Beckham-Bashing at the LA Times

Why Charlton?

Why do you people keep feeling sorry for Beckham, He is an over paid ball kicker. It was his choice to go to the USA and chase his wife's delusions of being a movie star.
When will you yanks understand that Beckham is far from the best player the UK has to offer, No he is far far far from it, thats partly why he went to the us in the first place.
He is just a man not a god and in the uk he is regarded as a bit of a plonker who played some good footbal for Manchester when he was young so you are welcom to him as he cant even get in the English national side anymore.
For those of you in the usa that do not understand uk footbal or soccer keep your eyes on Charlton they alone are the best club europe has ever seen

I have an email into FFF asking for video or transcripts or anything that would allow me to see/hear Alexi on this show. I'm quite depressed that I missed it.

Awww *blush.” Simmers @ LA Times, I just wanted to ask him whether this was the equivalent of a journalistic tantrum, a bit embarrassing for him, yes? (Also some of that going on over there with Steven Cohen at Fox Football Whatever as well…a Chelsea fan though so what can one really expect).

I was so with ya, until I read this follow up.

Steven's pretty much dead-on much of the time, (Nick is the softee) and I can tell you it's precisely because Steven's a fellow Blues-fan that he is, I'm proud to say. bwhahahah. While the Times is truly a rag, and it's ultra-right-wingnutia reknowned, the tantruming over there had some relevant points. One cannot be an ambassador who never shows up (at the relevant venues). If Becks flops on the pitch this season, he'll have lost me.

If you watched FFF and Lala's performance Tuesday, it's a bit more substance than tantrum or ego going on. The poll question proved it. And so did Lala's delusional state.

I don't know about how Beckham has or hasn't been used, though I find Diane's argument interesting and something I hadn't though of before.

But I do know that Simers is a moron when it comes to soccer and fancies himself a bit of a humorist. This is the second time he's tried to write about soccer via Beckham and it is only slight less insipid than his first attempt.

Here's what I wrote to him upon reading his column:

Wow.

See, here I thought that a guy who has so spectacularly blown the last time he tried to write soccer would just go about his business and ignore it like every other American male over the age of 60.

But I can see that I was stupendously incorrect in my assumptions about the whole "once bitten, twice shy" deal. Clearly I'm still learning about your predilections. My bad. I'll pay closer attention from here on out.

Now, let me not be seen as a defender of the powerful, for both AEG and Tim L. have clout to spare. And its not like Beckham needs me running to his defense.

Nope, I'm just sitting here defending myself. Myself being an American soccer fan who mistakenly exposed himself to your second Beckham-based column. I should have taken my own advice - from a reader's perspective. I mean how many times do I have to read The Family Circus before I have to remember that I'm making the choice to read it in the first place? (Great, now I have to apologize to Bil Keane for dragging him into the vicinity of your ridiculousness.)

Look, I get it. You are a sports columnist who doesn't really cover teams so much as personalities here in the LA area. Awesome. But it's just to patently clear that you don't understand soccer, either as a game or as a sports business. Or maybe you did back when you were still young enough to have an open mind and learn a few things.

Cuz what I don't understand is not that you don't understand soccer (and really you don't. Can you even describe what Beckham's on-the-field duties are as a right/central midfielder? Besides some asinine flip remark? Go on, surprise me. Make me eat my words.), but it is that you are so intent on trumpeting your ignorance as if that makes you more "authentic", more of an American sports columnist. Like the way guys in my home state fly the Confederate flag on their pickup trucks to show they are down with being from the South. With you guys it's the obligatory "soccer is so beneath me it makes me a man to ridicule it".

That's just weak. Weak and ignorant.

It just puts you in the same category with the rich and powerful who seek to silence the voices of those they do not understand or find threatening. You know, the same guys you spend many a column belittling and exposing.

And, frankly, I think that kind of thing is beneath you, if, in fact there is any room underneath your belly where it is pressed so firmly into the slime and muck of willful ignorance.

Please. Just stop.

Regards,

Nathan

Awww *blush." Simmers @ LA Times, I just wanted to ask him whether this was the equivalent of a journalistic tantrum, a bit embarrassing for him, yes? (Also some of that going on over there with Steven Cohen at Fox Football Whatever as well...a Chelsea fan though so what can one really expect).

Diane, we should forward your comment to the LA Times. Well said.

Surprisingly enough for a Beckham fan, even though the article is crap, I think it leads to a fair issue. Beckham has been "handled" terribly by League, Galaxy and/or his own P.R. people since he got to the States.

He can't have been too tired or busy to do interviews, we have more than enough evidence that those words are not part of his vocabulary. He's long admitted to a preference for "answering" football questions on the pitch (really, how many times can you say I'll be back playing as soon as I possibly can). But they certainly could have put him in situations where he would be asked something else besides his injury status or whether one man can save soccer in America.

Beckham gets really interesting in only two situations that I know of. First, when he does features with serious, often local, football reporters. It would be a shock, for those who haven't, to see/hear him interviewed in Manchester, and I've got Andrea Canales pegged for being among the first to get noticed as someone who wants to talk more about football than his own personal game or his undies ads.

But he's most interesting to listen to in any situation involving kids. When he was interviewed last summer after the Harlem youth clinic, it was the first (possibly only) time in the U.S. that he appeared relaxed and had something of substance to say.

The best way for MLS to have used Beckham's non-rehab time would have been with kids and to talk to the press about approaches to teaching and coaching and about youth potential and development,huge issues in terms of "growing soccer in America." Not to sound like one of the people that once called him "thick," but it's something that he's surprisingly knowledgeable about, that he has very progressive ideas about, and about which he's not hesitant to go into in detail. It would have been a much better springboard for discussions about how to develop the League than when and whether he would be able to strike a ball at 90mph again.

my comments keep getting deleted

simers is pure satire and the best reason to pick up a copy of the la times. he's hilarious, and no one is safe from his pen.

He is harsh, but he has a point. Beckham is thought of as an ambassador for soccer in the US, so he should expect to have to sit down and do many interviews. So now this guy ripped Becks and the Galaxy in the hometown paper, thats never a good thing.

Becks needs to step up and do the right thing, which is sit down with an LA times writer and answer a few questions. Help generate interest and positive stories about MLS.

I hope the next Simers article gets pulled to make room for a Beckham underwear ad.

The FFF talked about the article... they agreed. Apparently Becks has been neglecting the press.

It may be true, but I wish they would say it in a way that doesn't sound like whining.

Becks is busy. I could have told them that. I hope he has a good season this year so those uninformed journalists can get off the subject.

@Ronny I'm surprised you take Simers seriously. He comes off as an asshole because it's the best way to bring out emotion. He's basically been writing the same stuff for 10+ years, only changing the names and settings, ripping on everybody (including his wife, daughter, son-in-law, boss, etc.). Personally, I think he's hilarious, but to each his own I guess.

If you have time, I'd recommend trying to find his few serious columns where the real Simers comes through; daughter's wedding, grandson's birth, and a few other occasions. The man can write.

He brings up a good point though. Why isn't AEG, HDC, or the Galaxy allowing his access to Beckham? Like you said, LA Times is the 2nd most read daily in the country. It would have been nice to have some 'positive' Beckham press. Instead of Simers ripping Beckham for not even talking to him, he could focus on stupid things like the accent.

T.J. Simmers is and absolute ASSHOLE. How in the world this guy still has a job boggles my mind. Very mature of him though to tear becks a new one on the 2nd most read newspaper in the country only because becks wont "Talk" to him. I hope L.A. doesn't allow this schmuck in the HDC anymore.