The American Spectator

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p> SOCCER TO ME br> Re: Reid Collins' Soccer, Anyone? : /p> p>Soccer is Irish clog dancing with occasional goal-scoring. br> -- R.L.A. Schaefer br> Dubuque, Iowa /p>

Breathtaking... How else to describe Mr. Collins' ignorance on the sport of soccer. I'm not a typical "defend soccer at all costs" person, but just an average reader that has a moderate understanding of the sport. My disbelief is that anyone with such limited knowledge on a subject would actually write about it in such a juvenile way.

He states that to make NFL football more like soccer we need to cut down on scoring. The straightforward idea on how to cut down on scoring is give two points for a touchdown and 1 for a field goal. This would cut down on scoring without modifying rules within the game itself. Many games from this past year would be less than many of the World Cup games' scores. His NBA example is just as ridiculous.

When he states that "Americans are confused by the term 'football'..." I agree that they are, but here is where as a writer you could help inform the reader instead of perpetuating the ignorance. The rest of the world plays "football" with their feet. Here we use our hands for football. And, as a typical American sports fanatic, he makes fun of that which he clearly has no understanding.

By the time he gets to describing the game that he obviously does not comprehend (and more likely has never seen), it is quite clear that we are wasting our time by reading anything Mr. Collins has to offer on the subject. I'm sure his next article will be on the intricacies of brain surgery techniques or the actual application of banking derivatives on the global economy. I'm not saying you have to be an expert to write about a subject, but it helps to have a rudimentary understanding. Just a couple of examples of his ignorance:

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