These are the RealVail archived files. Please visit our new site:
www.realvail.com
MM_XSLTransform error.
Error opening http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/KEGE.xml.
No Rox fever in Europe
The author at a Juventus match just prior to the Olympics in Torino, Italy, with members of the Colorado Cartel. From left to right, Hood, RealVail's Tom Boyd, Italian snowboarding writer GQ, and Jason Sumner of Boulder.
By David O. Williams 

No Rox fever in Europe

Passion for soccer still eludes this ex-pat
By Andrew Hood

November 17, 2007 —  It was tough watching the Rox fold like the French in World War II, but reading the local European papers last month, you would have never known that the Rox or the Sox or anyone else was playing the “World” Series.


Baseball isn’t even a blip on the radar screen over here.


In fact, no American sport has truly taken grip on the continent that still looks on the United States with a mix of horror and fascination or simply as an experiment gone horribly wrong.


The NFL’s efforts to create a European league flopped famously and the final six teams quietly folded in 2007 without anyone really noticing. Such American standards as baseball, hockey and college football all seem oddly peculiar to the Euro sport geeks, while NASCAR must sound like some EU-created agency to protect endangered black storks.


Basketball is the only U.S.-bred and born sport that’s making any serious inroads. The European leagues produce fine talent and there are no less than two dozen Euro players in the NBA for the 2007-08 season.

In Europe, there’s only one sport that truly ranks, and it doesn’t involve bats, plates or mounds.


Known as futbol, calcio, footie and le fut, or simply soccer to us gringos.


Three things matter to any good Italian or Spaniard: God, family and soccer, and I’m not sure in what order.


Imagine baseball, the NFL, NBA and the NHL all bound up into one event and you start to come close to the passion and fury of what soccer means to your average European fan.


The big clubs are huge money-making machines with rich histories like the New York Yankees but with lots of more cheese.


Real Madrid, Ajax, Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Juventus and Liverpool, which is co-owned by former Vail Associates magnate George Gillett, are just a few of these monoliths that attract one-named stars like Ronaldo, Raúl, Beckham and Zindane.


Fans lose all sense of their Euro civility during the major showdowns between these big clubs.


They clap, they sing, they chant, they wave flags, they burn flares. They throw insults, bottles, coins, batteries and stadium seats at each other. Sometimes they even kill each other. In 2000, fans of a rival club murdered two Leeds followers before a big match. Talk about passion.


Despite efforts to get into futbol over here in Spain, it just doesn’t tickle my synapses like an autumn battle between the Buffs and the Huskers.


For a gringo watching from the sidelines, it’s hard to get too excited about a sport where a 0-0 tie can be called great. Gimme a chili dog, a scorecard and a bag of peanuts any day.

 

 

Comment on article  Comment on "No Rox fever in Europe" using the form below

 

Comments
Comment Form Info  Comment Information
RealVail encourages you to post comments on our articles and blogs. Name and email are required for monitoring purposes. Your email will not be published and will not be distributed to any 3rd-party. Abusive, obscene, profane, threatening, libelous or defamatory comments are prohibited. By posting a comment, you agree to this policy and our terms of use. To report an abusive posting, please contact us.

Please enter the case-sensitive letters you see in the left box to prove that you are human and indeed reading this page. This prevents spam and malicious attacks. Click the refresh icon to refresh words.

To comment or contact us, please visit our new site at http://www.realvail.com

 

ColoradoSki.com Snow Report Ticker
Search Realvail.com

more new stories...


more new stories...

more resort guides...

lYNX