So, do we even get our hopes up for 2026?

Thanks for listening.

Share
Posted on December 3, 2010 at 9:33AM

 

USER COMMENTS

Track comments via RSS 2.0 feed. Feel free to post the comment, or trackback from your web site.

  1. mlmintampa
    12/3 2010

    Jon should have brought up the point about how the US essentially bought the Salt Lake (and possibly Atlanta) Olympics. We’re not going to do that again. Plus, FIFA allowed a culture of corruption with the dual voting of 2018 and 2022.
    As for putting the screws to FIFA, why not stage a tournament to compete with the UEFA Championships? Earn some goodwill by inviting the rest of the world to the US for a 16 team tournament in the summer (invite any good Euro teams left out, too). It will demonstrate for 2026 that we’re not going to stand around and let South America or Africa get the next bid.

  2. GregD
    12/3 2010

    Most of my friends (Central PA) who are Soccer fans, are first fans of the USMNT, EPL, La Liga etc. first, then fans of the MLS, if they can even manage to sit through it. In fact, even though I love soccer, I can’t bear to watch MLS.