A Fair Shake

I don't read Michael Wilbon often enough to know if the persecuted class of U.S. soccer fans considers him a basher or not, but I thought his comparison of American football in the rest of the world to the rest of the world's futbol in America in the Washington Post was, while cynical about soccer in the States, certainly not the gratuitous bashing the sport gets from the crustier sports pundits. He gets some parts wrong -- Beckham has proved in the last six months that he is not, in fact, past his prime -- but also fesses up that "soccer has already surpassed hockey on the American sports landscape."

I've always said that this is the kind of fair but critical treatment I want for the sport. Enough with the evangelism, the persecution complex, the superiority complex in spite of that persecution complex. I just want the sport treated fairly, as just another part of the sports landscape, and I think Wilbon does that. On a related note, Bryant Gumbel had some choice words for those that don't.