Author: Scott Adamson

In praise of grassroots soccer

Greenville FC and Chattanooga FC square off at Sirrine Stadium. (Scott Adamson photo)

Supporting local soccer is quite convenient for me considering the local soccer team I support plays just a little over two miles from my house.

Scott Adamson’s column on soccer appears periodically, usually when he’s feeling especially soccerish.

That team is Greenville Football Club, the National Premier Soccer League squad that wrapped up its 2019 regular season on Saturday with a 3-1 victory over Chattanooga FC.

After calling Furman University’s Eugene Stone Soccer Stadium home in their inaugural campaign last year, they moved to venerable Sirrine Stadium this summer.

My latest trip to the historic venue (it’s been around for 83 years and its concrete steps and seating show it) served a couple of purposes.

One, it allowed me to buy a ticket and contribute a few dollars to GVLFC, which is important. Investing in community soccer involves your money as well as your time.

And two, I got to see the club that I “own.”

I joined 3,287 of my closest friends and bought a combined $880,750 worth of equity shares in Chattanooga FC. This club, grounded in a community-based philosophy, is the model for everything right about American soccer – and everything it could be.

I wanted to be a (small) part of it all, even though Friday was the first time I’d ever actually seen them play live.

It was a fun night.

I spent most of it roaming the stadium, taking turns eavesdropping on the respective supporters groups (the Milltown Operatives and Chattahooligans) and enjoying an intense match.

Thing is, had brothers Marco and Richard Carrizales not decided to put an NPSL club in the Upstate of South Carolina, I might still be largely ignorant when it comes to lower division soccer.

Like a lot of other people I know, I’d fallen into the trap of “big box” American soccer, convincing myself that since it had “Major League” in its title it was the only domestic brand of association football I needed to follow.

Oh, over the years I’d kept up with the Atlanta Ruckus/Silverbacks in the A-League, United Soccer Leagues First Division and rebooted North American Soccer League, and cheered for the New York Cosmos when they rose from the soccer grave, but paid no attention to the adult amateur game.

Turns out, though, I had it all backwards. Without strong grassroots soccer, the sport will eventually wither away in this country.

So when I found out the NPSL was coming to town, I started doing research on the league. That led to several other “discoveries,” such as the United Premier Soccer League, Women’s Premier Soccer League and other circuits that often operated (and still operate) far from the spotlight.

GVLC proved to be my gateway club, leading me to find and embrace Asheville City SC and soak in the cool soccer cultures of my two favorite Villes.

From there I learned the story of Chattanooga FC, which led me to start following another community-first club, Detroit FC, and others that are building from the ground up instead of the billionaire down.

It wasn’t long before I concluded the Beautiful Game was still quite attractive even without a $200 million franchise fee.

I’m immersed in the highs and lows and successes and failures of lower division soccer, and now I find myself absorbing all I can about the myriad men’s and women’s teams scattered throughout the country.

Had I stayed in my bubble, I might’ve thought the dormancy (and likely death) of the modern NASL meant my longtime support of the Cosmos was pointless.

But here they are – undefeated in NPSL play, expected to challenge for a title, and then heading to the Founders Cup (a professional offshoot of NPSL) in the fall.

More immediately, though, I’m excited about this weekend’s NPSL playoffs.

Lee Squires’ Greenville squad stands at 5-1-4, wrapped up the second seed in the South Region Southeast Conference Division playoffs behind Chattanooga, and has shown great improvement from 2018’s maiden voyage team.

Asheville City SC and Inter Nashville SC fill out the four-team playoff field in an elimination event that will take place at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga Friday and Saturday.

A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t care a thing about the NPSL postseason. Hell, I wouldn’t even know about it.

Now I do.

It reminds me of a scene in the movie “Damned United” when manager Brian Clough is trying to put assistant Peter Taylor in his place.

Taylor was having none of it.

“Oh, yes, you’re the shop window, I grant you that,” Taylor said. “The razzle and the bloody dazzle. But I’m the goods in the back!”

Thanks to Greenville FC, I’m no longer starstruck by the razzle and the dazzle of franchise soccer. My hometown club helped me realize the goods in the back are just two miles from my house.

 

 

 

‘Date Night’ is different for us

Hear the term “date night” and you might think of couples – probably with children – finally stealing away some time to enjoy an evening on the town.

Brain Farce is a humor column written by Scott Adamson. It comes out basically whenever he feels like writing it. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Perhaps it involves dressing up, having dinner at a fine restaurant, seeing a play like “Hamilton, or going to a movie (there was an actual movie called “Date Night” released in 2010, so you could’ve spent date night watching “Date Night”).

It might even include romance, although you probably want to dial that down a bit – especially if you’re still at Denny’s when the mood strikes.

(Speaking of which, I enjoy role playing games. Sometimes I dress as an agent selling car insurance and Mary pretends to be a customer with a $500 deductible. One time she wore a Geico Gecko costume, but things got weird and I’m not comfortable talking about it).

Anyway, Mary and I do not have traditional date nights. Instead, we have date days.

Sometimes we even have date mornings.

Basically, it consists of brunch and a movie, or a movie and lunch. Either way, it’s extremely casual and fits in much better with our be-in-the-house-before-dark lifestyle.

Now, the main reason we like to go to morning/early afternoon movies is because there are far less people in the theater. It’s not that we don’t like people … it’s really more that we don’t like being around people.

And before you think we’re antisocial we really aren’t – some of our best friends are members of the human race. But neither of us like crowds, especially when you’re packed in tight at the ol’ multiplex.

If we go to the cinema in the morning, we can find a nice spot where we don’t have people near us.

Go at night, and you might wind up with a teenage boy soaked in Axe Body Spray on one side of you and an old woman who smells of mothballs and has an annoying nose whistle on the other.

The only time we do go to a movie at night is if said movie involves Batman. I’m a Grand Gordon in the Dark Knight Temple, so premiere evenings count as holy days of obligation.

As for dressing up on our dates, we don’t do that.

I mean we wear clothes – obviously – just not particularly good ones.

Mary has an impressive rotation of T-shirts. One celebrates the band “Folk Uke” and features a unicorn barfing a rainbow; one has a cat with horns; and another says “Think While It’s Still Legal.”

My shirts are generally of the sportsball or comic book variety and I try to always dress for the occasion.

If we’re at a Marvel movie, I’ll usually wear my Avengers or Captain America tee.

When at a DC film, I always sport a Caped Crusader or Superman shirt.

And you’ll never catch me wearing a DC shirt to a Marvel film or vice versa. That’s a slap in the face to nerds and nerdkind.

The mere thought of someone walking into “Avengers: Endgame” while wearing a “Shazam” tank top makes my blood boil.

As for dining out, we don’t do fancy … never have and probably never will.

Our rotation involves a Mexican restaurant, a hipster-type joint that serves everything from black bean burgers to hummus, and a veggie-style diner.

That’s basically it – rarely do we venture beyond our grub trilogy.

We don’t go to high end places that serve things like wildebeest soufflé and warthog kabobs and feature a member of the wait staff bringing over a bottle of wine and asking me to sniff a cork.

Frankly, I’ve always felt that cork sniffing should be done behind closed doors (but under close supervision).

And plays and concerts just don’t do it for us anymore, mainly because of that whole people issue.

I mentioned “Hamilton” earlier and I have no doubt it’s extraordinarily entertaining, but unless Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo are willing to do a private performance for us – preferably before lunch and in our backyard – we’re probably going to wait until it’s made into a movie and comes to Netflix.

I realize our version of “date night” might not sound very exciting to a lot of people, but it works out just fine for us.

And really, as nice as an early movie and burrito might be, there’s nothing we like more than simply piling up on the futon at home with our two dogs and two cats and binging on “Stranger Things.”

Thing is, if you’re lucky enough to find the person you want to be with, every night can be date night – even if it’s morning.

The Spring League carves out a niche

If you’ve perused this website at all, you realize my devotion to Brand X football is both longstanding, continuous and borderline ridiculous.

Scott Adamson writes about alternative pro football leagues because it makes him happy, Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Tell me you’re starting a professional tackle football league, and I’m gonna listen.

Tell me it’ll last, and I’ll pretend to believe you.

But while most tales of upstart gridiron circuits are relatively short and simple (they debut, they lose millions of dollars, they can’t pay their bills, they fold), I have to tip my hat to The Spring League (TSL), the brainchild of Brian Woods.

Its financial plan is brilliant.

How brilliant?

Well, players pay to participate, so the league doesn’t have to worry about making payroll. In fact, those who spent April as TSL players had to pony up a $2,000 registration fee.

What do they get for their investment?

Per the league’s website:

Each player accepted into The Spring League receives housing and meals. Additionally, players benefit from elite instruction and coaching, as well as the opportunity to be scouted by professional football clubs. 

And after just three seasons, TSL is already (basically) the farm system for the new XFL. It just completed a scouting event in California and has another planned July 28-31.

“We’re in an important phase of our development and The Spring League gives us the perfect platform to continue our effort to reimagine the game,” Oliver Luck, XFL commissioner and CEO, said. “We had a great experience and learned so much at The Spring League in April, and feel confident that after these next two sessions we’ll have identified a few XFL-caliber players and  be closer to finalizing our rules and gameplay.”

Completely lost? Never heard of The Spring League before?

Don’t worry … you’re not alone. Its origins are not unlike the origins of those blink and you’ll miss ‘em leagues that came before it.

Woods, a walk-on safety at Ole Miss who has lawyer, agent, and former coach on his resume, founded the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL) in 2014, which was designed to serve as an in-season (and short season) feeder system to the NFL.

I followed the league because former Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd played for the Brooklyn Bolts. Since the publication I worked for at the time was Tiger-centric, it gave me the perfect excuse to goob out over another league destined to pop up and blow up.

And that it did; it lasted just two mini-seasons before officially suspending operations in September of 2016. But Woods took what he learned from the experience and came up with the idea for The Spring League.

However, unlike the Alliance of American Football – the most recent spring league to try and fail – it isn’t really designed to draw fans.

It’s designed to draw scouts, because in reality it’s a glorified, extended combine:

The Spring League is an elite development league & scouting event for professional football talent. The Spring League takes place each year during the months of March and April. Additionally, The Spring League holds one-week showcases in the summer and fall.

In 2017, the four-team “league” set up shop in West Virginia and spent three weeks serving as a showcase for guys hoping to get another shot at pay-for-play football.

When camp broke, a handful had signed with NFL and Canadian Football League teams.

Last year The Spring League moved to Austin, Texas, and featured Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, who parlayed his experience with the camp into a contract with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

As was the case in 2017, some of its campers went on to the NFL and CFL, but dozens more landed (and stuck) with the Alliance.

This spring it stayed in Austin and teamed up with the XFL as more than just a place where pro football hopefuls can attract eyeballs. Vince McMahon’s second go round with his version of Brand X football is using TSL as a lab for rule experimentation.

When XFL 2.0 takes the field next February its rulebook will have mostly been determined in Austin, and I’m guessing quite a few TSL players will be holding down XFL roster spots.

“We are excited to be working with the XFL again and further demonstrate our value as both a platform for player development and incubator for rules testing,” Woods said. “Our summer events will provide additional opportunities for players to be scouted by XFL coaches and scouts in advance of their 2020 launch.”

Certainly, The Spring League doesn’t fit the mold of what we’ve come to expect from “alternative” pro football and I’m not sure what the end game is. Does it want to be an actual league at some point? Is its ultimate purpose the one it’s already serving?

Who knows?

If the XFL beats the odds and lasts, maybe TSL can tag along as a long-term partner. Or, perhaps it can morph into something else entirely.

Regardless of how things play out, I’ll be keeping track of it.

After all, that’s what I do.

For more information, go to www.thespringleague.com.