Farewell Football, Hello Soccer.

So, I'd like to say a final farewell to the NFL, as I will not be tuning in this year, unless by accident. It's official: I don't like to watch football anymore. The truth is, we've been drifting apart for years. I think it's a combination of three factors:

1) The games have too many commercials, so the entire flow of the game (from my interest point) is always getting interrupted. It should not take three hours to play a one hour game, but maybe that's just me.

2) The game destroys the athletes that play it. This has been going on for years, but either I didn't notice or care when I was a kid growing up and watching every play. It just chews them up and spits them out. Here's just something I dug up on the web from the St. Petersburg Times: "While U.S. life expectancy is 77.6 years, recent (2006) studies suggest the average for NFL players is 55, 52 for linemen." So, the game kills the fat guys who play it, and I think I kind of take offense to that. And don't get me started on concussions. Or Earl Campbell.

3) Soccer. Specifically, EPL. Even more specifically, Newcastle United. My fall weekends are now spoken for.

I played soccer as a kid and loved it. It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are a husky child, then you play goalie. And so it was with me. Plus, on my street, we already had a real engine room of a midfield with Jeff and Danny Cullen, and in back we had Roy Keane lookalike Greg Gibson. Once in a while, Jay Quinlan or Marc or Paul DeCastro would show up to stick the ball in the net--soccer prodigies all. At least for Pawcatuck--all Stonington "A" soccer team quality.

So, the love was sewn early. Then, in the early 90's, Fox Sports World came to the cable world. My introduction to the Euro soccer world. Got sucked in. More specifically, I got sucked in by a little team from the Northeast of England called Newcastle United.

I had flirted with other teams at first, sure. But, then there was this game in 1996, which sucked me in for good:

(5-o to the Toon! Howray the Lads!)

It wasn't that they won, it was the way Newcastle played (at least in those days), where they were SO attack minded. It could have been 6 or 7 nil, really. Since then, I have made arrangements to watch them play most every weekend. Including this weekend, when we renew our rivalry with those cheating cheaters from Manchester United. Back in the top flight. Long may we survive.