Jackson Free Press

I will watch anything to do with sports. It doesn't matter whether it's football, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf or poker. If there was a World Championship Tiddlywinks tournament, you could bet that I'd watch it.

The competition is what holds my attention and keeps me coming back for more, and the higher the stakes, the more likely I am to watch. If you throw in rooting for my country, you might as well just kiss me good-bye. A chance at nationalism or patriotism, if you will, will always make the stakes higher, the win sweeter and the loss that much harder.

Last week, I saw some articles on how watching the World Cup is un-American. Un-American? Isn't my job as someone who loves my country to root for my fellow countrymen in all their athletic endeavors? Would it be any less American to watch table tennis or badminton or any other Summer Olympics sport (by the way, soccer is also an Olympic sport) we don't dominate? Would watching the luge in the Winter Olympics make me less American? Of course not. Watching soccer and rooting for the U.S. Men's National Team is what every red-blooded American should do. Rooting for the USMNT is as American as apple pie, fireworks and homemade ice cream.

By the time this is published, we might have fallen to Belgium, but I hope we showed true American fighting spirit and gave our all. If we survived the Belgian encounter then, more than likely, a date with Lionel Messi and Argentina would be up next. Even the most optimistic U.S. fans would tell you to put the brakes on going any farther in the World Cup. The only way the U.S. would beat Argentina is if Luis Suarez runs on the pitch and starts attacking Argentine players like The Wolfman.

But even if the U.S. gets knocked out of the World Cup, I will still keep watching. I love seeing the greatest players in their sport battle the biggest pressure in the highest level of their sport.

Watching the World Cup isn't un-American. In fact, if you're watching the World Cup and the USMNT team, that is the height of being an American. Football is still king in this country, but watching soccer every four years won't kill it.