There was a soccer story back in April about the formation of the European Super League (ESL). I want to make something very clear about the ESL - this was not just a huge soccer story, it was a huge story. I figured this out when the people in my life with little to no interest in the sport (this represents 98% of the people in my life) were constantly asking me about the ESL. What do you think about the ESL? What do the fans think about the ESL? Are you going to watch the ESL? Are you going to write about the ESL? It's the most reliable way to know whether a huge soccer story has actually reached the point where it's just a huge story - when people who don't follow the sport ask about it, it's a huge story.
The problem was that I didn't find anything interesting about this huge story. I suppose this could have been due to a number of reasons - the competition itself wasn't due to start right away, the format of the tournament lacked imagination, the ESL had always felt inevitable to soccer fans, and so on. I suppose it's even possible that I was simply exhausted from a year of pandemic life. But as I think about it now, I suspect my disinterest was based on a far simpler explanation. The ESL, in short, was an attempt by the sport's greediest club owners to consolidate their wealth at the expense of everyone else. This is a story that happens every day, every hour, in every industry on the planet, which means the only things I could have said about it were the most predictable responses to the most predictable prompts. What do I think about the wealthiest people on the planet crying poverty as an excuse for reinforcing structural inequality? What do you think I think?
If talking about the ESL meant dusting off the script ahead of a new version of the same conversation, then it's pretty clear to me why I felt no compulsion to share my views back in April. There is a certain stupor that comes along when you spend too much time reciting the lines instead of expressing yourself. It may have something to do with the way I become so predictable to myself in these conversations that I lose interest in hearing my own voice. It's probably for the best in these sorts of circumstances that I've learned to walk away rather than regurgitate the same canned lines we recycle into our everyday interactions. What do I have to say about the ESL? It's going to be the same thing I thought the last time you asked, weeks or months before the ESL ever existed, because the details of the ESL don't introduce enough novelty to make me consider changing my perspective. It's the same reason why I'm so worn down by having to comment on pop culture, or the weather, or politics - whatever I say I've heard before, and each time I'm reminded that the predictable thing never quite felt worth saying.
