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Super Bowl Hate from Not-So-Merry England

January 30th, 2015 · 1 Comment · English Premier League, Football, Newspapers, soccer, Sports Journalism

Some guys have trouble with change. Many of them are sports writers.

Something I stumbled across while looking up something else:

An 11-point rant by a professional journalist, in London-based Daily Telegraph, on “why the Super Bowl sucks”.

We won’t address every point, because mostly this is about anti-Americanism, which flows wide and deep through English society.

(After all we did for them, in those two big wars of the past century. They could all be wearing lederhosen by now, if not for the Yanks.)

But a few remarks are in order …

–Particularly amusing/interesting is the writer’s depiction of Americans watching “the match”. To wit: Most of all, they eat, drink and go to the loo. Super Bowl Sunday is the country’s second biggest day for food consumption after Thanksgiving. Obscene quantities of weak gassy lager, pizza, crisps, dips and buffalo wings get consumed, and there’s a massive strain on the sewage system as they all unleash it at half-time and full-time.

Anyone who has been around the English knows the average Englishman (or woman) drinks far more than does the average Yank, and eats at least as much junk food. (Some of it indigenous. “Chips, anyone? Pie?”) Has this guy been out of the office lately? Has he taken a walk around Liverpool or Newcastle and seen how many fine physiques are on display?

–“The vulgar money stuff.” This is rich, coming from the land of the Barclays Premier League. Where soccer players are walking billboards, often for alcohol or gambling companies. He also doesn’t grasp that Super Bowl commercials (“adverts”) often are entertainment in themselves.

–“There isn’t even a bowl.” This is just silly. I think he was running out of ideas. He apparently believes that the only correct end result, for champions, is metal shaped into a concave shape. “At least the FA Cup is an actual cup.” Thus, the Vince Lombardi Trophy is a failure because you can’t fill it with beer.

Interesting commentary. Besides the anti-Americanism, it probably also demonstrates a fear of cultural invasion — “These Yank things have popped up in My England and I’m very angry!”

Wait till the NFL puts a team in London.

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1 response so far ↓

  • 1 MHiggo // Feb 1, 2015 at 3:59 PM

    That Telegraph piece sounds about as hackneyed and lazy as all those commentaries from grizzled old American columnists who insist soccer will never make it in the US.

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