Other Reviews of Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism

To the Editor of Sports Illustrated
July 3, 2001

Dear Sir:

We were troubled by Frank Deford's essay "Not Our Cup of Tea" which you published in the July 2, 2001 issue of your magazine. As academics, we are used to constant criticism of our work which we indeed welcome. Alas, Mr. Deford's piece was not a critical review of our book OFFSIDE: SOCCER AND AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM (Princeton University Press). Instead, Mr. Deford used our work to publish a jingoistic diatribe against soccer which we found deeply objectionable in its tone as well as content. What we found particularly disappointing was that Sports Illustrated, arguably this country's leading sports publication, accorded major space to such an insulting and vacuous piece instead of engaging in a legitimate debate about soccer's role in America's sport culture, particularly at this time of immense demographic shifts and cultural changes on account of globalization. We hope that in the future SI will give this issue the serious consideration that it merits. Your readers deserve nothing less.

Andrei S. Markovits
Professor of Politics
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Please also visit Andy Markovits' official University of Michigan website.