"That's unacceptable conduct by the visiting supporters," said Arsene Wenger postmatch. "Our fans were pretty close to getting hit with the flares, which, of course, is just as good as getting hit with the flares."

No one likes Arsenal.

I'm from the town from where Ereck Plancher was from (I went to another high school though). A lot of fucked up details came out of that incident. It got so bad that the HS football coaches down here did not want their players who weren't good enough for FSU or UF, but good enough for the state directional schools…

I just don't see how the two years of dormancy is really going to be distinguishable from the 10 years of dormancy that preceded it.

Seems that would require owners who don't invest in their clubs to be at risk of taking a financial hit if they were to be relegated, close to how businesses operate in the real world...

You know, there's a pretty easy way to ensure that all the teams in your top flight aren't horribly mismanaged by predicating their very status in that division on the quality of the team they put on the field, but I keep hearing that promotion and relegation will never happen in MLS for...whatever reason. Oh well,…

"It's not all EJ's fault but we need to get better production out of that position."

Before anyone ever cared who's head I would cover, I was just pate skin from Northeast Ohio. It's where I was covered. It's where I furrowed. It's where I burgeoned. It's where I was combed. It holds a special place in my follicles. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I'm their bald spot. Their…

Nor would any hockey player.

Yeah, this is the hilarious thing. Most teams rely on the pressure from fans terrified of losing their club. There's absolutely none of that here.

Good plan to squeeze the city, Arte. Nobody ever goes to Anaheim to do anything fun except to go to Angels games.

My heart weeps for the person in Havre, Montana who is not allowed to support any club. There are no clubs in Havre, Montana. You're only allowed to like clubs from your city. Ergo, tough shit, people from Havre, you are not allowed to like soccer. And then when you say that soccer fans are arrogant dickheads who…

So, if one of your Albanian friends were to one day approach you and say,

Another factor one might want to check before rooting for a club, is that club's "politics" or socio-economic ties, particularly in Spain and Italy.

It's just a fucking sports team. It's ok to root for your crappy local amateur team or Real Madrid or whoever you want. No one is a better fan because of who they root for.

That's like getting pissed off at somebody in rural NY State because they are fanatical about the Yankees but don't care about the AA team 15 miles down the road.

Oh, fuck off.

Fan support is a two-way street. The local team has to offer a product worth rooting for, as well.

The authorities really need to get that old, fat, shitty, lazy, probably half-senile bear back where he belongs, the Sunday NFL Countdown desk.

As a Canadian; I can tell you that we generally refer to larger bears as overweight. The only thing that calling the bear fat accomplishes is making the bear feel bad.