Landon Donovan is a Classy Guy

By: Laurie | August 16th, 2007

I was recently reading that bra manufacturers are going to have to alter their product. Seems that a large number of women are getting implants, and the result has a different shape than the real thing. (I believe the word used in the article was “pointier.”) So the old models don’t fit.

I’m not sure what just brought that to mind.

Oh, by the way, did I mention I just got back from LA?

But…um…yeah. My point (heehee — point — I’m so juvenile) being that I was away from news and computer yesterday, which is why I didn’t have the full story on why David Beckham was wearing the captain’s armband instead of Landon Donovan. My assumption was that the decision came from on high. I was wrong. It was 100% Landon.

The Galaxy had been Landon Donovan’s team ever since he got here in 2005. But surrendering his Alpha Dog status, in this case, was a no-brainer…

Which is why, once it was apparent that David Beckham would finally be able to get on the field for more than a cameo appearance, Donovan felt it appropriate to offer him the captain’s armband…

“Landon asked to speak to me,” Tuesday, Beckham said. “He said he felt it would give the team a big lift for me to have the armband. I was very honored he felt the need to give me the armband.”

You know, I still don’t get Landon. One day he’s seriously lacking in testosterone — describing feeling his twin sister’s cramps, or crying at American Idol. The next day he’s gone all studly macho on us, making a throat-slashing gesture at the crowd.

And then this. A lot of guys would have been petty about Beckham’s arrival, pouting and sulking and posturing. And I’m guessing that for Landon the temptation was there. The guy is human, after all.

But thanks for showing class and putting the team first, Landon. I hope you felt proud to put the armband back on when Becks left the field, because you earned and deserved it.

Well done.

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Category: 2007 Games, Player News, SuperLiga

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Diane

Jeff, it's a quote from Donovan in Andrea Canales' ESPN column today. Great quote, and better image!

Have only read teasing about Donovan being a sissy, hadn't known much about him, but what he did yesterday took balls, and brains, and a LOT of class. Really nice work
Jeff Bull

Found the article: it's the one Andrea Canales wrote on Beckham's big night for ESPN.
Kenny

Links to discussion of pointy boobs please.

Anyway, I was surprised that Landon would do that, but it makes sense, and Jeff Bull is dead on.
Ian

Well done, indeed. Landon is a great American player, and in an ideal world, he'd be as recognizable by Americans as an admittedly great player who's just arrived, but that's life. Nice to see it was his idea - I was a little mad that he'd been stripped for the newbie. Pointy. Classic.
Jeff Bull

Good post on an interesting subject. Here's my theory, though: my suspicions that Donovan is something of a freelancer are growing and that's a personality-type that doesn't do well with the captaincy. Put in clearer terms, I think Donovan is a "lead-by-example" kind of guy, while, according to one thing I read, Beckham does on-field leading really well...but, dang me, I can't find the article. If anyone reads an article with a quote from Donovan discussing Beckham's considerable on-field chatter (e.g. "Edson, that's your ball!" "Xavier, your ball!", etc.) that's the one I'm talking about.

Donovan lays it all out there when he wants to win, and he communicates as well, but it sounds like Beckham does it with more intensity...and, hell, may as well say it, that little extra bit of credibility.