Beckham can hold his head high
Not because he acted with class in the face of belligerent fans. Because he didn’t.
Not because he performed well despite a hostile home crowd.
No, Beckham should feel a sense of accomplishment after the not-so-friendly welcome he received by fans of his own team because he won a battle that counts if we look at the Big Picture.
His overall goal of coming to the States was to infuse soccer with a new sense of excitement, passion, and to expand the fanbase and help the sport grow. And while most of those things have not, and likely will not, ever happen under Becks’s tenure here, one of them seems to have happened.
Let’s get a little perspective on the situation. Look past the immediate aspects of the story: the booing, the signs, the ugly scenes of Beckham taunting fans (or whatever he was doing). Think about the crowd that was so inflamed that it got under a world-class athlete’s skin. We’re talking LA, folks.
LA doesn’t really have sports fans. LA has entertainment seekers. This is a town where people are front-runners and trend followers. When USC started winning big and celebrities showed up on the sidelines, USC became the biggest show in town. If the Lakers were winning 20 games a season and Jack Nicholson canceled his court-side seats, you think that would still be a hot ticket? Of course not. And even when the teams are popular and winning, this is a populace that shows up late and leaves early.
In one of the biggest sports moments in LA history, Kirk Gibson’s pinch hit homerun in the 1988 World Series, you can see the tail lights of cars leaving the stadium early. Compare that to a city like Boston, Philly, Chicago for baseball or the ravenous dedication of rednecks to their college football teams in SEC country. LA fans can’t be bothered to stay for a World Series game, why would they give a hoot about an MLS team that hasn’t always been a winner?
That’s the crowd Becks was working with and look what he did. He turned a notoriously fair-weather, part-time population of entertainment seekers into fire-breathing, foaming-at-the-mouth, hardcore, loyal Galaxy fans. That’s right, Beckham has brought out passion for his MLS team, and in arguably the most apathetic market in the United States.
Sure it didn’t happen like he might have wanted, but it happened!
So, Beckham, even though you’re angry on the outside, it’s OK to smile on the inside. You couldn’t do it as the hero, but as the villain you’ve injected passion into US soccer. I think you should embrace this new role. Taunt and threaten fans in every stadium you visit this summer. Obscene gestures, cursing, whatever it takes. Only this time, don’t be apologetic afterwards. Blame the media or say the city you’re in is terrible and the people suck — something to get people even more riled up. Trust me, the only thing Americans like more than rooting for sports heros, is rooting against sports villains. And don’t worry about your legacy, the rest of the world (you know, real football fans) still recognizes you as a class act and world-class athlete.
