Is soccer the reality check Americans need?

OPINION — Americans need a reality check. Most families are struggling. Soccer is affordable: ball, shorts, shoes, socks, T-shirt and your kid is out the door.

Soccer field is grass and two goal posts. Few have the money to build and maintain baseball fields, Little League fields or softball fields.

Football fields are not as expensive, but who can afford all the safety gear; and the dreaded hospital phone call, your kid was injured. I could write a book about all the kids I knew who have lifetime injuries because of win-crazy coaches and parents.

I am the “cool” old man the relatives’ kids visit. I took my dreamy golf net and huge golf mat and let the kids put a soccer ball on it to practice kicking into the net.

This is multicultural America — millions of new Americans love soccer.

My college Protestant missionary friends traveled with a box filled with Bibles and cute little crosses on chains. My Chicago Roman Catholic friends arrived in Africa and South America with bags filled with soccer balls.

The world is ignoring us; college kids and immigrants leave us in our 1980s world. When I was in college, the book, “The Ugly American,” by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick was required reading. People should find a used copy and think about themselves.

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