Jim Rome: Sports Comedian | Steven Keys' Blog

Whenever I see Jim Rome I think back to the time he (and his producer?) so bravely baited the un-suspecting Jim Everett into exploding on his TV show in the late 1990s. That was back when Rome was trying to build a TV following, seemingly along the lines of The Jerry Springer Show.

Today he's toning it down a bit and turning more often to humor.

When talking of the USA upset victory over Spain in Confederation Cup play, Rome implied it was common belief that the USA women's World Cup victory a few years ago would put soccer on the map in the United States. That was funny.

It was almost as funny as when Rome later held that an over-the-hill David Beckham's move to California was just as widely believed to bring about the same result.

Apart from Title 9 and Billie Jean King's Battle of the Sexes victory over Bobby Riggs (1973), the only time women's sports has ever had a major impact on American (business) culture was when the Dorothy Hamill hair-style swept the nation (after she won figure skating gold at the 1976 Lake Placid Olympics). Title 9 has few counterparts worldwide.

And nobody seriously believed Beckham was going to make soccer a major sport in the USA any more than Pele did in the 1970s.

Some sincere recognition of the USA's impressive performance in the Confederation soccer tournament would not have made Jim Rome look like a panty-waist. His tough-guy image would have remained intact.

Ridiculing soccer amongst trash-talking US sports media is always in style. It's as expected as Democrat-bashing is on Fox Noise, even though most American kids seem to play soccer at one time or another.

I'd agree with Jim in that the USA's recent victory over heavily-favored Spain will hardly have an impact on the game's popularity in los Estados Unidos. But it doesn't take a genius to see how performing well in the C-Cup can be a significant stepping-stone to achieving success in the 2010 World Cup.

And while, even winning the World Cup wouldn't put USA soccer on the same footing as the NFL or NASCAR, such a triumph would likely boost soccer to second-tier status as say the NHL and NBA. And to corporate profiteers, there's nothing funny about that.

Steven Keys