A Minneapolis Sports Columnist Says Soccer Fans Who Wear Scarves Are Not “Manly”
Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty
Patrick Reusse is a sportswriter based in Minneapolis. His bio at the foot of his columns for the Star Tribune says he’s been covering sports in the Twin Cities since 1968 and working for the paper since 1988. So, you know, he’s been around the block. He seems to mostly cover baseball and hockey, which is a pretty solid beat for Minnesota sportswriting. Keeps you busy all year ‘round.
But this weekend he decided to give soccer a shot. It’s unclear what his past feelings on the sport were, but whether by editor fiat or simply wanting to try new things, Reusse decided to cover Minnesota United’s home game against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday. Per his column covering United’s 2-0 win, he was a special guest of club owner and former health insurance executive Bill McGuire. By the end of the column, Reusse seemed to warm to the sport, declaring it and the Twin Cities’ MLS franchise to be “spiffy.”
But one thing really stuck in his craw. You know what really grinds Patrick Reusse’s gears?
Male soccer fans wearing scarves.
”Bill McGuire took the aisle and I sat next to him during the first half of Sunday’s soccer tilt between United and the vistors from Kansas City. He gave me a scarf celebrating United, and there were puzzled looks within his group when I said in all candor:
”‘My No. 1 complaint about soccer is men wearing scarves.’
”Which is true. I don’t think it’s manly to wear a scarf other than when shoveling snow, but that’s just me, and I have some peculiarities.”
You hear that, MEN? Fan scarves are unmanly! Throw ‘em away!
Lest you think this was just a throwaway comment before he moved on to more important matters:
”Shuttleworth bled for a while, adding minutes to the second half, and showed off a grotesquely swollen and broken nose after the game, but he still wound up with a shutout.”
”(Note: Yes, Shuttleworth had a shutout, and anyone who mentions “clean sheet’’ in my presence and happens to be a male wearing a scarf around his neck, I simply can’t be responsible for what happens next).”