You're Wrong, Dave Portnoy... Football Doesn't Need Fixing

Dave Portnoy wants to make football more American. Bigger nets, power plays, one tackle a half... and I'm not having it. 

Today I go through every single one of his ideas and tell you exactly why the game does not need fixing. We talk scarcity, why a 0-0 can be a masterpiece, and why a red card already is a power play. 

Then come the receipts... the MLS shootout, the countdown clock, NASL bonus points. 

America already tried all of this in the 90s, and it failed. We get into Piqué's Kings League (and why it actually proves my point), the water breaks everybody hates, and a full World Cup recap... best thirds, a wide-open Group A, and Neymar's emotional return to Brazil. 

Five billion people can't be wrong. Come argue with me. 

Join the newsletter and be part of the show at thefootball.show.

Chapters:
00:00  Welcome + today's lineup
00:51  Dave Portnoy, you're wrong
01:56  Idea 1: Bigger nets (scarcity makes the game)
04:24  Idea 2: Power plays are just hockey
06:05  Idea 3: No backwards pass past midfield
08:05  Idea 4: One tackle per half? Watch the NFL
08:58  5 billion fans can't be wrong
09:39  The receipts: MLS + NASL already tried it
12:22  The water breaks are the real problem
13:15  The fix: Piqué's Kings League
15:44  Change the rules, you get a different sport
17:13  World Cup recap + best thirds
18:40  Neymar's Brazil return
19:52  Group A + potential knockout bracket
21:23  Wrap + where to find us

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the football show. And today we have an interesting take as we wake up to Dave Port Dave Dave, I said day, Dave Portsnoy's take on uh the sport. Uh, you know, that has a lot of people have been talking about it. Uh, we're also gonna be talking about the return of Neymar to the uh Cele Sau uh back in Brazil playing for uh the last game of the group today, and we're gonna go a quick recap on what's happening in the World Cup. So, welcome again. And uh Dave, I mean, I don't know you, man, and uh you are super successful and I respect you a ton. And uh, you know, I saw a clip this morning that has a lot to say. I don't wanna, you know, I was like, where is the video? I want to see the video because I read a ton of stuff um about what uh what you said, and then I saw the clip, and I get that you're in one of your shows, and I get that you guys need to get the clicks, but the fact that somebody like you that have so much influence is saying that we need to change the sport. No, man, I think you are completely wrong. We do not need to change this game. I know that you're on World Cup Fever, that you guys need to talk, that you are big fans of other sports above football, the real football. Uh, but that this conversation cannot happen. Like this, this cannot be done. And I show you why and I say why you're wrong. But here are a couple of the things uh Dave said that uh made my my blood boil, you know, like every other uh football fan out there in the world that that saw this, right? So um, you know, he did admit it though. Like he's completely honest, and I I Dave, I you know, if you ever watch this, I respect you 100% because you say what comes through your head and you're authentic to the to the core. And uh maybe we have a solution for this after after we go. But number one is uh, and I know that this was said a little bit of jokingly, but a lot of the media out there are putting it like, hey man, like this guy wants to destroy the sport, which I don't think is true. But make the Nets a hundred times bigger. I think this is like the one argument all the Americans have about you know, more goals is gonna be better, right? Like this is this is crazy. Like, if you actually watch a football game, an American football game, like the scores are like three to two. They just like one touchdown, it's you know, six, seven points, and then they multiply that. You know, they create like this these rules of like okay, one basketball is two points, from here is three points. Dude, I get it. I don't think the I and you know, this sport is number one the most popular sport in the planet. So five billion people that consume this like sport at a daily, like on a daily basis cannot be wrong. Um, and the fact that like the only argument is like, you know, some games that are zero zero can be boring. Well, number one, most people that we talk about that the zero zeros are boring is because they don't have context on what's happening on the league, they don't understand what's happening with the teams. Um, a zero-zero can be a good result, right? Like I thought uh there was a pundit or somebody that experienced his their first like World Cup game, uh, I think it was Ecuador, and it was a zero-zero, and she said that it was the most exhilarating experience that she's ever had. It's just not because what happens on the field, it's everything around it, right? The meaning of that zero-zero. And yes, there's gonna be moments of excitement, and the goal is the absolute ecstasy when it comes to the sport, because you know, when you score, good things happen and good feelings. I mean, just Morocco now. I think they did a 3-2. What a game with with Haiti, where like they were going back and forth. I do get it, it is more exciting, but at the end of the day, the zero zeros is what makes the games with goals more exciting. So I don't think we need more goals, people are gonna get just bored of it. Like the the scarcity is what makes it better, like the 1-0 when you score like at the very last minute of a game, like that's what makes us better. So we do not make you need to make the nets bigger. I mean, there's actually many times that they've tried to pass a ruling of yes, let's make the the net a little bit bigger to see if that improves. But there's many layers to this, there's many leagues, there's many styles of plays. Like, if you go uh Premier League versus Italian League, the Italian league and the way that they play is very defensive, so there's gonna be less goals there. Go watch something else, right? At the end of the day. Uh, number two, crazy power plays. Uh, such an American thing to to do. Uh, but dude, that that that's hockey. Like, you already have man to have man advantages. Like, it is called a freaking red card, right? Like you earn it. Like, to the point, like now there's a rule that you if you if you put the hand like this on top of your hand, like this, that's a automatically record. There's no more they can do at the end of the day. So uh you don't need a freaking power play in uh in this sport, it's already as fast as it is. I will give you this. Yes, modern football has changed quite a bit, and we need more players like the old name, or like Lamin Jama right now, like Vinicius, that they go and they attack the players and they want to be the players, like like Ronaldinho, for example. Those I do agree that we need stuff like that because um after Pep Guardiola and his school of coaching and how he handles those teams, um, it did change. It did change the fact that the game became very tactical, very past here, past there spaces like very robotic in a way. But I think we're now seeing the swing coming back with players like Lamin, for example example, that they're needed in these teams to break those patterns. So you it will evolve. And I think somebody that might watch the game maybe on the World Cup, like Dave, or somebody, some some other Americans that might be um, you know, judging the game just be with like one or two games, I don't think is fair, right? Like there's there's history to this, there's changes that happen, and with a sport that brings in so many people to not only watch it but to play it. Like it is really challenging to make changes like this. Um this is uh another one. Uh no backwards pass once you cross midfield. I mean, the fact that here's the crazy thing. I this is what I think. Like the fact that people are even considering this, or like if this is an option, um, or they they made those calls in their respective sports is because those sports might be already boring, and so they have to make up these rules to make it more exciting. And um, you know, I grant that there's probably other rules too in in football uh that have been changed because it was boring. I get it, but I don't know, like half-court violation, like you look if you lose, you know, you lose the ball, you give it to the other team. At the end of the day, I think what makes this sport special is like the romanticism that exists between the player and the soccer ball, and the fact you know there was a I guess or guess or co-host in the show when they were talking where the guys like guys, like you you basically starts laughing and explains the reason or why teams do that, where they go forward and then they come back. It's basically inviting the team to come back and get the ball for me so we can create the space and go in. That is a beautiful part about this sport. This is what makes it different from somebody else, something something else. And here's the thing it's like, why do we need to make football American? Like, why does the American people or or or the American fan, not everybody by the way, like this is not against all the Americans. I can already see the comments kind of hitting up, but this is not against all the Americans, but in a general sense, why do we have to Americanize like the sport? It's okay, like there's there's products that are really good already that can come to this country and we can we can adopt them, right? And we can adapt to them. But at the end of the day, maybe that's the mentality of like why this country is is the country that it is, and I get the competitiveness and all this thing. And again, like I said, there is a solution. This is not just me complaining, and uh, this is me saying, Hey, this is the sport that we should adopt and adapt. And uh maybe there's a variation of this. We'll give some examples in just a second, right? Uh, and then this one made me laugh. It's like one full tackle per half. Uh, just you know, just tackle the guy. Well, go watch NFL, right? Go watch those sports. That's a this is not the sport, and I get it, you know. Um, you know, it's and I don't know, it's it's kind of crazy in my eyes, you know, trying to change it to something that that is not. That's why other sports exist. Go watch those sports. Uh, I mean, just this morning in our studio, we met uh a Super Bowl, you know, winner. Like this guy played and won a Super Bowl. Uh, he's from Italy, and this guy, he's like, you know what, dude? I love uh traditional football, and then but I became an American football player, and you know, he's playing now in NFL, um, won a Super Bowl. Very cool, dude. That's why there's other sports that you guys can go go play. So uh 100% do not agree with this. Um, you know, might be an interesting idea for something else, but here's here's the thing: football is the most watched sports in this freaking planet. Roughly five billion people follow the sport. You see it on the World Cup, like the whole world is just paralyzed watching this. Like, um, even like in the past, like countries at war has stopped the war to play for there's a the there's uh there's an incredible story with the Englishman and the Frenchman. Uh I have to fact check this one is either the English and the and the French or the English or the Germans, one of the others, and they stop the the freaking war shooting themselves so they could in Christmas Eve they could play a game of of football. Crazy, right? Uh so so here's here's the the best we don't have to argue about all this in theory. Like, here are the receipts, like America already tried this, like United States already tried this thing. Like they tried and they tried again and they tried again, and uh in the 90s, if you have a very short memory, I'm an 80s kid, but uh from 96 to 99, there was an MLS shootout, right? Like there was like a hockey style. The player started 35 yards out. Uh he had five seconds to go, dribble in, uh, and beat the keeper one-on-one, no ties all out. So, uh and then you know, after four four seasons, they had to stop it. Like it was stupid, to be completely honest. Then you have the countdown clock. So the the clock took the uh uh tick down to zero, like basketball instead of counting up, very confusing, all this stuff. And by the way, like this still, I think this still happens in college uh football. Like I I play like this, where you're just like this is crazy. Like the ref is not the one in control. I think part of the beautiful part of this sport is like the fact that the ref has control, and sometimes not in professional uh stadiums. Oh, I mean, yeah, you do see the time going up, but you don't know how much you have left in a way, and I think that makes it super exciting, of course. Like if the professionally, like the the countdown uh does not work, they they stopped it. Uh, I don't know why college keeps doing it, but crazy. Okay, um, not draws ever, so every game had to have a winner, uh, just gone at the end of the day. I mean, you have to win. I mean, you grow up and you go in the streets and uh and you play something called King of the Court. This is something that we used to play uh b back growing up in street soccer, and we brought it here. We did an uh an event super fun. And at the end of the day, it's like, okay, if you have this is a format that you can play if you're watching this at home. You play for five minutes, uh, two teams, if you have others waiting to to take the court, uh, for two goals. Whoever scores two goals stays, right? If you tie or you lose, you get out. Um, and dude, like the competitiveness, it's uh it's incredible. It's it's amazing. Well, here's the other thing NASL, right? The other American uh football league, uh, in the 70s and the 80s, there was bonus points for goals scored. Uh six uh for a win plus a point per goal. Like, why do we have to make it so freaking complicated? Like, I had this conversation uh with uh with uh like past weekend, somebody watching the game, and uh, you know, they grew up in with a metric system, you know, one meter, a hundred meters, a thousand meters, a thousand meters is a kilometer, right? And it's so easy, and we have to have here you know, firing height and and fee, and we don't know exactly how much is a fee. Like, crazy. Like, why do we have to make it so freaking hard? So um, we don't have to make it American. I mean, the the idea has already been tested. Go back, it failed. Uh I don't know, like right now. I I mean you see it today with the freaking water breaks. Uh we all know that's a money grab, and people hate it. You see the stadiums and they boo it, like changing the sport is is hard, and I think it's hard for a reason. It's because people enjoy the way it is, and I don't think we need to add many more changes. Like, if it helps the the the game move forward and uh and keep the essence, I think that that's that's what it is. And here's the part like how do you actually define the essence of the game? Uh, for people that have played it for years and years and years, I think it's easy. For people that are just starting to expert you know experience this incredible sport, I think it's hard. I think you have to like stay a while and experiment that the game that's it is. Uh at the beginning of this rant, I did tell you, hey, there is a solution for this. Like, there is a way that you can experiment with this and maybe prove me wrong or prove somebody that doesn't like these ideas wrong. And it's already happening. I mean, you have uh Piquet's the King's League, like an example of this, right? Like uh I saw an interview where Gerard Piquet he used to play for Barcelona, for Spain. Uh, he after retirement, he decided to launch his own league called the King's League, and there's versions of this in all throughout Europe that they draw some crowds into arenas, different things, and they have different rules, right? So it's a seven aside. Uh there are like golden cards, there's secret weapons, there's penalty shootouts uh in every single game. Uh the teams are actually owned by streamers and ex-professionals. Uh, there's uh there's also the baller league, which is I think uh the the guys from the sidemen own it. Like there's all these things that are that are happening, right? Like, of course, and and by the way, like the the way that he created it is he saw the younger generation watch these games, and he says, like, look, these games are long, these games are like 90 minutes, and the kids are watching the game, but at the same time are watching a screen, and it's because consumption habits have changed, and this is purely commercial for him. It's like, dude, it doesn't take away from the game, it might even add to the game as it is right now because the kids are watching the real game, and then they have the king league on the side, and they're watching those games as well, live stream through other media, right? And it can be consumed at the same time. Now, for the players, it's more opportunities because you could be a Kings, uh Kings League player and then go get a contract as a pro team, which has happened, or you can be a pro team, you can be retired, and then you can go to the Kings League and continue to play, which has happened, right? So it doesn't have to be like, oh, let's change this sport. It's like how can we add to the sport? I don't think the the sport as it is right now is gonna be dethrone at all because it's it's it's the one universal sport, which is crazy. Like everybody understands it, everybody plays it, um, everybody you know gets it, and it's because of the simplicity, and you don't need to like add all these thousand like rules, right? And uh, you know, the King League, things like that, they blew up you know, they packed the freaking Cam New 100,000 people for their final millions watching online. So that there's uh there's spin-offs in Mexico, and even here in the United States, I think they're they're they're trying to take it. So uh, you know, things like that are great as in uh as their own thing. But look like here's what proves like the second you change the rules, you don't get better football, right? Like you get a just just a different sport uh with a different name, like that one, for example, or like the ballers league. Like Piquet didn't just set up to fix football. He said, like these things can't live together, right? Like he builds something that is something else, it just uses elements of the sport. So uh Dave, like uh you can do something like that, dude. Let's do it. Like, I'm I'm down, I'm game. Let's let's do something like this. Um, and uh maybe do a D experiment, see what happens. But at the end of the day, I think a sport that has that kind of pull and and and fan base and like the pure aspect of like look, it's an open field, 11v11, have at it. Like they we don't need to add all these crazy rules to make the sport better, anyways. Uh, that's my rant. I think there's a possibility to uh you know to create something on the side that can help the sport and still you know solve the itch that people like Dave Portnoy uh have talked uh you know about something like this. Um do not Americanize the sport. We don't need to Americanize the sport. Uh by the way, it's already the sport of America. That's a whole debate. America is the whole, like the whole continent, not just here, but anyways. Um, all right, let me see. What else? What else? What else? Um okay, we talked about the water break, blah blah blah. We we we're in agreement that that needs to go back. All right, let's go to a more cheerful part of the conversation here. I was getting heated up. I don't can't imagine like how heated my blot was. But when I did see the video, I'll give him that. I think he was just saying it as a as a joke to his friends, and I get you know their media, the way that they talk about things are are you know in that way. But um, man, Canada, how do you lose? I haven't seen the game, but when I was watching, you guys were winning. But uh, yeah, Switzerland, I think they're going first in uh in their group. So yeah, Switzerland goes through first, seven points, and then we got Canada and Bosnia. Bosnia as one of the best thirds, I believe. I had the the thing here, yeah. Right now they're obviously uh you know first on that uh on that table of best thirds, and it's because it's the only group that has finished, actually no, Brazil and and then finished too. Um freaking Morocco, man, and and Haiti uh 4-2 and up that game. What a game. But I also Haiti, shout out to to what you did. I mean, I am so sorry that you left uh without any points. But in that game, what I saw um was pretty crazy. You guys should be very happy. I hope everybody's if you're watching from Haiti or you are from there, uh, pretty pretty awesome the fact that you guys competed at that high level. I think you guys were just unlucky. Uh, the fact that you know how the games turned out. Again, I haven't seen the last one, but pretty impressive. You guys have really good uh good players. But congrats to Brazil, Neymar making their their uh second debut, I guess, with the with the national team. He hasn't played with Brazil since 2023, he hasn't scored with Brazil since 2023. So very cool to see him back on the on the on the field. And when he came in, man, that crowd in Miami when they were playing, uh, they went crazy. And it's they they love this guy. He's like the last like true true 10 that Brazil has produced, and uh by far uh from anybody that's there today, and find me on this one. You know, I know people uh and all the Madridistas are gonna talk about Vinny, but I think like Neymar was years ahead in his prime. Uh, has he did he go here because of social pressure or because he did deserve it? That's a debate, maybe for a different episode. Uh, but it was like very, very cool to see, to be honest. If you have harder games, I don't think we're gonna see him play uh much. You can see he's like slower, he's coming back from an injury, he's not like the the spicy namer that that we know and uh and love. So um very cool, man. We're about to go watch uh group A, which is you know Mexico against Chechia and South Korea against South Africa. I mean, the the group is wide open for second and third, right here. Obviously, make Mexico already through, and I'm rooting for Korea because I like the way that they're playing, man. It's so cool. So, you know, um they have three points, and South Africa has one. So, South Africa, if they win, they could get second even, which is crazy. So we'll see. That's gonna that group is wide open. Uh, very exciting things. What else do I have here for my for my notes and making sure that you know we we cover everything? I mean, what I wanted to cover was what I talked about for a while. But as right now, as it stands, things stand, we have Bosnia, Sweden, Croatia, Algeria, Paraguay, Scotland, Cape Verde, and Belgium as best thirds. And I think it's is like if you ever watch F1, it's gonna be like one thing, you know, those things that you're like seventh or eighth, and you already played, you know, you're just rooting for other teams to to not make it. Uh, but let's see if we have some cool fixtures here as it stands. I mean, Portugal, Ghana, I think it will be good. Um Spain, Austria. You got Brazil, Japan, that's gonna be incredible. Mexico and Scotland, that's gonna be a whole big party on there, Argentina, Uruguay. This is uh beginning of knockout rounds, some of those games. Colombia, Croatia, a big one if it stands. This is gonna change because we have the rest of the groups playing the rest of the week. But um, yeah, if you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe. Uh, follow the social media at breakfc or at official breakfc. Come to the the the YouTube channel or go to our website, thefootball.show. You'll find everything in there. Super cool hanging out. Uh, thank you for all the new subscribers. We're about to hit 5,000 subscribers, which is crazy. And then this weekend, uh, we're gonna be in Miami. So if you're down there, put us a comment right below and uh we can come hang out. Maybe we do a watch party or something. But with that said, guys, thank you so much, and I'll see you in the next episode.