Good evening folks. With the day winding down, I wanted to share some thoughts from down here in Florida. And for those of you wondering, I’ll return to the SBI compound in Jersey late Wednesday.
Now, here are some soccer thoughts from my vacation:
Kudos to Major League Soccer for getting a mention, albeit a brief one, in the new Will Smith blockbuster Hancock. For those of you who saw the movie like I did, were you also bracing yourself for the "that league’s a joke" crack to follow the MLS mention? Thankfully, no such comment came. I’ll give credit for that to David Beckham, who is buddies with Tom Cruise, who is buddies with Will Smith (okay, that’s a complete stretch, but so what.)
I saw a kid wearing a Miroslav Klose Germany jersey. I always wonder what the back-story is when I see people rocking soccer gear, particularly when it’s clearly a jersey that the wearer has some real connection to (not like say, a Beckham Galaxy jersey).
Being in Florida, partly in Ft. Myers and partly in Clearwater, reminded me why it’s so tough to make pro sports work here. The weather here is either so beautiful that you want to spend the day at the beach or a park, or it’s so oppressively hot or stormy, that you don’t want to leave your house. Does that mean an MLS team will never work in Tampa? I think one could work, but it would need the right kind of owner and the right people running the team for it to survive. That’s a combination that not enough present MLS teams have, let alone future expansion teams.
I haven’t gone as far as taking the laptop to the beach/pool (I’ve posted from the laptop before and after beach/pool visits), but I have already posted stories from my Glyde a few times and it’s an amazing convenience being able to do so much from a cell phone. I couldn’t help but be in awe of the fact that there are so many things like this that couldn’t be done a decade ago, which also served as another reminder of why the newspaper business is dying.
Lastly, I don’t give fellow soccer writers enough props, but I wanted to give some to Yahoo Sports soccer writer Martin Rogers for delivering what sure was an All-Tournament performance covering Euro 2008. He delivered a steady stream of quality writing that was as good as anything written by anybody across the pond. Not bad for someone who was also dealing with the impending birth of his first child. For someone who I thought was a crap writer at first, Rogers as sure stepped his game up (kidding folks, Rogers is one of my best friends in the biz.)
Share your own thoughts on any of these observations and subjects in the comments section below.
i walk around a college campus every day that has 50,000 students, and the common answer i get when i ask someone about the shirt they are wearing is:
“he is my favorite player on FIFA 08 (pick the year)”
Several jersey backstories:
1.) USMNT – 2006 Away Jersey – I got my wife and I jerseys with the numbers of our wedding day 09 and 03, and put the name HIS on hers and the name HERS on mine.
2.) Schweinsteiger – WC 2006 Jersey: I was at the WC 2006 and wanted to get an authentic German jersey. Whenever my buddy and I play Winning Eleven (Pro Evo Soccer), he always has Schweinsteiger on his team and it was fun to yell his name at the TV. He is one of my favorite players now, a combo of PES and the fact that he is awesome.
3.) Juventus – I made sure to buy a jersey that honored the two scudettos that Juventus had stripped from them for match-fixing (can’t remember the year now). I have never worn it, and never will wear it because I can’t stand Italy. For me it is always a visual reminder of how much I can’t stand Italian football, and how much they cheat.
4.) The one that got away…Wayne Rooney – Everton Jersey 2002: For some reason I decided against spending money for a Wayne Rooney Everton jersey at the end of a four month study abroad program in London. He was a revelation that first season w/Everton. I’ll never forget watching him score against Arsenal. Note to self: just buy the f-in’ jersey.
there was a young girl at a camp i was coaching, and she was wearing a beckham kit (literally top to bottom)… i gave her such a hard time… kept picking her to demonstrate, asked her to collect the cones, etc… after the 1st day i told her next time she should pick out a better kit, perhaps one with the Fire emblem on it…
worked out in a different way, b/c after that she volunteered to do everything anyways…
The 2001 Warner Brothers movie “Cats & Dogs” also has an MLS reference in it. One of the main characters, a boy, wears an MLS jersey while playing in his backyard during the movie.
Sorin Has been released by Hamburg – Reyna out Sorin ? What do you think?
JC – exposure is exposure…. whether its a one liner or a product gracing the screen… fact is the name was dropped in a movie that grossed over 62M domestic its opening weekend
I was djing in Central Park a few years ago while wearing my South Korea kit which has “J S Park” written on the back. When someone came up to me asking where I got a J Spark jersey, I was dumbfounded. Apparently, that was some guy on a reality tv show…
Synchronicity. I saw a 12-year old with a Klose jersey on this weekend in Cold Spring, NY. My guess was German, with Polish extraction, background in the family.
Someone else asked: Why go to Florida in the summer. That’s a very good question and I think the answer is that most people don’t have a choice. The kids are off and the summer is when most people can travel.
I think, with the possible exception of skiing, the fall is the best time to travel anywhere….particularly Florida.
Ives and others. Will MLS come back to Tampa? As a long-time Tampa resident I think the answer is a reserved “yes”. Reserved because i think it’s a longterm plan that will take an abundance of caution.
I suspect that the owners of the new USL team in Tampa have a long term plan that they won’t reveal to the public so that they keep the fans’ emotions and desires in check. The longterm plan would be to start small with the USL team and stadium and then build slowly to see if they could achieve MLS status. Perhaps Seattle and the way the Sounders evolved is the best comparison.
If they don’t see the writing on the wall for an MLS evolution, they’ll just stay small and stay in the MLS.
I think the current goal is to shoot for a Charleston Battery level. And I think if you get there and stay there, there’s no shame in that.
I wish the new owners luck. However, it will come down to when and what kind of stadium they build.
Either way, my wife can’t wait to be dragged to soccer games on Saturday nights again.
My 8 year old son has 3 Manchester United, 3 Arsenal (no accounting for his taste there), 1 Brazil, 1 US, 1 Barca and 1 Celtic jersey. It’s all he wants. He saves up his chore money for jerseys. 2 of his Manchester jerseys are skin tight (1 is Van Nistolroy), but he still wears it around home. He wants a Netherlands (he went to get one with my wife and came back with that new yellow Arsenal jersey) and he wants Portugal and Argentina. He watches pretty much nothing but Gol tv and FSC, which is cool with me.
RK — I was thinking the same thing. I saw the reference to Tom Cruise and the mention of being in Clearwater and I thought “oh no, Ives will soon be worrying about Xenu, trivializing the death of Lisa McPherson, and wiretapping federal agents.”
That’s it? That mention in Hancock has gotten people all hot and bothered. Wow, as an American I have to admit US soccer fans can be really lame sometimes.
The conversation in Hancock went something like this:
Jason Bateman is pitching his non-profit to a group of corporate execs from an unnamed company, trying to get them as sponsors. He says, “We already have a major sponsor on board: a sports franchise.” They say “From which league – NFL? MLB? NBA?” He says “Soccer!” They say “MLS?” He says, “No, the Encino Hurricanes. It’s my son’s team.”
The MLS reference wasn’t really positive or negative as I remember it.
Lets not forget that the Metrostars were in Hellboy 1.
Yes.. they were.. logo and all.
Screen caps are somewhere.
Im gonna go check bigsoccer for the scoop on MLS/Hancock 😛
So, did MLS pay for product placement??
Because that is how you get in movies nowadays….
The west coast of Florida is a popular vacation spot for Germans, which may explain the Klose jersey.
It’s interesting various google searches including a combination of the terms “MLS” “Hancock” “soccer” “movie” etc tend to have SBI as one of the top ten hits… Could you drop us a line on what the reference was in the movie?
when jason bateman is pitching his idea for ALLHEART at the board meeting he mentions MLS. Its like 10 minutes in
Here’s an answer to one “I wonder what the backstory to that jersey is” question…
I finally got my first Croatia national team jersey (not the checker board one…I’m not quite that dedicated) this Spring to wear during the Euros. My paternal grandparents came from there (I had one uncle born there and my Dad was born in the USA a few years after those three moved here) and although I picked up this obsession with soccer late in life, I quickly learned that my own heritage plays pretty good (if you don’t count any WC other than 1998). I suppose I could have chosen Germany as “my ancestry team” from my mother’s side of the family, but then I’d be just another kid (uh, adult) wearing a Klose/Podolski/Ballack jersey this year.
😉
wait… i saw hancock and i dont remember anything mentioned about mls? when was it and in what context
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Considering a few factors:
1)Joe Roth is now a major investor in MLS (Seattle) and probably the in the top 5 most powerful figures in Hollywood.
2)Hancock is a Sony Picture
3)Joe Roth’s company has a deal with Sony and is practically the de facto head of Sony
It’s not too hard to imagine the reference to MLS wasn’t derogatory.
Oh and this is also a prime reason why it’s beyond great that Roth invested in Seattle since he will no doubt plug the league more as he hasn’t ever been shy about pimping his endeavors.
Tom Cruise…Clearwater…I sense a Scientology sabbatical…
I don’t get to the movies much. What was the mention?
InkedAG, the Blackberry doesn’t have the web browsing functions that the Glyde has, which are key for posting from the road. The Glyde also handles email functions so I don’t lose out on that either. I’ve got no complaints about the Glyde at all and recommend it.
Why do people go to Florida in the summer? Isn’t that the thing to do when it’s cold up here?
You don’t have a Blackberry?
Also I wonder how well the rebirth of the Rowdies in Tampa will be once they take the field again in the USL1 in 2010? Good Luck to Tampa!
I’m a projectionist. Since I basically watch every movie that comes out I was shocked that MLS was even mentioned. I don’t remember the last movie that came to my theater, with MLS being mentioned. The league doesn’t always get its name in the blockbusters. I loved the mention of MLS as a legitimate sponsor/ backer to Jason Bateman’s cause. I believe MLS will be mentioned more in films more often, as the league becomes more profitable.
Interesting thoughts on MLS in the Tampa area. Almost exactly 30 years ago I was playing a lot of club soccer in the Tampa area. It was a great place to be a soccer player and fan. The Rowdies were a superb club and the fan support was tremendous. It wasn’t unusual for the Rowdies to draw 30,000 fans at that time and the atmosphere at the big matches was electric. It also wasn’t unusual to run into some of the players after the matches at the local watering holes. Now that I hold down a “responsible” position I realize what a great time that was.
What did they say about MLS in the movie?