It's Back

Soccer season has come upon us once again. Technically, it never really stopped with the World Cup this summer, but now club teams are back in action, and the season has had a few weeks, so it's safe to say we're in full swing again.

Several issues have occurred in the last little while that I wanted to touch on. One of them is from the World Cup.

The World Cup is the single most watched sporting event in the world. Although the average American may not be a soccer nut, the rest of the world is. I once heard the comparison that the World Cup makes the Super Bowl look like a coffee shop performance. It's literally the world's biggest stage- so I knew something was bound to happen.

Overall, as I watched, I didn't see as many incidents as I thought. Most of the incidents in the World Cup happened regarding the taxes in Brazil to pay FOR the World Cup, not racial incidents. One thing I did notice was very obvious, however.

If you had the sound on while you were watching a game, especially a Brazil game (home field advantage), you noticed that every time there was a goal kick, the crowd was yelling, then all chanted something as he kicked the ball. Being a soccer fan myself, I know how this goes (UMD soccer fans yell "you suck *goalie*" on goal kicks), so I wasn't surprised. I just didn't know what they were saying, since it was in Portugese.

Well, a commentator helped me out on that one, and on the broadcast said they were yelling an "anti- homosexual slur." Think about it for a minute, and the word that comes to mind: it's that word. It begins with f. It's bad.

This is one example of crossing the line. I understand competitiveness. I understand supporting your team. Believe it or not, I understand going all out and dressing up for a game (shout out to the Brazilian guy who dressed as the Hulk to support the player Hulk), and I understand yelling at the other team- to a point.

That point ends at abuse. It's not okay to yell that at any player, or person. It doesn't matter what their orientation is. It's awful.

There were, for the record, several occasions of fans dressing in black face when they played against certain teams.

That's another case of crossing the line. Face paint and black face are not in the same category. One is fun. The other is racist and abusive.

The problem is that people either don't get that, and those are the people that we have to wonder if they have to remember to breathe and blink: OR that people just don't care, because sports.

Seriously.

And I would say it's the latter, because sports (especially soccer, where there's so much pent up tension and emotion built into the sport) can bring out the best and worst in people. We only hear about the worst.