The United States Men’s National Team opened their 2022 World Cup with a 1-1 draw against Wales. Following the game, Felger had some thoughts on the soccer product.
Audio
Transcript
Felger: Just a quick thought on the product. I still do really like the product. But there’s things that just bothered the crap out of me, and I can spend 3 hours ranting about it, like the rolling around on the ground, the number of injuries and guys that are rolling around on the turf. Like, get up. When I become commissioner of sports, I will end that in like 10 minutes. You know. Don’t blow your whistle…get up or we’re going to keep going. We’re going to stomp on you if you’re still rolling around on the ground. That’s your problem, not ours. We will play over you. We will walk over you like a piece of dog crap in the street. We’re not going to stop the game because you’re rolling around trying to draw a foul or pretending you’re hurt. We’re not doing this. And there was a lot of that in this game. Like, were they cramping or something? Again, the sounds down or whatever. But it’s like, Jesus, get up. And now we’re showing on the simulcast the picture, the yellow cards, these ticky tack yellow cards early in the match like, the U.S. got two in the first, whatever, 10 minutes that are like, Jesus, will you let them play a little bit. And the thing there is if you get a second yellow card, you’re out of the match and you have to play ten men. And they also add them up over the course of the tournament. So you get a certain number of yellows and you have to miss a game. So like it adds up. And the first two that the U.S. got were barely there. But it looks bad because the Welsh guys like, you know, rolling around, flailing around. It’s like a part of the sport that’s just insufferable. Aren’t you ashamed soccer players?
Jim Murray: No, they’re not.
Felger: I mean, aren’t you ashamed to be so soft and to like to celebrate your softness and to promote your softness? Like, don’t you feel at any point like you’re no shame? Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself?
Jim Murray: They’re shameless. That’s part of the international game. It was going on in the opening match yesterday. Guys who were barley getting touched were like, “ohhhhh”. Carrying on like Mac Jones.
Felger: It’s insufferable. It’s insufferable.
Mazz: (laughing) Mac Jones.
Felger: So that’s what I hate about it. What I like about it, and I wish the U.S. Could just take a page from this….The flow of the game, meaning there was one commercial break that whole match. It was over in 2 hours and that was with like 15 minutes of extra time. So they had a ton of extra time. The thing started right at two. It ended just a few minutes after four, and that was after they added 9 minutes in the second half in like 5 minutes in the first half. So they played the whole package, the whole thing in just over two hours. Maybe it was under two hours. But they did the whole thing, with all that extra time as well, in two hours with one commercial break. Why do all of our games take four hours with interminable, constant commercial breaks. And do you know how much money soccer makes internationally? The Premier League is, you know, not quite the NFL, but it’s in the same ballpark. I think it’s the second biggest revenue producing league in the world, maybe behind baseball, it still does really well revenue wise. But it does massive amounts of money. And they play the game in 2 hours with one commercial break. How is that possible? How is it possible for the Premier League to be a four or five billion a year industry and draw all that revenue playing two hour games with one commercial break. It can be done. Sell the uniform space, sell the field space, sell everything and cut down on the commercials. I know it’s never going to happen, but every time I watch it, it’s like, how do they make all that money over there? They don’t take any commercials. And they wrap it up in 2 hours.
