Don’t Believe Everything You Read

Soccer's popularity in the United States in 1991

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

You might remember this clipping I shared yesterday:

From Evening Telegraph, November 14, 1991, page 72

The interesting part here is that “Thumbs Down” segment.

I haven’t been able to find the alleged New York Post article anywhere. None of the other New York newspapers apparently covered this alleged list. That doesn’t just cover November 13 and 14, 1991, either. I can’t find this claim anywhere for the month of November, or even for all of 1991.

In fact, if anything, the newspaper coverage of soccer in the United States indicated the opposite of what this blurb claimed.

Take this from Maine, for example:

From The Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine), August 9, 1991, page 31

Maine wasn’t exactly the soccer stronghold of the United States.

If that doesn’t convince you, however, take a look at this from Kansas City, right in the heartland of American football:

From The Kansas City Star, March 8, 1991, pages B-1 and B-8

What was the Major Soccer League? This was actually the Major Indoor Soccer League, a league that rivaled the NASL, forced the NASL to play indoor games in the winter, and likely did more damage to outdoor association football in the United States than any other organization or factor.

The thing that amazes me, though, is that nobody questioned the popularity of the sport. The problems with soccer in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s were commercial problems — not a lack of popularity.

Don’t believe everything you read.