Three phrases lazy headline writers use on soccer articles

Like the rest of the Twin Cities, the local papers were supposed to be very excited when David Beckham came to town last weekend for Copa Minnesota. However, unlike the fans who attended the games, the papers probably weren’t all that thrilled. After all, it was a celebrity affair so they were forced to cover it but they don’t actually have a real, live soccer writer on staff.

Indeed, the headline writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune didn’t work too hard when they employed an age-old American headline writers’ trick—the one they use when titling an article about soccer. You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s a function of the headline writer not knowing anything about the game and his insatiable love of wordplay. In this case, the article was titled “Beckham not there just for kicks.”

“Just for kicks” is one of three phrases that U.S. headline writers love to use on soccer articles. Here are all three:

• “Get a kick [out of something]“
• “Just for kicks”
• “Have/having a ball”

Actually, that last one is used for articles about soccer, youth sports and wacky or heartstring-pulling sports stories, like a 90-year-old who plays croquet with her 94-year-old husband, a blind golfer or a squirrel who loves to play billiards in exchange for nuts.

The worst part about these phrases is how evocative they are—not of soccer, mind you, but of something so whimsical that it deserves no real attention. And that’s precisely how non-soccer people will read those headlines: “Oh, cute! A soccer game! They use their feet. He-he-he-he.”

And that’s really too bad.

Photo by george_morgan