Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Such Modesty

Now don't get me wrong, I have lived in New York for about thirty years now and love it.  Although I travel quite a bit and there are other cities that I enjoy; Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Puerto Vallarta and many more, I prefer living where I do, Downtown Brooklyn.

But, having grown up in the, according to New Yorkers, sleepy little town of Minneapolis which may or may not be west of Chicago (New Yorkers are very poor at geography) I still recoil a bit from New York's over-the-top braggadocio.  Case in point, today's New York Daily News front page.



Consider this, "Greatest city gets greatest sports event as NFL awards us Super Bowl 2014"

Now being proud of your city is fine, we all should be, unless you live someplace like Detroit.  But is New York really the greatest city?  Just wondering where that came from.  A recent list of the cities with the best quality of life had New York at number 49, below Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Honolulu (the top rated U.S.A. city) and a slew of European cities.

And "greatest sports event"?  American football is ranked ninth in popularity among sports throughout the world, well below Association Football (soccer to us) and Cricket.  In fact, other than in the United States, ice hockey, baseball, and basketball are more popular than football.  In fact, despite Mayor Bloomberg's statement  "This isn't volleyball..., it's football for God's sakes," volleyball is actually more popular than football, worldwide.  And the Super Bowl doesn't even come close to drawing the crowds of World Cup Soccer.

Okay, how about the "NFL awards us Super Bowl 2014"?  Us?  Excuse me, the stadium is in the New Jersey Meadowlands, it is not in New York, either the city or the state.  Kind of makes you wonder about Justin Tuck's (Justin plays for the Giants) statement "I want to win the Super Bowl in New York City."

Oh well, I know this post will upset some of my New York friends, but really, the Super Bowl is not being played in New York.  We tried to get a football stadium here several years ago, but it was voted down.  We got two new baseball stadiums, though, and are about to get a new basketball arena (right down the street from me, in fact). 

On the other hand, I would bet that most of the partying happens in New York.

3 comments:

Bob said...

Hello Barman,
If the world ends in December 2012 will last headline be We Almost Had It !

Splunge said...

Again, I must say that your head is solidly placed upon your shoulders. Unlike certain bobbleheads in NY.

BTW I am posting this from a hotel room in North Carolina. Just finished the first half of a drive back to Brooklyn from Orlando, Florida. I love Brooklyn, but oh Florida, I will miss her.

Anyway, this was the first site I came to when I got internet access.

Bar Man said...

Thanks for your comments and Splunge, thanks for your loyatly. By the way, my sister lives in Fort Meyers.