Bill Simmons 20 Questions on the World Cup

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America embracing soccer was great

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I fricking love Bill Simmons.

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I used to hate him. When he wrote that article during the Superbowl week in 2002 in New Orleans that really insulted the city and the people, he was definitely on my shite list. Over the years he has regained my respect and now I enjoy his articles and podcasts.

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(Important note: I want Simon Cowell to create a reality television competition for Fox called "American Striker." That's the only way we'll find one by 2014, barring Jozy jumping a level or a foreign stud miraculously defecting. And don't rule that out. Can't we find a multibillionaire sports fan to "convince" an up-and-coming striker to become an American citizen before he commits to another national team? Larry Ellison and Paul Allen: Step it up, fellas.)

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Please God let this happen. Is it sad that I think this might actually leave us with a better attacking threat than we have now?

As a non-New Orleanian, I didn't think it was bad. He was just trying to joke around and everyone just overreacted. He's always shown great love for New Orleans.

I can take or leave Simmons overall. I think he relies on his schtick too much, but he is a good writer and he is certainly a self-made name. So good for him.

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He was just trying to joke around and everyone just overreacted.

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I thought he went overboard with it. A couple jokes would have been fine, but the whole article bashed the city.

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When Bob Bradley screwed up the Ghana game because of his inexplicable "Screw it, I'm not starting my best 11 guys" strategy

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exactly

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I love the Cup because it stripped away all the things about professional sports that I've come to despise. No sideline reporters. No JumboTron. No TV timeouts. No onslaught of replays after every half-decent play.

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I've heard countless of my non-soccer fan friends say they just absolutely love this about the game and will continue to keep up with the sport after the WC.

Watching 4 hour college football marathons in our busy society is tough for me to do these days and I love the sport.

I think this is the article you guys are referring to but not completely sure.... LINK

On the subject of the world cup article, I loved it. Thought it was dead on in terms of the american vibe and the future of american soccer. I also think he hit most things on what is great about the cup.

Goosebumps

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I thought it was glorious. Those clips choked me up. Those clips gave me goosebumps. Those clips made me think, "I forget this sometimes, but I'm glad I live in the United States of America."

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Oh ya you're right. I remember reading that one but can't find it.

so so article outside of this amazing passage

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I hate how teams milk leads in the last 15-20 minutes by faking injuries and taking forever to sub players. When that Ghana player had to be carried off on a stretcher at the tail end of the America game, then hopped off like nothing ever happened as soon as the stretcher was out of bounds, I thought that was appalling. Actually, it made me want to go to war with Ghana. I wanted to invade them. I'm not even kidding. That's another great thing about the World Cup: Name another sport in which you genuinely want to invade other countries when you lose.

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i had similar feelings