The English Premier League is widely considered the best football league in the world. It is not difficult to see why this is so considering the amount of action and drama that it provides every weekend each year from August to May. The league also gets a large dose of media hype which helps it to raise its profile considerably.
The English Premier League season is only a couple of weeks old, but newly promoted Burnley has already pulled off what may be the biggest upset of the season in all of European soccer. In their first home game at the top level of English soccer in 33 years, Robbie Blake scored early in the game and Burnley held on to upset reigning league champions Manchester United before 20,000 jubilant fans at their Turf Moor home pitch.
There are many obvious sports trivia facts that your typical fan could spit off effortlessly, as if it were as obvious as simple addition. Everyone knows about Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game, Rickey Henderson’s 130 stolen bases in a season, Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hit streak, and other record-breaking feats.
Last Saturday, the greatest sporting event in the world kicked off. No, I’m not talking about any strictly American sport, nor am I talking about MMA, basketball, or baseball, cricket, or any other sporting event that immediately comes to mind. Am I talking about the UEFA Champions’ League, the soccer glamour competition that ESPN and Fox Sports have created into a pretty common event in America? The answer remains no.
One of Englands most beloved sporting figures, Sir Bobby Robson, yielded to his courageous fight with cancer recently at the age of 75. British soccer fans mourned his passing after a lifetime in the game, first as a player and then a team manager and elder statesman.