Snobbery: on David Beckham and Rocky Balboa

When Robert Earl became a major shareholder of Everton FC, the Planet Hollywood entrepreneur hinted that his good friend Sylvester Stallone was keen on watching some Premiership action. Stallone is currently in England for the Rocky Balboa film premiere, and sure enough will be at Goodison Park tomorrow for the visit of Reading. The club has trumpeted Sly's presense, setting up a competition to meet the man and they'll announce him before the match.

Many Evertonians think it's a fairly embarassing PR gimmick, which I think is harsh. The kids aren't too young to know who Rambo is, and as a one-off event it'll generate a buzz. I'm indifferent toward Stallone, but do rate Rocky IV as one of the greatest films of all time and if his Everton appearance wasn't enough to tempt me to watch the new film, this review from The Guardian is:

Cheerfully moronic, imbued with an almost infantile racism to which Stallone and the film's enthusiasts have long purported to be oblivious

Queenan's point (valid or otherwise) is lost on me due to his vitriolic attack on Rocky fans. Evidently those of us who've been to Philadelphia get "to pretend to be working class, which is fun, as opposed to actually being working class, which is work"; and in a wholly moronic way:

hardcore fans of the Rocky series have a tough time distinguishing fact from fiction, almost certainly never get any closer to an art museum than the steps leading up to it, and aren't terrifically bright

So parden me for being vaguely entertained by a movie, but such a negative attitude toward Stallone himself seems typical of an English snobbery: we abhor financial success, hate superstars, and patronise American cultural output. I can understand why The Guardian prints this drivel, but don't know enough about Queenan to know why he writes it.

Peculiarly British or downright English, nowhere is this snobbery more evident than David Beckham's new contract with LA Galaxy. He will eclipse the salaries of MLB and NFL's highest paid, generating claims of mercenary and incredulity. But notice also the snobbery, as commentators talk about it indicating an effectual retirement, and more to do with "building the game in the US" than winning matches. I wish Beckham well, and hope he enjoys being in a country that value highly paid sports stars rather than despise them. I think he'll become a better role model, in a country with such a deep link to philanthropy that sports stars make massive contributions to their communities. Whilst the typical Premeirship player thinks a couple of hospital runs and a few signed shirts is "giving back", not so in the States. I couldn't believe why St Louis Rams fans didn't send death threats to Kurt Warner when he left for the New York Giants - it's because his foundation is still active in Missouri. The way fans treat former players is telling. I also hope Beckham enjoys being in a country where sports stars are grounded, articulate, polite, respectful, professional athletes (as opposed to Joey Barton, Jermaine Pennant, Ashley Cole, Craig Bellamy, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Kieron Dyer etc)

And finally, back to that snobbery. As we English wonder whether Beckham's indian summer might (finally) launch soccer across the Atlantic, we seem to have a collective ignorance about how successful the US national team is. Although MLS is no match for the Premiership, since when did that matter? The US is a major football playing nation, and has a highly developed coaching system throughout the country. Their World Cup winning women have ensured massive popularity for the girls game, which has far greater resources and expertise than compared to us.

Australia and America both have football sides of similar standard to England, but we seem to be waiting until football is their number one sport before we consider them to be a developed nation. Unfortunately for the pompous, patronising pommies, American Football and Australian Rules Football will always be more popular than Association Football. But they're still be better than St George.

On my first visit to Goodison I was so excited I raced up the steps to the Upper Gwladys past an 'arl fella who turned round and said "I remember back to when I could do that!". ROCKY, ROCKY!!1

Update

A few Evertonians might have thought this was cheesy...

But the fact that he's still wearing the scarf on his publicity tour in Paris makes him an Evertonian! Classic stuff, I love the guy!

Comments

[dearieme]

Much that's said about Americans is effectively just racist, isn't it?

[John Dougan]

I suspect that if the U.S. ever did take soccer/football as seriously as the U.K. or Brazil, the rest of the world wouldn't like it very much. I'm willing to bet the U.S. teams would end up winning the awards on a very regular basis. They take their favoured sports very seriously and don't have much patience with losing. And they have a large population base to draw from and plenty of money to spend on training.

[Mark Stone]

USA:
"a country where sports stars are grounded, articulate, polite, respectful, professional athletes".

Yeah ok, like Kobe Bryant and OJ Simpson? Have you ever watched a game of ice hockey, or perhaps seen a brawl between all players, coaches, managers and mascots started by a pitcher throwing the ball at the batsmans head in a MLB game. Maybe you will have seen two gangsters from the ghetto fighting each other in the NFL? Are they star spangled sunglasses are you looking through?

I used to live in Boston by the way ...

[Joe]

Well I believe him, playing Rocky is not yeas and I don't find it hard to believe that he actually didn't fake the beating.

[supra shoes]

Was well written

[solno]

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[miami broadband]

Very interesting how they picture sports' fans and athletes' fans..
But I don't blame Beckham for not changing football soccer for the US... There.. soccer is not as important!!

[miami air conditioning]

This is a very cool guy down to earth i like o see him doing ordinary things like this very interesting to see all of that and good to see that he is still in shape.

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I suspect that if the U.S. ever did take soccer/football as seriously as the U.K. or Brazil, the rest of the world wouldn't like it very much. I'm willing to bet the U.S. teams would end up winning can understand why The Guardian prints this drivel, but don't know enough about Queenan to know why he writes it.

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