In basketball, unless the United States is putting out its top superstars, Team USA is prone to embarrassment. In baseball, even if the US has a team loaded with its best players, Team USA will still get smacked around. Such is the result of both sports becoming global entities.
But for football, surely no one would even come close to beating the US. Nobody else cares about football more than we Yanks do. It shouldn’t matter who the Red, White, and Blue suit up because they would dominate anybody who lines up across from them, right? Wrong.
Apparently, there’s something put on by the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) called the International Bowl, which pits a US team against a World team. The third edition was played Wednesday, and it did not go well for the Americans.
The day ended in stunned disbelief as the team fell to a collection of mostly unheralded players from around the world, 35-29, in the third annual International Bowl Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
The loss – the first for the U.S. in international football competition – was a revelation that this country’s grip on football may not be as great as it realized. […]
The U.S. team fell behind 21-9 at halftime and trailed by as much as 35-16 early in the fourth quarter before staging a rally that fell short.
Before you shake your head in embarrassment, let’s take a closer look at who played in this game.
The World Team was comprised mostly of players from Canada, where, let’s be honest, football is also massively popular. And most of those players currently play at the university level. Meanwhile, the US squad was almost entirely made up of high school seniors committed to some of the top programs in the NCAA. Among the Americans was Jameis Winston, the top quarterback in the country, according to Rivals, committed to play at Florida State, and Malcom Brown, the nation’s top defensive tackle set to join Texas.
“Unheralded” international players? Sure. But age, experience, and maturity were definitely on the side of the World team. Excuses sure are fun, aren’t they?
So fear not, my fellow Americans, WE ARE STILL AWESOME! Shoot your guns in the air, chow down on some trans fat, and shotgun a Bud Light in celebration!