T. Porpus-Boog, M.D.

I'll never forget the night of a thousand tweets, when there was one thousand tweets in one night

@shuledz @DanCollins2011 I mean, I think Lebron James would be an elite footballer if that's what he chose to specialize in since he was little I also think Ronaldo would be one of the best WRs of all time. It's not a mutually exclusive venn diagram of skill/mindset and it's also not a single circle

@ItsGTime @DanCollins2011 That's right, but no one was stupid enough to claim that. On the other hand, there's a plethora of Americans claiming that the US football team was lacking athleticism and that some NFL running backs or LeBron James's would be unbeatable in football (the real one)

Americans don’t understand the skill level in soccer. I could take the current Georgia State Champion 14 yr old team and they would beat any collection of NBA or NFL people you put on the field.

@Gee__Gazza You are completely underselling the level of technical ability and IQ needed at the highest levels of other sports. You're just making a no-brainer argument: if you specialize at a specific skill you get really good at that specific skill and can't fully apply it to another

I think it's like giving a tennis racket to Lebron and telling him to compete with literally anyone that plays Tennis regularly. People think Football is like Basketball in that its a team sport with a ball. But underestimate how different it is to control a ball with your feet whilst running and moving strategically as opposed to using your hands. It's something that is developed from 3+ years and you simply cannot excel at if you only start in College. It does not matter if you're the biggest/quickest/strongest/fittest in the world. If you can't control, pass and move to space you're cooked.

How do I explain to Americans that I could go to a random Sunday league game in England, pick out 6 random players and put them against Americas "best" athletes from Basketball/NFL/Athletics in a 6 a side football game and they'd win? Comfortably.

@jeffreyboadi_ @CoffeeBlackMD Yeah, but Lebron James would be an absolute menace of a CB and you know it.

Yeah it’s far down the list. But I don’t get the sudden belief that coaching a Steph curry or Westbrook to play football would just magically bring results. In fact it highlights where things would go wrong because when primarily looking for physical attributes first as a football player will leave a lot on the table. Barcelona tried it with Adams Traore (who is an unbelievably well built tank), tried carrying him through the academy where Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Bojan etc learned their trade and it didn’t work out at all. There’s also an element of being born with it, which is very much in the European/South American DNA that I don’t think will be in the US pool (at least not for a long time). Lots of US players who are thought highly of (Pulisic, Reyna) trained in Europe but are still very far behind. Ultimately it probably doesn’t matter whether the US become good at it or not because 4/5 other sports generate huge amounts of revenue such that football isn’t really a focus. But the belief that athletes can just pick up the sport misunderstands just how high-level football actually is

Here’s what I’ve realised about the American athlete discourse in the World Cup: A lot of people who weren’t around for USA ‘94 have seen in the last few weeks that football is by far and away the biggest and best sport in the world - nothing comes close. But the US being really average at it compared to European nations upsets them, so it’s been a case of doing mental gymnastics to try and prove that they could be elite if the Russell Westbrooks and LeBron James’ of this world played from a young age. It just doesn’t work like that - athleticism only gets you so far when a highly technical sport like football is played in the brain first. Some of the best players in the history of the game don’t even look remotely athletic - yet you can’t get near them. My American friends: I promise you it’s okay that people from other parts of the world are better than you at something 😬

@jeffreyboadi_ The implication that other professional team sports don't take advantage of high game IQ and that football is far and away this brainy sport in another realm of athletics is ridiculous. It's specialized training and elite athletes that start young gain IQ in the sport of choice

@savanah2j The point is more is our very best in Basketball, football, hockey, and baseball requires a lot of skill as well. People are rarely successful in those sports off raw athleticism, they have also trained extensively and developed skillset. If they dedicated training to soccer...

WE HAVE TO STOP SAYING OUR BEST ATHLETES DONT PLAY SOCCER ITS NOT A GOOD ARGUMENT!! WE DO NOT HAVE THE SKILL!! RAW ATHLETIC ABILITY ONLY DOES SO MUCH IN SOCCER. SOCCER IS A SKILL SPORT. WE ARE NOT GOOD AT SOCCER BECAUSE IT IS NOT CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT IN THE UNITED STATES FOR MEN.

@JahangirAsgha10 Yeah unfortunately a lot of youth sports in America has turned into a for-profit extortion culture in the way you describe. It's sucked the fun out of it for organized sports and I see the culture even bleeding into rec leagues (club kids also sign up for rec).

I don’t really care about the obsession with youth soccer development in this country. My issue with pay to play is the way it markets fear to parents. It convinces mom and dad that if their 5 year old isn’t getting private training, elite coaching, extra development, and playing on the right team, they’re falling behind. 99% of these kids are not going pro. Most of this system exists because parents want to feel like they’re doing something serious for their child. Developmentally, most kids are better off playing cheap rec leagues, trying multiple sports, being outside, competing, and actually enjoying the game. That’s why rec sports matter. just let kids play.

@de_Nunez_ @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK I'm saying it's a cultural thing that takes time. Soccer was a fringe sport at best until 15-20 years ago. While it's growing in popularity, it will take time for the cultural roots to grow. In other sporting analogies, the cultural roots are long, storied,and deep

@ItsGTime @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK Dude… the second most popular sport in a nation of 6 million produced an NBA mvp. Thats like Atlanta producing a ballon d’or winner. Didn’t you understand my previous comment? The straw man argument is the people who say that the us can’t compete bc football isn’t popular there

If you wait until high school to start playing football you’re already never making it.

@de_Nunez_ @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK Basketball is the 2nd most popular sport in Serbia and a lot of those countries have deep history with basketball and it's likely up there for 2nd in popularity. I get the point you're trying to make, but it's a straw man argument.

@ItsGTime @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK It’s not even undisputed second but that’s beside the point, which is that a far less popular sport than football produces a significant portion of top players, even MVPs. That’d be like Americans producing a Doncic and winning the ballon d’or. There’s not 1 among the top 50 tho

@de_Nunez_ @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK To be fair, basketball is pretty big culturally in the parts of Europe where of superstars like Doncic and Jokic. I don't think it's fair to say it's not very popular, when it's pretty big in the Balkans and other Slavic countries

@ItsGTime @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK Def not most then, but that plus 25% of all-stars and several MVPs over the past few years being brought up in European academy systems for a sport that’s not very popular and reaching the top of the nba is significant I’d say

@de_Nunez_ @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK To put in perspective, 7/10 of the top 10, 14/20 of the top 20, and 21/30 of the top 30 points per game leaders of the last season are American. The next closest is Canada with 3 out of the top 30. Granted that's just the points metric, but you get the idea

@ItsGTime @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK One thing to comment on about basketball, a sport which I don’t follow very much… aren’t most of the current best players Europeans? It seems like the us dominates it mostly out of raw amount of players but not necessarily due to academies/youth development

@de_Nunez_ @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK There are some great European MVPs, but USA is still by miles the best team in the world with the most depth. In the football analogy, the team/club with the best player in the world is not necessarily the best team/club, it's about the best group of players and depth of squad.

@SubwayTJ Yes and they do miss a lot of the nuance, but also Lebron James at CB would be an absolute menace. Two things can be true

It would be nice if the USMNT post-mortem discourse was driven by people who actually follow the sport and not from out-of-touch NFL/CFB fans who parachute in every four years to say we would be better if Justin Jefferson grew up playing soccer. Oh, well.

@ZuzuOnFire I think the reason you are seeing this discourse is because of a growing soccer culture that has a proportion large enough to be disappointed and want more. Still true that it's the minority, but the US is a big country and the minority is now the size of other soccer nations

Dissecting the US's soccer scene and suggesting we're mediocre because playing club soccer is too expensive is super weird, considering the Women's Team has won a World Cup. It's because in US culture, male athlete are funneled to our signature sports. It's not that deep.

@FMLogos_rocheyb @THEChrisKessell I really wish we could've bowed out on a high note not just performance wise but culturally as well. A hard fought loss without our star striker is a fine narrative. Leaving the highlight as the world rejoicing our people and culture beyond the screen of our polarizing politics

@THEChrisKessell @ItsGTime …and on behalf of the Rest of the World, so do we! Real progress from USA 🇺🇸 in this World Cup though; always been strong athletes but never seen them so attacking, creative, imaginative. A lot to be positive about; you’ve laid a marker for Personal Best improvement next time.

OK, you know what time it is.... let me hear 'em. What is your hottest of hot take about the #USMNT and its 4-1 World Cup loss to Belgium tonight?

@TaborJohn1 @THEChrisKessell C'mon bro. Love Trump all you want, but you know he and FIFA totally killed the vibe. We don't want politics mixing with sport; even the suggestion of it by POTUS as bullshit as it may be is cringe.

@ItsGTime @THEChrisKessell Stop LOL Trump had fuck all to do with that result. Nobody gives a fuck about your politics, loser.

@MaxiMil24 @THEChrisKessell Energy and morale has an effect on groups. It's not Trump directly, but the entire fallout of the Balogun drama and how it affects the team. It didn't feel right as a fan, it didn't feel right to (most of) the world, it's not absurd thinking it also didn't feel right to the team.

@ItsGTime @THEChrisKessell Dude Holy shit if you think trump had anything to do with this piss poor effort given by the team tonight you're insane we had our best 11 out there tonight and got our shit kicked in.

@o2felt @therach1314 @AlexiLalas Exactly. That's why I still believe that, yeah pay-to-play is bullshit, but the real core of beating it starts from the ground up as a culture. Kids wanting to do it in their free time. Knowledgeable (not win hungry) adults wanting to volunteer their time. For love of the game.

@ItsGTime @therach1314 @AlexiLalas Its because soccer is not popular.

That’s on parents. Much of youth soccer is for-profit industry with biz/individuals competing for customers. Product is obviously valuable. Why do we vilify those in youth soccer industry and demand they be a charity? I hope they get rich selling soccer…but vast majority won’t.

@de_Nunez_ @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK The culture is just there where not only are kids playing all day long, but the sport is funded by the community with time&money (namely bball and American football) in a way football/soccer doesn't come close in the US: mostly individual family funded instead.

@ItsGTime @Captain_SMS81 @TigersJUK Diff sports and I can’t talk about basketball as I know nothing about it, but in football you have to play a lot, so your basketball example applies there, but they also have to learn a lot starting at around 8-10. For this, the us system works for basketball but not football

@StanUsmnt I know it's trite and misses $ nuance, but I think it is still very much a culture first thing. The US is still very much the best basketball team with the most depth despite not producing the MVP. Greater % of US kids bleed basketball or football or baseball than soccer.

I’ve heard people say “well we don’t have an open system in basketball and we’re still best in the world.” Guys, in a little over 30 years foreign players went from almost no nba players and getting ran off court with our best to: -8 straight foreign MVPs -since 2021 first team all nba has been 21/30 foreign spots -college bball recruiting has shifted to be a race for the best 20 year old euro players If you don’t think their approach to development on all fronts including club structure and professional league structure impacts this you’re crazy.