Dan Shaugnessy, the Boston Globe columnist who once began a story with the words “I hate watching soccer,” makes an appearance on SI.com to discuss the sale of Liverpool FC to John Henry’s New England Sports Ventures.
On a very basic level, the decision is okay. Shaugnessy has written columns for SI.com in the past and his story discusses the impact Henry has had on the Boston Red Sox. It’s designed to give Liverpool fans a primer to the man who helped turn around the financial fortunes of Massachusetts’ favorite sports team. (Skip for a second the fact that Liverpool fans don’t read SI.com.) The Globe man can certainly provide this insight.
But here’s a writer who openly campaigns against the beautiful game. Just this summer he said, “This is what i hate about this stupid game of soccer and all these international rules,” railed against injury time, and offered “I’m waiting to write about it. I’ve been busy, but I’m going to rip into it one of these days.”
SI.com has a wonderful roster of writers, soccer and otherwise, who could have penned this column. Why didn’t they choose someone without such an obvious biased? Wherefore art thou, Grant Wahl?