Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Starting Eleven Football Blog Roundup

I watch Fox Football Fone-In occasionally now. I used to watch it pretty faithfully, probably because Stephen Cohen was a pretty interesting fellow to listen to. It's difficult to agree with his rants all the time, but at least he has informed rants -- and he believes them.

Now I watch Eric Wynalda in Cohen's chair and I just don't see the fuss. I see a smarmy dude who is not as informed as he thinks he is; he's got superficial knowledge of the international game I guess he can hang in a casual conversation. But for damn sure, he ain't buying his own B.S.

Wynalda can't carry the show and his smug outlook on the game, his disdain for his co-host and equal condescension for the audience's questions are equally ugly. And now the USSF is thinking of hiring this guy as an assistant for the U.S. U-20 national team?

Use extreme caution when handling this package. Wynalda's contributions to American football are well noted, but they have to be tempered. The guy was a pioneer, but that doesn't mean he could play all that well. He stood out in an era (error?) of American football when the quality was many rungs below what it is today -- kinda like the old cliche about being the tallest little person.

Wynalda's smarm I think is innate--it's not a made-for-TV schtick. Do we want this molding the youth of our game? Time will tell...

Off to the races with this week's tour of the football blogosphere:

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