June 12th, 2026
I’m so sorry if you see me in the next five weeks because my personality will be, largely, the World Cup (though, depending on your opinion of me, this may be better than whatever my normal personality is).
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with soccer; I have both hated it and loved it during different periods of my life.
(I definitely had a comical distaste for the sport when I worked at Old Chicago and we started opening hellishly early on the weekend for Premier League matches, but it did gift me my English team. My GM Luke encouraged me to pick and support a side, as I would then get more into the games, so I asked him who the rivals were for his team, Chelsea. He said it was Arsenal and my choice was made. They’re currently the Premier League champs, btw!)
I am now at the point in my life where I have never loved soccer more. I don’t know when the light switch flipped but it actually wasn’t like a switch at all; it was a rekindled relationship that started with curiosity and has resulted in obsession.
(Another aside: I think my love/hate relationship exists with sports in general. Though I have never been known as athletic [nerd and writer and drama club president, hello], I really do love to play, and I think a lot of my physical awkwardness came from my terrible eyesight. Though a lot of you know I wear glasses now, I didn’t for the first thirty-ish years of my life, blindly navigating through my days like a powerless Matt Murdock. I was insecure about that, and not being able to see led to me finding other ways to represent myself. I think it worked out for the best, but I digress.)
Anyway, this is all a post to say: if you’re obsessed, too, and want to talk World Cup, I’m your guy. I’ve already watched every match so far and can’t stop watching and reading everything else Cup-related.
P.S. I read an article about a pick-up league in Atlanta called Roswell Seniors Soccer Club where the median age of the players is 73 and I can’t stop thinking about it. Does anyone else want to start an old person league with me? Please? I promise we can just walk the whole time, eat treats and chase butterflies at our leisure.
The Den 