http://www.epltalk.com/interview-with-chuck-culpepper/1012 Daily News & Analysis of the English Premier League Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:17:39 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.epltalk.com/interview-with-chuck-culpepper/1012#comment-41021 Charles Caracciolo Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:54:45 +0000 http://www.epltalk.com/2007/09/20/interview-with-chuck-culpepper/#comment-41021 The book is very good, especially as it mirrors my situation of being a Prem-crazy Yank who has nobody to talk to about the Beautiful Game. But I feel like throwing the book across the room every time Culpepper goes to the whip, chastising America for guzzling gas, looking down on other countries, and being ignorant of European life. It's like he's embarrassed to be American, and it's been a long 8 years of people apologizing for that, so I definitely don't need this sentiment in a book I'm reading for the fun of it. When he repudiates Americans for branding English soccer fans for being "truculent pugilists," he manages a few pokes at his better-than-you countrymen, and it's not necessary to push the story forward. Does he really believe that English fans have been angels for 20 years just because there hasn't been a stadium disaster? And what of the UEFA Cup riots only last year in Manchester? He acts like we Americans are fabricating this stuff, and it's hard to go along for the ride of the story when he's so disdainful of the country that allows him to make a good living and watch great sports for free all the time. He's welcome to his opinion, but MY opinion is that his book would have been a much better road had he resisted the urge to try and let his readers know that he's "one of the good ones." The book is very good, especially as it mirrors my situation of being a Prem-crazy Yank who has nobody to talk to about the Beautiful Game. But I feel like throwing the book across the room every time Culpepper goes to the whip, chastising America for guzzling gas, looking down on other countries, and being ignorant of European life. It’s like he’s embarrassed to be American, and it’s been a long 8 years of people apologizing for that, so I definitely don’t need this sentiment in a book I’m reading for the fun of it. When he repudiates Americans for branding English soccer fans for being “truculent pugilists,” he manages a few pokes at his better-than-you countrymen, and it’s not necessary to push the story forward. Does he really believe that English fans have been angels for 20 years just because there hasn’t been a stadium disaster? And what of the UEFA Cup riots only last year in Manchester? He acts like we Americans are fabricating this stuff, and it’s hard to go along for the ride of the story when he’s so disdainful of the country that allows him to make a good living and watch great sports for free all the time. He’s welcome to his opinion, but MY opinion is that his book would have been a much better road had he resisted the urge to try and let his readers know that he’s “one of the good ones.”

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