The WUSA has closed its doors. The league has folded citing insufficient revenue and there is one story that said that the founders/investors of the league had put in approximately $100M. Back in June 2002, I did a topical rant on Soccer in America. It may still be missing from the website archives due to repairs that are needed from the unanticipated crash of the site, but I do have a copy. I said then that soccer was an acquired taste in the US and that it had not “arrived” despite what the soccer aficionados were telling us for about the tenth time. I said then that the true believers had become the “little boy who cried wolf” and that nothing but an unmitigated success story for soccer could possibly make them right anymore. So here is what will happen now; in fact it is already beginning:

The true believers - and The Washington Post is squarely on their side - are painting this as a “new phase” for women's soccer. No it is not. The WUSA is bankrupt for lack of ability to sell its product. That is not a new phase; that is a continuation of the status quo ante.

The true believers will claim that Americans have learned much about soccer from the WUSA in the past several years. That is true. One of the things that they learned is that they used to think that they did not like soccer but did not understand why. Now they understand why.

The true believers will throw out meaningless statistics. One that is out already is that 70 million Americans are connected to the game of soccer. The problem is that far less than 1% of them are willing to go and pay money to see a game or watch one on TV. The average WUSA crowd was 6,000 people. Imagine the TV contract that would flow from something that could deliver anything like 70 million viewers. WUSA put games on TV for free. Got the picture here?

A few more NFL notes from the weekend's games if you will. Jamal Lewis set a single game rushing record of 295 yards against a Cleveland defense that would not have tackled the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Next week, Lewis gets to play the Chargers; in their first two games this year, the Chargers have given up 164 yards per game. This could be another big day for Lewis.

Ray Buchanan is playing CB for the Falcons. After watching him against the Redskins last week, he can't cover a corpse.

Steve McNair is injured – but that is hardly news. Given his history in the league, I would not be surprised to learn that McNair was born with a sore knee or a separated shoulder. However, this time he has dislocated a finger on his throwing hand. In case you were wondering, that falls into the category of “Not Good”.

The Cardinals threw 4 INTs and lost two fumbles to the Seahawks last Sunday. They played to over 50,000 empty seats. If you lived in Phoenix, would that performance encourage you to go out and get a ticket for this week's game against the Packers? Might there be more “cheeseheads” in the stands than Cardinal fans?

The Bengals gained 416 yards against the Raiders and held the ball for over 39 minutes. The Raiders only had 237 yards of offense. With those stats, you would expect to see the Bengals win by 10-14 points; they lost by a field goal with :09 to play. This is not good news for Cincy; they continue to look like the sorry-assed amalgamation of losers that they have looked like for a decade now. This is also not good news for the Raiders; they were dominated by the Bengals.

The Lions' losing streak on the road continues; it is now at three years and counting. Their next two road games are at Denver and at SF where the Lions should be comfortable underdogs. Looking ahead, on 26 October the Lions travel to Chicago to meet the Bears. It is not inconceivable that the Bears will be 0-6 at that point. So will the losing streak survive that trip?

Mike Tice reportedly told the Vikings before last week's game with the Bears that a wounded bear is one of the most dangerous animals in the world and that the Vikes needed to play hard to get the win. Certainly, Coach Tice is correct; wounded bears not something you want to run across on a woodland hike. However, here is one thing he neglected to tell his Vikings:

Sometimes a wounded bear simply curls up and dies.

The NFL is “investigating” Mike Shanahan for releasing false information about an injury to Jake Plummer during the game on Sunday. Plummer had a slight shoulder separation; the Broncos said it was a mild concussion. Shanahan said that he only had two QBs and if he had to put Plummer back in the game, he did not want the Chargers to realize that Plummer could not throw the ball and gang up on the running game. Sounds smart to me.

After last week's results, maybe the Big 10 Conference will consider a name change to something like the Big Wusses. Yes, I know that Michigan scorched Notre Dame; remember I took that as one of my “Mythical Picks” last week. But here is what else happened:

Louisiana Tech beat Michigan State in East Lansing

UNLV beat Wisconsin in Madison - handily

Miami-Ohio trounced Northwestern

Finally, here is a game that could make history professors all over the country rejoice. Suppose the Michigan State Spartans had an away game at Georgia and so the Spartans would be marching into Athens…

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

<< Back to the September Archives

= Home = Recent = Topical = Wagers =
= Archives = Pros = Scores = Contact =