Soccer: An American Sport
Brian D. Bunk Chicago, 1905. SDN-004085, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. One sure way to irritate historians of soccer in the United States (and yes, there are a few) is to call the sport foreign. In various forms the game has been played by Native Americans and Puritans; factory workers and college students; and professionals and preschoolers throughout American history. Why then does this idea persist? The reasons are complex, but one important factor is that the mainstream sporting press, especially in the second half of the 20th century, has continually depicted soccer as a foreign game. Anyone who watches ESPN, the nation’s dominant sports network, probably already realized what the website Deadspin.com [http://deadspin.com/what-i-learned-from-a-year-of-watching-sportscenter-5979510] quantified for 2012: the majority of airtime on the channel’s signature news program Sportscenter focused on just three leagues, the National Football League, Nationa...