Writing for the Georgetown Voice, we reporters often faced a crisis; Athletes are often dumb... like far less articulate than brick walls. Now, this problem is not limited to the world of college sports, but ESPN can take even the least known, mumbling fool and intercut the interview with shots of him with Clinton Portis as the latest hip-hop hit blasts in the background.
However, at Georgetown, unless we had J-Wall on the line (and incidentally, the Basketball players were universally some of the funniest, brightest, and friendliest athletes at school), that unread article was going to end as toilet paper in some frat boy's apartment.
Track. Crew. Field Hockey. These teams has some of the most popular and articulate students (with the highest GPAs as well). They were reporters dreams, friendly and willing to talk. But the problem was, we didn't really want to interview them, because no one cares about college swimming, or track, or ladies tennis. Once in a while, we threw out features that attempted to uncover the drunken orgy that is Crew , and the only thing that motivated anyone to write or read the story were rumors of a tamer Duke-type scandal that remained covered, or wrote tongue-in-cheek looks at the popular institution that is Club Rugby , but even then, what drove these stories was the human interest angle, not the sports themselves.
I can't help but feel that in the US, soccer, whether MLS or English Premiership, is treated with the disdain of, gasp, Georgetown D3 Football. In history, I am sure it has graced ESPN's screen far less than poker does in a month. And it is likely that fewer people could name a single DC United player than have the entire Redskins lineup tattooed on their asses.
And now Galaxy has shelled out a Chelski-worthy sum for Beckham, and no one is watching Posh's TV show, and I am left to wonder: What will it take to get American soccer on the map?
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