I thought this guy was an absolute riot...others will probably have a different take.

lol.....Joe Kernan kicks his azz at the end of the interview.

When speed skating pays like the NFL or NBA it will change. We care about speed skating once every 4 years. We care about not winning speed skating medals for about 15 minutes of a 2 week period every 4 years..... It aint going to change.

(02-23-2014 01:27 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  lol.....Joe Kernan kicks his azz at the end of the interview.

When speed skating pays like the NFL or NBA it will change. We care about speed skating once every 4 years. We care about not winning speed skating medals for about 15 minutes of a 2 week period every 4 years..... It aint going to change.

Speed skating? Doing circles at high speeds is what NASCAR is for.

Silly Dutch man.

Not taking this seriously, he is Dutch for crying out loud.

If the Dutch were so smart, they'd still be a world power. But their power had been greatly diminished before the 18th Century rolled around. So I think we can ignore their thinking. It's not what you'd call productive.

Dutch as far as I know suck at ice hockey so it would have made more sense to knock ice hockey instead of football because ice hockey players are more likely to become speed stakers.

(02-23-2014 02:04 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  If the Dutch were so smart, they'd still be a world power. But their power had been greatly diminished before the 18th Century rolled around. So I think we can ignore their thinking. It's not what you'd call productive.

Agreed other than their knowledge on flood mitigation and prevention. That's the best in the business.

I think there's a lot of truth in what he's saying which is basically, "You Americans don't give a damn about speed skating except for two weeks every four years and you have the nerve to wonder why you don't win more speed skating events? We live and breathe this stuff every single day so of course we dominate you and frankly it's amazingly arrogant of you to openly ponder why you can't beat us despite the fact that you don't take it seriously and we do."

He's basically saying that all of their top athletes are speed skaters whereas all of our top athletes play football, which, in his estimation, is a stupid, insular sport that nobody else plays because it is too dangerous and pointless.

Obviously, I don't agree with his simplistic views of American football but his sentiment is not an uncommon one among Europeans. Believe me when I tell you I have had similar conversations in many a pub across that continent and they are legitimately flummoxed as to why it is such a HUGE deal here. They simply don't get it - except Germans who absolutely LOVE it!

I don't think too many Americans look at, say, Steven Holcomb, our top bobsled driver, and thinks of him as being among the best athletes in the country. Hell, I'm not sure he would be considered to be among the top 10,000 athletes in the country. Well, in most European nations, their bobsled teams are comprised of the guys they consider to be among their biggest, strongest athletes.

I have long believed that you will know that soccer has made it in this country when you start seeing more domestically raised African Americans playing it instead of it being all suburban white kids named Trevor and Landon. I mean imagine if Barry Sanders was a midfielder instead of a running back; or if Michael Jordan were a goal keeper instead of a shooting guard? That is what every other country has among their starting 11 - their nations' very best athletes - and we will not reach that level until more of our fastest, most agile athletes are also playing that sport from a young age and developing the skills as they go.

We are seeing more and more of that over time but we are still a long way from being able to consistently compete with the top nations in the world and that won't change until we start producing on a fairly consistent level soccer players that are legitimately on par with their NFL/NHL/MLB/NBA counterparts from an athleticism perspective. Right now, there are no soccer players in this country who are nearly as athletic as Adrian Peterson, Patrick Willis, Kyree Irving, LeBron James, etc.

That is just precious!

Welp, 'Murica's just going to have to get back to doing things that actually MATTER...

As an aside, I think a good Q of this gentlemen would have been, "With your obvious skating prowess, why isn't the Netherlands better at ice hockey?" I promise you he would have gone apeschitt.

American football is a war game... this is why we play it. We are still very much a warfare-minded, Imperial power. As bit said, their days of such are long behind them.

The cost and danger of American football is, not really gladiatorial, it is more like the ancient Greek city-states go to war. It was very expensive, but a highly ceremonial, pageant-filled undertaking. REAL power was being exercised, lost and won.

Most of the world dislikes us because we are insular, and frankly they haven't been invited to participate in our reindeer games... and that's mostly because we consider beating up on each other of a more qualitative endeavor, than beating up on a bunch of weak weenies who don't get us anyway...


And as Dr. Yinzer points out... yeah, the Germans 'get it', but they are frightened by it-- seems to me --all the same, for obvious reasons of their history...

(02-23-2014 11:41 PM)Crimsonelf Wrote:  American football is a war game... this is why we play it. We are still very much a warfare-minded, Imperial power. As bit said, their days of such are long behind them.

The cost and danger of American football is, not really gladiatorial, it is more like the ancient Greek city-states go to war. It was very expensive, but a highly ceremonial, pageant-filled undertaking. REAL power was being exercised, lost and won.

Most of the world dislikes us because we are insular, and frankly they haven't been invited to participate in our reindeer games... and that's mostly because we consider beating up on each other of a more qualitative endeavor, than beating up on a bunch of weak weenies who don't get us anyway...


And as Dr. Yinzer points out... yeah, the Germans 'get it', but they are frightened by it-- seems to me --all the same, for obvious reasons of their history...

Good post that sums it up. I'll stick with being insular and enjoy my American Football while living in one of the 50 states the rest of my life thank you very much.

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