Thursday, July 19, 2007

Spend it like Beckham

In their (seemingly) never ending way to try to force Americans to embrace soccer (football), NBC has concocted another prime-time program based around the life of someone who has built-in publicity by virtue of her name.
Victoria Beckham has her own show called Coming to America. Geez, go figure. Weeks after her overpaid husband signed a contract to attempt to force Americans to like something that they clearly do not, we are being invaded once again by cameras in someone's house. This time, it's the wife of David Beckham, the midfielder for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Seriously, they are running out of names for sports teams.
David Beckham, by virtue of his talent and a popular movie with his name in the title, signed a 5-year deal worth as much as $250 million that will see Beckham earn up to $10 million a year in direct salary (but with endorsements and profit-sharing, Beckham could earn up to $50 million a year) and earning about 90 dollars every second on the field.
He will be fiercely promoted on TV and now that his wife has her own show, she will be foist upon us as well. This is merely the latest in the manufactured celebrity machine that seemed to start with American Idol, continued with people like Paris Hilton and drones on now with worldly popular sports figures whom Americans couldn't care less about.
That didn't stop the Galaxy from paying him a fortune, and it won't stop NBC from pushing more nonsense on us - all in the name of big-time entertainment that we are told we are supposed to like. How much do you want to bet that NBC (or one of its affiliate companies) has part ownership in the Galaxy?
News flash: Americans don't like soccer and haven't liked it for the past 20 years that it has been pushed on us. We are a four-sport country, and like Jerry Seinfeld, we already have all the friends (sports) we need, and there isn't room for any more. It's July, and we are already being told that NFL training camp starts in 9 days. Jesus, Mary and Joseph - they are still playing baseball. By September, basketball, hockey and college football will be sucking at society's teat, draining us of whatever is left of our collective attention span.
Soccer? Get in line.

1 comment:

Sparky Duck said...

I heard the show was only like one episode because it sucked so bad.

I think that americans would like soccer more if they watched more English Premier League because it is soccer at its best and makes you kinda appreciate it