No, that was in response to the swimmer comment.

I don’t hate soccer. I think they’re fine athletes. Probably somewhere on a scale below NFL skill players but above athletic baseball players.

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I don't really like soccer, but it's a difficult and demanding game to play and at the top level one must be EXTREMELY athletic to play.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
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I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Past the grade school level, soccer requires more than running up and down a field, you know.


I think they just played Northerly Island a couple months ago.

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How do the most physically superior athletes from each of the sport compare to one another:

LBJ probably the best combination of size, speed, strength, and agility. A soccer player may be faster and a football player may be slightly stronger, perhaps a linebacker in particular, but I'm not sure if any athlete combines all these traits in one package like LBJ and other basketball players do.

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Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Sure. And that’s why I’ve placed them above the most coordinated people in the world but below people who are very coordinated while also gigantic.

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Of course, that’s why I think of them as better athletes than swimmers.

Soccer players aren’t going to win additional competitions by kicking the ball in slightly different ways to goose up their medal counts.

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If you are referring to 3 point shooters like Curry, soccer has plenty of specialists too. There are plenty of defenders who rarely even attempt a shot on goal.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I can accept that the top 1% of athletes are basketball players. But there simply aren't very many 6'7" guys that are as coordinated as even a "mediocre" soccer player on the elite level. If you want to say that LeBron and a few others are the best athletes in the world, I'm not going to argue. But it quickly goes down hill from there as the typical big basketball player isn't anywhere near as athletic as an average soccer player. More often than not, outside a basketball court his size is limiting.

The pool of soccer players is simply so much larger than any other sport. To get to the top, you have to pass a lot of guys.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Defending is an athletic pursuit. Shooting is an acquired skill. That's why Ted St. Martin is the best shooter ever.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

The issue with today’s game is probably more that it prioritizes athleticism over skill (often at the expense of physicality).

Guys couldn’t play this way years ago because some goon would skullfuck them midair for having the audacity to be good at shooting.

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The best athletes keep their possession in tight quarters, pass with precision, score the ball and sometimes dominate through bullyball.

Soccer...a lot of turnovers, poor passing, little scoring, lot of "airballs", and zero bullying. Great cardio though.

Does it though? It seems to me the game is set up to reward those who can hit a shot from as far away from the basket as possible.

I don't watch the NBA very much but I do watch the Illini and I see big athletic guys constantly taking shots from well beyond the three-point arc.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Remember, Joe used to ball against the orthodox back in the day, so his perspective on basketball might be a little different

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Messi is 5'7 and is one of the best of all time. It's just as true that his size would be far more limiting. Of course for soccer he can be the best in the world but he would get absolutely crushed in any sport where size matters. Of course, Kofi Cockburn couldn't play soccer at an elite level but he'd be a lot closer to the elite level in any sport where strength or size matters and Kofi is playing in a Japanese basketball league.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

What coordination is needed in soccer that isn't in basketball? It's just the difference between hands and feet. LeBron probably can't dribble his way through a college level soccer defense but the best soccer players would also be embarrassed if they ever had to bring the ball up against a college level basketball player.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

That was the most compelling 45 minutes of non scoring football I have ever seen.

Polska!

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Bernsie had a decent observation during the game. Is much happening in Chicago now with Mexico playing Poland?

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I see that as a matter of practice. Coordination is coordination. I'm sure Messi could figure out how to dribble with his hands if his sport required it. And I'm sure Steph Curry could probably dribble with his feet if he needed to.

But I think we need to define what we mean by "athletic." Obviously size and speed are components of athleticism. But in what measure? LeBron James is extremely coordinated for a 6'8" guy. You don't expect him to handle the ball like Allen Iverson. I don't want to get into a conversation where the same people who usually say Shaq "is just big" are now stating that size is the overriding factor in athleticism.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
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I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Having that size & strength along with comparable levels of coordination is unique. That’s why those guys are the best.

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To me, "athleticism" is who is the most well rounded and could compete in the most sports at an elite level. Most sports don't have 5'7 guys dominating.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

There are plenty of sports that a 6'6" guy can't even play though. So I think that's a poor definition.

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Like what?

Tall people can excel at most things. There just aren’t that many athletic, freakishly tall people out there.

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LOLandowski.

Poland.travel calling for the great Polish diaspora to come home. Or at least visit. Or something. They put out a commercial with some clips of what looked like Arizona without a specific call to action.

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Right. Because it's hard to be athletic if you're tall. That's why we notice the few that are.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Messi is a midget with quick feet and good anticipation. Period. Justin Fields is 6'3", 230lbs who is far more athletic than any soccer player. Faster, stronger with quick feet and amazing mobility who, if he grew up playing soccer would likely be just as skilled as any of the little guys playing a children's game. And let's not even get into a guy like Micah Parsons who's even bigger, faster and can likely play any position on the football field except DT, CB and OL.

The best thing going for soccer is that teens and twenty somethings have been playing FIFA video games since they need an alternative to Madden and 2K basketball. And by this spring most in this country won't spend ten minutes a week following the sport.

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Outside of gymnastics and soccer I don't know which ones you are referring to. That's not including goalies in soccer just like we aren't including kickers in football.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah, that’s literally what the best soccer players are able to do.

Um, you were there!

This guy scored by bullying people around. Also PEDs, probably.