Odds and Sods

Eric Wynalda, in an interview with fulhamusa.com recently made the following comment about noted anti-soccer enthusiast, Jim Rome.

You will never get a guy, in me, who is more of a believer in the American player. Jim Rome can suck my dick! And he should be very afraid, because I’m the kind of guy, if I get too many drinks in me, I will club his ass. I’ve been on with Jim Rome, and I said, “Let me get this straight, you’re more impressed with water polo???”

Though ESPN forced him to apologize, and filled precious Sportscenter time on a slow news day with internal drama, the sentiment is correct. He also antagonized Landon Donovan with another comment in the same interview.

I don’t know if getting married is going to help him, but he has already been in a situation where I think a lot of the decisions he has been making have been about his personal life, about being happy, about being where he needs to be. He needs to make the decision whether he is going to be a guy playing soccer, or a soccer player. I want him to be a soccer player, because I know how good he is. And I want him to challenge himself, because there is nothing, in this country, that is going to challenge Landon Donovan any more.

Simultaneously ripping Landon Donovan AND Jim Rome in the same interview alone constitutes immediate induction into the Odds and Sods Hall of Fame, should such an organization ever come into existence. However, Wynalda has far more to offer.

His brutal honesty caused him problems as a player, both in the States and in Germany. However, they are what makes him a great analyst. In an American soccer climate, cleaved down the middle between mindless American supporters and overcritical Eurosnobs, Wynalda is a figure who can bridge that gap.

He has the knowledge and willingness to criticize the American game and the sycophants who run it, but the pedigree and enthusiasm to provide it with legitimacy and support. He also has a bravado and personality that the mainstream American sports fan would understand and appreciate.

He can work wonders with the increased marketing opportunities for soccer by an increasingly open-minded ESPN. However, one has to wonder why US Soccer hasn’t been more assertive in getting him involved in a meaningful fashion?

On a semi-related tangent….

(Rome Talking “Smack” Voice): Here’s what I am burning on.

“Rome is Burning?” The only thing that is burning, or should I say “crashing and burning” is your stupid show sandwiched in a nothing slot before Around the Horn. And if Rome is burning, Does that make you Nero fiddling over vacuous verbal puns like this one? Do you even know what vacuous means? If you saw vapid in a dictionary, would it make a dent in your puny little brain? Or would it merely be a momentary transition on the way to “vagina?”

I am out.