{"id":59963,"date":"2026-06-20T23:48:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=59963"},"modified":"2026-06-20T23:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:48:02","slug":"fifa-world-cup-not-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=59963","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup? Not for me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We”re a couple of weeks now into the World Cup matches spread across the United States of America and try as I might, I have to admit that I cannot join the rest of the world in embracing this activity.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Soccer just isn’t my bag, man. Full stop.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Before you accuse me of being provincialist, or of resisting a worldwide phenomenon, just understand that I am approaching my 77th birthday. I am long in the tooth and I understand fully the saying about how hard it is to change one’s habits and desires at an advanced age. So, there you go.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I remain a dedicated baseball fan, although even that has been trying for this old guy who just doesn’t quite grasp the kind of money these athletes make. I remember when icons like Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron all thought they had died and gone to heaven when they were offered contracts that reached $100,000 for a season. The same can be said for professional basketball and football athletes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

They went through a lot to get AT&T Stadium in Arlington, home for the Cowboys of the NFL, ready to play host to the World Cup matches. They had to remove artificial turn that covers the ground and replace it with grass, they had to remove all the corporate logos and teams have to rely solely on national pride to lift them to victory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I have one earlier experience with the World Cup. In 2006, my bride and I were in Copenhagen, Denmark to attend a conference. We looked for dinner one night with some friends from Amarillo. That night we walked for blocks and blocks looking for a place to eat. The problem was that Denmark was playing Germany in a World Cup match and every eatery and watering hole was packed with soccer fans cheering themselves hoarse. The Danes and Germans simply adore their national soccer teams. That’s their call.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It’s not mine.<\/p>\n

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We”re a couple of weeks now into the World Cup matches spread across the United States of America and try as I might, I have to admit that I cannot join the rest of the world in embracing this activity. Soccer just isn’t my bag, man. Full stop. Before you accuse me of being provincialist, … Continue reading FIFA World Cup? Not for me<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1724,3105,3232,3302,5296],"class_list":["post-59963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news","tag-fifa","tag-mlb","tag-nba","tag-nfl","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59965,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59963\/revisions\/59965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}