Beckham's new deal?!?!?

[soulman]

My understanding is that he was getting 50% of his "name rights" with Real Madrid, and will now be getting 100% of those rights. In addition to the endorsements you discuss, he also was getting "name rights" of about 50% - he was still making a chunk of change.

Actually he only made $6.7 million in salary from Real Madrid(Only! ) He made an additional $30 million in endorsements. Reguardless, it's a ridiculous amount of money for a player that has already reached his peak.

[soulman]

Don't even get started with using Landon as a comparison. Two words "puthy man".

Have you ever wondered why Landon Donovan is one of the best players in the MLS but has not been able to produce when he has played in the Bundesliga. It is because we play a different style of the game here, it is not the same thing. It is the same reason we struggle in the world cup, we have some players that are used to the different international styles of the game and MLS players that are used to their own leagues style. For fairness every league in different countries has a slightly different style of play but the MLS is a bigger difference than other top leagues. The simplest way to but it is that we play soccer and the rest of the world plays football.

[clones_jer]

How can you say baseball is a bad tradition? It's America's Pasttime! I know in recent years the sport has had a cloud cast around it, but you cannot say baseball is a bad tradition. I know it's your opinion too, but how can you look forward to a sport's demise that has been around so long and had such a big part in America's history?

Baseball WAS America's pastime. Now kids shoot hoops with their friends rather than play stickball. Football reigns supreme in the US, not the misspelled kind either. Basketball is next. I'm a baseball "hater", I would and have watched rodeo, soccer, and WBB over the Past-its-time.

As for soccer,
I remember being a little upset when I was told I wouldn't be playing soccer any more in 3rd grade (thats when flagfootball was introduced to us). That said I cannot get through an entire match any better than I can get through 9 innings now. Its just not a big deal to most Americans, I think if it was our national team would be much improved - I'm betting Michael Vick would be making Beckham style cash.

[tigershoops31]

Don't even get started with using Landon as a comparison. Two words "puthy man".

"
Originally Posted by HGPuck
Have you ever wondered why Landon Donovan is one of the best players in the MLS but has not been able to produce when he has played in the Bundesliga. It is because we play a different style of the game here, it is not the same thing. "

I can't be the only guy in here that has no clue who Landon Donovan is can I? I personally detest socker, mainly because I think that it has killed other youth sports in the US. If it's the world cup I don't mind watching a game or two. However, I can watch any sport if it's the best athletes in the world competing, and I would probably prefer world class table tennis to the world cup most of the time. Despite my own personal preference, I don't deny people their opinion on the sport or their ability to play/watch it. My problem comes with all of the parents that think it's a "cute sport for jr. to play" so we're going to sign him up whether he's shown interest or not. Kids think it's fun cause everybody gets to run around and nobody scores, while in football they have to be on the offensive line and watch their 2nd grade friend in a 5th grader's body score touchdown after touchdown. In the same way, basketball only plays 5 at a time and in youth sports a lot of times only 2 or 3 guys touch the ball. By the time they're in jr. high/high school they think all sports should be like soccer where "everybody plays and everybody gets to touch the ball and it's all fun". At this point, they become mentally soft in about every other sport and decide to play year round soccer. Sorry for the long winded rant, but I've coached 4 sports (never soccer) for 6 years and it's driven me nuts to have kids miss baseball games and basketball practices so they can go to a soccer camp put on by the local soccer moms. Not only do they miss games and practices, but by the time they're at the varsity level everybody has caught up to them athletically and since they've spent all their time on soccer the other kids have better fundamentals and skills at the other sports. Anyway, at least one guys take...maybe it comes from an uncommon perspective but thats how I've seen it!

[htownclone]

I will admit, the baseball season is ridiculously long. My fantasy baseball teams are always the worst of any sport. Not because I draft a crappy team, but because it's easy to lose interest over the course of the season.

However, for those of you that live in large cities with baseball teams or are close to those cities, you know the excitement during playoff time and even before during the wild card race. I currently live in Houston and the last 2 years have been unreal. Living in Ames I'd watch SportsCenter during the wild card and sure, it would often grab my attention, but during the wild card race and playoffs in a city with a team, it is a pretty unreal experience. Any bar with a TV was packed for every game. People that knew nothing of baseball were suddenly Astros fans. This further proves my point of the season being too long and causing people to lose interest. People don't wanna stick around all year long for every game if their team is not gonna be a contender. I think that's why the Yankees and Red Sox have such great numbers with attendance and why those cities are so crazy about their teams. They know they are going to make the playoffs and they have something to look forward to. If you're in rural Iowa and you check out the box scores in the paper or catch some highlights on TV, it's not gonna be enough for you to get sucked in like you would in Boston or New York or other major cities with traditionally good baseball teams.

I just think in general the season is too long for sports fans to be captivated by MLB.

Go Cubs! (This year is our year )

[HILLCYD]

Where is the national media and their outrage?!?! When ARod signed that huge deal...people were all over him.

This guy will be making TWICE what ARod makes...playing soccer...which no one cares about.

Your last sentance says it all, no one cares about soccer. Watching grass grow is more exciting, and obivously cheaper.

[Dave19642006]

Why hasn't soccer caught on in the US?

That is a question with a very intricate, many-layered answer. I could make an entire career of explaining it in detail to everyone. But in the end, none of us would be any wiser, since I would have been making up the entire story.

Being of European desent-the only reason Soccer is not that "Big" here in the USA is that there are so many other professional sports here. If you look at Germany for an isnatant-Soccer and ahh Soccer, England Soccer and ahh soccer. Yes they have other sports but Soccer is the ONLY international sport played every year like our football, baseball, nascar, ect ect.

[alaskaguy]

I realize that I'm in the minority but I find American football incredibly boring. If you clock the time the football is actually in play, during many games it is 15 minutes or less. And I don't think football players are half the athletes that soccer players are.

[Cyclone_Power]

I realize that I'm in the minority but I find American football incredibly boring. If you clock the time the football is actually in play, during many games it is 15 minutes or less. And I don't think football players are half the athletes that soccer players are.

I kind of agree, but only with the NFL. For me, watching the overpaid laziness of players like Owens and Moss just ruins the sport for me. College football on the other hand, is a very inspired, high flying game to watch.

By the way, ever since I studied abroad and began to watch soccer in Australia, I have fallen in love with the sport. Maybe the reason I like it so much is because it's very similar to hockey, in that it's not all about scoring.

[Cyclone_Power]

Being of European desent-the only reason Soccer is not that "Big" here in the USA is that there are so many other professional sports here. If you look at Germany for an isnatant-Soccer and ahh Soccer, England Soccer and ahh soccer. Yes they have other sports but Soccer is the ONLY international sport played every year like our football, baseball, nascar, ect ect.

You're right to a certain extent, but in the UK rugby and cricket are extremely popular sports every year.

[tigershoops31]

I realize that I'm in the minority but I find American football incredibly boring. If you clock the time the football is actually in play, during many games it is 15 minutes or less. And I don't think football players are half the athletes that soccer players are.

That's all part of the game...you want to kill the clock a lot of the time in between plays. There is at least a lot of ball movement with a purpose when teams are marching up and down the field, not to mention scoring. I bet if you clocked how much of a game of soccer that they are actually doing something meaningful with the ball (and this isn't even meaning something exciting like scoring) it would be about 2 minutes. Bad argument against American Football...pound for pound of action there is no comparison between the two. Not to mention the quote about athleticism...it's apples and oranges. I don't doubt that soccer players are probably some of the best conditioned athletes in the world...they have to run up and down the field for 90 minutes with rarely a payoff (a goal). But I'd love to see one soccer player come across the middle for a pass with Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher barreling down on them. I mean my gosh they're down crying like their puppy died for 10 minutes if they get tripped (or if it looks like they might have been tripped) in soccer.

[spanny]

How dare you question the manhood of these lovely little soccer players? I will say that yes soccer does get kids active when they are little, but as a whole it is very boring. And I, like Jim Rome, do not understand soccer at all. I grew up swinging a hammer and a baseball bat and listening to country music talking about the good old days. I am very much a blue collar guy and soccer is just not a blue collar sport. After all Becks married posh spice. That being said she is smokin! I also know that I have a volleyball logo under my name, so it should also be said that I enjoy playing a sport seen as less than macho. It is my belief that soccer will stay around in the US, but only as a fringe sport. Our culture has never seemed to embrace it, and if not enjoying sports because people are overpaid, why should we dig this quarter of a billion dollar contract!

[keepngoal]

Okay Okay Okay.

Demise was too strong of a word to use in that sentence. I do make mistakes and can be a 'little' over the top.

With that said, IMO, baseball should no longer be a part of the 'big three' sports.

to help my cause out by changing the topic ... *sheepish grin .... nice weather were having ...

- keep.

[Wesley]

So in case you haven't heard. David Beckham just signed a 5 year/$250 million contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Now I understand Beckham is one of the biggest names in the sport, but $50 million per year just seems ridiculous. If you do the math, that is roughly $1 million a week. $1 MILLION...IN A WEEK!

He is going to make more money that some small island countries have for their national annual GDP. Barry Bonds will want $60M to beat out Babe Ruth. Kirk was want $6M to coach Iowa. Tiger will want $100M to endorse Buicks. It will have a snowball effect. The endorsements will be worth more than the team slary. And now we will have to watch all those bend It Like Beckham commercials. And we will see the Nike Slenda soccer shoes. Do not forget the shoes. Heard his spouse wants to be a big star in Hollywood also. A two income family.

[ajjohnson]

And I don't think football players are half the athletes that soccer players are.

That is incredibly laughable. To dispute that american football players are faster, stronger, and can jump higher is a JOKE! There is also just as much skill involved in Football as Soccer. The one area where soccer players are better is endurance running, but when you counter that with the endurance the NFL players need in their large muscle groups in the upper and lower bodies it is not even close. Shawne Merriman is faster than Landon Donovan, and twice his size with 5 times the strength.

If LaDainian Tomlinson or Ted Ginn Jr. wanted to and trained as they grew up, they could be soccer stars, Landon Donovan could start training in his mothers uterus and NEVER have any chance at playing a down in the NFL. But yeah, 5'8 150 lbs Landon is twice the athlete all right. You could argue soccer players are more athletic than MLB players (though they are probably close). But it is a complete joke to say that soccer players are twice the athletes as NFL or NBA players, it is clearly the other way around.