My Unfortunate Run-Ins with the “Soccer Haters”

I grew up in a family of soccer lovers, and it is in our blood. Throughout my life, I keep hearing that the general North American sports culture don’t take too kindly to soccer, though it is only recently where the “soccer haters” crowd has unfortunately become more of a prominent presence in my life. I want to say that I like all kinds of sports, and I do respect the athletes that play them, but others don’t have that same kind of respect. Its one thing to not like a sport, but its quite another to berate and trash the sport.

Back in elementary school, we would go out, every time the weather was nice, go out into the field and play a game of soccer. We never played American football; it was strictly soccer on the field. In high school, even though my high school was considered “an American football school”, there weren’t a lot of soccer haters there either. But high school was the first time I was introduced to someone that hated and berated the sport I grew up with. What shocked me about it was not what he said about the sport, but that he was of West Indian heritage like me (that’s another story). I thought nothing of it, and high school passed.

The real problems I had with the crowd of soccer haters was when I went to university less than a couple years back. It was nice getting to know my residence friends, but a few of them, just like the person in high school, expressed their hate for soccer and trashed the sport whenever they could. They would say the typical things the other haters would say, like “the sport is for pussies” or “the sport is gay” or some other tripe like that. At first, I tried to defend myself and the sport, but soon I realized that it’s impossible to explain myself to a bunch of idiots. Those were some very hurtful things they said.

I probably should have expected this to happen to me sooner or later, and thinking about those incidents in retrospect, I pity people like them. Ignorant retards do exist in life and it’s important to think nothing of them. Let them wallow in their own sorrows and negativity. Soccer is gaining popularity In North America, with the rise of Major League Soccer (MLS) and strong TV audiences at last year’s World Cup. I dream of a day where the people who trash soccer will disappear, but the reality is, that’s not going to happen for a while. One can dream though…