Rule Britannia

I'm not much of a soccer fan, or maybe I should say that I'm not a fan of the upper middle class suburban version of the game that's played in the United States. However, I will confess to watching English soccer on television every now and again. Watching American soccer, you'd never guess that football evolved from it. In contrast, it's easy to see the connection between the English game and its American progeny. I remember watching a match last year between Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal. This was an FA Cup semi-final, so it was a pretty big game. Rovers didn't have anywhere near the talent level that Arsenal had, so they adopted a strategy of beating the living crap out of the Arsenal players. In turn, Arsenal gave as good as it got. This match was particularly rough, but, in general, there is a standard of tough, physical play in the English game that is really admirable and enjoyable to watch.

Which brings me to my point. An English team called Nottingham Forest (seriously) has played pretty crappy over the past several games. Some of their fans cornered the coach at halftime of a recent game to air their complaints. His reaction? Come on into the locker room and let the players have it.

Can you imagine an American coach doing something like that? I can't either. What a shame, because every now and again, it's probably not a bad idea to make these guys face the people who pay their salaries. Some players realize how important these teams are to fans, but most don't. Cleveland's not a particularly prosperous area, but that stadium is consistently filled to watch teams that year after year aren't only consistently bad, but consistently boring. And it isn't just doctors, lawyers and CEOs filling those seats--it's people who can afford tickets once every couple of seasons, or once in a lifetime. Teams would do well to keep that in mind. Nottingham Forest seems to get it, I wonder if the Cleveland Browns do?