Americans love football

[SlavikSvensk]

yeah that's all true, C.O.

used to be that the only people who watched football were immigrants from latin america, africa and europe, as well as a hardcore set of fans who would seek out european and international matches on satellite at bars. then with the slow decline of baseball outside the northeast, all the news coming out about how dangerous american football is (especially for head trauma), more and more kids started choosing football instead. now those kids are adults or starting to grow up and want to watch professional football. MLS got a big boost from the fairly successful US campaign in the world cup, and even people who never liked football got into it. we now also get a full slate of premiership, serie a and la liga matches on a dedicated, basic cable channel (fox soccer world).

for a football fan, it's a way better environment than it was even 5 years ago. but then again, it's still not as popular as it should be. might unseat ice hockey as the #4 professional team sport in the US in short time, but i have a hard time seeing it compete in terms of popularity with baseball, basketball american football quite yet. part of the problem is that the MLS is a third-rate league trying to transform itself into a second-rate league. getting beckham and henry to play, even in the twilight of their careers, is a plus. but there's a long way to go.