As loyal readers of Eddyfication know, I’m a fan of ESPN’s Bill Simmons (otherwise known as the Sports Guy). He’s a very popular blogger who has plenty of witty observations about life, sports and pop culture. Basically, he gets paid lots of money to do exactly what I do for fun. Bastard.
Anyhow, he recently ran a piece where he slammed the beautiful game (aka credit card roulette), so I took it upon myself to write him a little note, which I’ve included below (notice I softened the battlefield a little bit first). He occasionally runs a mailbag post where he answers readers’ emails, so we’ll see if he gives us any love.
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Hey Bill,
Long time reader, first time writer. Love your stuff, even though I go green with envy each time I read one of your pieces (this coming from a recreational blogger and sports fan). In any event, I wanted to comment on two things you recently brought up. First, I love your renewed interest in soccer and enjoyed the interview you did with Alexi Lalas. In that conversation, you marveled at the size of some of the players, having undoubtedly expected soccer players to be wimpy little crybabies (the standard critique of the uninitiated American). To add to your list of physical specimens in the sport, you should consider the fiery Frenchman Zinadine Zidane. I met him once a couple years back (along with the entire Real Madrid squad) and was taken aback by his size. The dude is a rock solid 6’4. And he’s got shoulders to spare, which helps explain why he was so masterful at shielding defenders. By the way, I also met David Beckham that day, who himself surprised me with his height (a good 6’2). I recall one of your recent BS Reports commenting on some people being unexpectedly tall, so figured that was worth noting. For some reason I expected Beckham to be the Tom Cruise of soccer stars (turns out that designation was reserved for Michael Owen, who stood 5’5 at best).
Second, I wanted to touch on your recent Vegas piece. My usual practice of nodding in agreement with pretty much everything you say came to a screeching halt when you warned against credit card roulette. I disagree wholeheartedly with your take on the game. As justification for such a stance, I’d like to recommend that you read a post of mine (http://eddyfication.com/2009/08/31/the-beautiful-game-2/) that recollected a CCR event some buddies and I had when we all got together recently for a wedding weekend. The photo alone does plenty to make my case. As I described in my post, “The half-closed eyes, white-knuckled fists, and mouth agape in full-throated victory yell speak to the intensity of the moment. How often does the average guy get to experience such unmitigated, competitive rapture?”.
I have faith you’ll see the light on this one, my friend.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Eddy
