Pardon The Ignorance

• Scott Tann
• Thu Sep 6 2007, 10:42pm GMT

If you're interested in an impressive display of soccer ignorance, watch Pardon the Interruption's latest bit on David Beckham.

It's a laughable example of a blowhard, Tony Kornheiser, talking with authority about something he clearly doesn't understand. Information is also filtered out to make Kornheiser's point all the more convincing.

Unfortunately the missing piece is the key to understanding the whole story. And they just don't seem to get it. At all.

The manufactured huffing and puffing centers around the well-traveled piece originally airing in the Daily Express.

The report says Beckham wants to play in England, presumably on loan in the Premiership, so he has more chances to impress national team coach Steve McClaren.

Why? Because Beckham has 97 caps, and he wants 100.

He won't be able to get McClaren's attention with Los Angeles because he just blew out his knee and will be out for six weeks.

Playing on loan, in England, would get him back in front of McClaren - all the more important because of a certain tournament coming up next summer. (You may have heard of it. The guys over at PTI have, but they have no idea what it is.)

Provided England qualify for Euro 2008 (and it may not happen), the former captain could hit the century mark and play in the European Championships.

I usually ignore the mistakes made regularly by the mainstream American sports media when they dip their toes in a pool much, much deeper than anything they cover from day to day.

In this case, however, those pedestrian errors are sewn together in response to an ambiguous and possibly false report to show what a "fraud" Beckham is.

They miss the fact that Beckham wants 100 caps, that players regularly go on loan to other clubs, that Beckham is intensely patriotic and wants to play for England in Euro 2008, and this has nothing to do with wanting to leave MLS.

Next post: PTI highlights, deconstructed.

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