@Loose Cannon: Yeah, did Joe Buck realize who he was talking to? This is ANONYMOUS we're talking about here, people! THE Anonymous, fer chrissakes!

@Grahmo: And just take the other guys word for it, rather than simply count the seats, a task which probably took a couple of hours at most? Why is it being a prick to ask an intern to do work?

Him: "about how many people do you think this place could seat?" Me: "Oooh, I don't know, about 250?" Him: "no, I asked you how many people this place seats?" He then handed me a torch and told me to call him when I'm done counting.

@Battles_In_The_AFC_North: Well, they spend more time kicking balls. In basketball, on the other hand, the most popular players have excellent ball-handling skills.

@HockeyMountain: And where the alpha male differentiates between potential targets by calling some "tight ends" and others "wide receivers."

@Rustafur: Encouraging your child to achieve excellence, even in the face of danger, is one thing. Encouraging them to do so in order to market the reality TV show you had signed on for is quite another.

@RonZookonRedBull: +1

Before we go too overboard attacking the media and defending the parents for motivating their child to achieve excellence, we should note that the dad had already signed a contract to do a reality show, "Adventures in Sunderland," about his daredevil kids before he sent his daughter off on an around-the-world sailing…

@Loose Cannon: Your points are generally well taken, but I have to take issue with your inclusion of New Zealand in the list. Really? New Zealand has a population of 4 million, or less than the population of Kentucky. They don't really have an impact on the percentage of the world interested in soccer (unless…

@twoeightnine: And give you a chance to score three points even if you don't accomplish what you set out to do, because you came really, really close. (35 yards away is really, really close, right?)

@Pepito, the biggest cat in the whole wide world: Unlike the capitalist American sports, where the worst teams are rewarded with higher draft picks.

@Kris Fulton: You're right, soccer is only the most popular sport in 75% of the countries. You've certainly proved your point.

I hope the way we do things doesn't prevent any long-haired Michigan obsessives from getting updates on player scholarship eligibility from his team's athletic department.

If American football was created in Europe, conservative commenters would be attacking it for subverting the individual in favor of the collective (socialism!), and claiming that its obscenely long rule book is emblematic of the regulatory state, with the refs as the incompetent career bureaucrats who stand in the way…

@Ken Gryphon Jr.: Excellent.

@ArkansasFred: Ahem. Not down your throat.

causing a plume of smoke that it makes it look like the BP oil spill was just set ablaze completely within the confines of my kitchen and my kitchen alone

test

I'm stuck in Paris boring my brains out."