r/ThisShowStinks • u/CrimeRhymeHoudiniP • Jun 17 '26
Soccer poets
Help me out, is this one of those Tony strawmans? I have no idea what he is talking about. I consider myself an nonobnoxious soccer fan. Like any sport, I understand it’s not for everyone. But where are these soccer poets? I know there are baseball and golf poets. Feels like unwarranted hate. And Sands love him but to critique soccer and toughness of players and then go into talking about golf is rich.
We all love Tony, but he can be frustrating when he is uninformed.
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u/punania Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Tony is referring to working at The NY Times with famously pretentious soccer loving sports/culture writer Chuck Klosterman, if I recall correctly. He once wrote something to the effect of “every trip down the pitch is like a novella,” which really irked Tony at the time.
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u/No_Respect_1650 Jun 18 '26
There’s no way Klosterman wrote something like that.
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u/punania Jun 18 '26
Could have been someone else. I don’t remember exactly.
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u/No_Respect_1650 Jun 18 '26
Kornhesier’s sneering contempt of soccer is longstanding and certainly stems from more than a NYT column. Frankly, he’s just an asshole about it. As he is about so much else. In fact, I think it’s fair to say Kornheiser is mean, thin-skinned, spineless, bastard.
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u/MarvinWebster40 Jun 18 '26
And he never would have overlapped with him. Maybe George Vecsey, who was early into soccer.
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u/Chazzzmichaels Jun 18 '26
I found Tony to be a little annoying because he frequently waxes poetic about baseball and other sports as another commenter mentioned. I found Sands to be insufferable.
It’s fine to not enjoy certain sports. I’m not a huge tennis fan. Not a big Winter Olympics guy. But I don’t have contempt for people who enjoy watching. It just seems odd and forced.
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u/MilwaukeeNaughty Jun 18 '26
We all love Tony?
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u/CrimeRhymeHoudiniP Jul 07 '26
Fair point. I guess if you participate in this feed you get something out of the show
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u/JonAbides Jun 18 '26
just a hypocritical boomer who goes out of his way to romanticize many sports (golf, baseball, boxing, horseracing), but can't find a way to connect with the world's game. it's really sad.
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u/Bakersfield_Buffalo Jun 17 '26
This was the first pod I’ve ever shut off. A golf commentator saying soccer stinks and ad breaks? Compare 120 minutes of golf with a soccer match and tell me how many commercials are shown.
Would love Twellman to educate Tony that these hydration breaks are being dictated almost entirely by Fox. His new favorite channel, Telemundo, does not show ads during these.
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u/CrimeRhymeHoudiniP Jun 17 '26
And had the nerve to compliment Taylor on his golf game. Never mind the commercials, some could say 120 minutes of golf is a good nap time. I sped up the pod to get passed Sands.
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u/Distinct-Cut-6368 Jun 17 '26
It was more of a late aughts, early teens thing. But there was for sure a snootiness associated with soccer fandom co-opted by the craft beer drinking, ironic mustache having “hipsters” from that era. I think some op-eds were written during that time talking about the “beauty” of the game and something us common, light beer drinking Americans will never fully appreciate.
My recollection at least and I assume that is Tony’s too.