Looking For A Soccer Evangelist? Keep Looking

Less than 24 hours before the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the discussion here in my corner of the United States is about why Americans should care about the planet's biggest sporting event. A Boston sports radio station spent four hours this morning asking callers to educate the two hosts, both of whom are former American footballers, one a college player, the other a former NFL professional.

Callers gave it the old college try talking about how the tournament and the players are the best of the best, and how the love of football and this tournament is culturally engrained in those who have a passion for it. And for the most part, the two hosts were sincere with callers, promising to give it an honest effort to watch a fair amount of games and speak intelligently of it--in between lame cracks about Brandi Chastain's sports bra and grasping at the straw that is Landon Donovan.

Here's my thing: I don't care if they watch the World Cup, or soccer--ever.

Soccer does not need America to succeed--clearly. It's a tired discussion and a boring refrain waiting for soccer take a foothold in the United States, whatever that means. It's not part of the mission of football fans to convert the great unwashed that is the vast majority of American sports fans when it comes to soccer. It's not our job to stamp our feet and hold our breath until we turn blue until Americans know the difference between the Bundesliga and LaLiga. Just don't care if you ever do.

I love hockey too, and to me, the Stanley Cup playoffs are a close second to tournament football in intensity and drama and passion. Sit inside my house during a Bruins playoff game and you'll see where I'm coming from. That said, I'm not going to go on a recruiting mission in Middle America to try to school corn-shuckers on the finer points of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry. They don't care to learn, and I don't care to learn 'em. Hockey will survive just fine without them. It's not indignence. It's an understanding that people have tastes, varied tastes, and just because ESPN plans to show every second of the World Cup doesn't mean that everyone in America has to watch it and love it and climb aboard the bandwagon. The bandwagon is plenty full.

There are plenty of places online and in bars and among family and friends who love football where I can get my fix talking about the game. I don't need my local sports radio station management to force feed it to its hosts and they in turn try to consume 40-plus years of football passion that is engrained in me in a four-hour show.

The World Cup starts tomorrow, and like most of the planet, I will be rooted to the television for the next 30 days watching most of every match that I can. If you're aboard, awesome. If not? Well, it makes no never mind to me.