Quibbles And Bits: World Cup Edition

by Kevin Burton    How to wrap one’s heart and empathetic mind around the heartbreak for England as it coughed up a late lead to lose 2-1 to Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals Wednesday?    Think of a Cleveland basketball fan watching Michael Jordan sink a jumper over Craig Ehlo in the 1989 playoffs …

The Soccer Match That Kicked Off A War

by Toby Luckhurst BBC In 1969, El Salvador and Honduras fought a four-day conflict that cost thousands of lives and displaced thousands more – a bloody struggle still remembered as the Football War.    It was 2-2 after 90 minutes at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. This was the third game between Honduras and …

Quibbles And Bits: Hey Taylor Swift, I Tried

by Kevin Burton    I’ve tried twice now, and I won’t be back here again, to “get” the whole Taylor Swift thing.    The first time around came when Swift started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and started getting mega-coverage by watching Chiefs games from luxury suites.    I said, Oh my …

My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances

by Kevin Burton    Time and location, location, location, can change even the most fervent loyalties when it comes to sports fan allegiances.       On ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption, Tony Kornheiser talks about the New York Mets as “the team of my youth” to differentiate it from his current favorite, the Washington Nationals. That is …

Hey Baseball, Get Off My Lawn!

by Kevin Burton    The seasons are changing, calendar and sports calendar; the time is changing (spring forward Saturday night, kids), too much is changing.    Any number of poets have rhapsodized about the beginning of spring and all it symbolizes. OK, I’m good with that. But as a sports guy in the man cave, …

Speaking Of English, Speaking In British

by Kevin Burton    Not smashing, not daft, something mid-table I’d say, to use a football analogy.    I thought I was ready, so I had a go, with middling results.    Every day Merriam-Webster sends me an e-mail to help me watch my language.  A few weeks ago they announced “The Great British Vocabulary …

Stumbling Into Success Through Humility

by Kevin Burton    This is not a story about soccer, but that’s where it starts.    One time, I think it was while I was a reporter with the Muscatine Journal, I was assigned to do a soccer story.  I still don’t know much about soccer, but back then I knew next to nothing.  …

Blue-Eyed Soul Shook Up South Africa

by Kevin Burton     Growing up she was known as a tomboy, earning the nickname “Dusty” by playing soccer in the streets with boys.      She grew up to be anything but.    “During her 1960s peak she ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic,” reads her Wikipedia …