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Macho Tough Guy Ben Davis Won’t Let His Kids Play Soccer (UPDATED)

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 25th, 2026 · 10:28 AM EDT

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The last thing I want to do today is write a second story about 94 WIP, but there’s so much complete and utter horseshit being broadcasted over there that it must be addressed.

Here’s a snippet of a discussion from the end of Tuesday’s morning show, talking World Cup:

Joe DeCamara: Well it is (the biggest sport) in the world, but I think it’s still soooo far away, at least a hundred years before it could have an impact in America. It just doesn’t resonate.

James Seltzer: But things like this World Cup make a difference…

DeCamara: can make a difference..

Seltzer: especially if the U.S. team goes on a run, combined with the vibes of it being here, it could get young people into soccer

DeCamara: maybe

Seltzer: I’m not saying it’s gonna be ahead of football or something, but I’m saying this is the type of thing that could create an influx

Ben Davis: yeah but if my kids say, ‘I just watched the World Cup game, I’m gonna start playing soccer,’ I’d be like, ‘no you’re not… you’re not’

Oh yeah? And why is that, Ben? Is soccer for pussies? Is it not American enough or manly enough for you? Should our sons and daughters be outside playing long toss while breathing in wildfire smoke? Give me a break with this braindead tough guy shit. You sound like a neanderthal.

Here’s the other thing –

Most people who have children would probably tell you that the #1 thing they want in life is for their kids to have fun and be happy by pursuing things that they enjoy. If my daughters came up to me and said, “Dad, I’d like to join the choir and play the oboe,” you know would I would say? I would say go for it, and I would encourage it and support it, even though I don’t give a rat’s ass about choir or the oboe. Because it’s not about me, and what I like and dislike. It’s about them.

Alternately, you could be one of those douchebag hardasses at the youth baseball game, yelling at your kid from the stands while telling anybody who will listen that he’s the next Bryce Harper. We definitely need more of those types of people around here.

I am sorry, but this shit makes my blood boil. At least James Seltzer has some common sense over there. And DeCamara is doing the same old “soccer will never be big over here” routine, when the sport already has tens of millions of fans in this country. They just aren’t cranky boomers who listen to the radio, so the sport is off-brand for this medium.

EDIT – I would like to respond to people who say “why does this bother you?” –

Why does this bother me? Well, let’s see. Imagine you play a game your entire life. You play every pickup game from here to Perkasie. You play Saturday morning Casa League at the shitty Parkwood Fields or the Pennypack Fields, behind the jail. You write about the game and support the game and watch the game and enjoy the game. And with a tiring frequency, meathead “four for four” fans shit on your sport, saying it’s “gay” and it’s for pussies and Europeans and anti-American Commie types. And you pause and think – ‘hmm, I’m not a pussy, or European, or a Commie,’ or any of those things. And therefore, you are insulted, because you know that most of these fat fucks couldn’t run up and down the field two times without needing an inhaler. You realize the audacity of the criticism, acting like it’s a sport that “only kids play” or somehow requires no skill or no talent.

So you hear it once, no problem. You hear it twice, no problem. But you hear it over and over again, over the course of decades, from the losers who continue to shit on the sport and disrespect the sport and insult you at the same time, and that’s why we get mad.

Plus, it’s always been a one-way street. Soccer fans don’t sit there shitting on baseball and football and sports they don’t like. For instance, I think NASCAR is the dumbest shit ever, but I know that racing fans enjoy it, and they should be left alone to enjoy. So we leave them alone. Yet our sport is constantly under siege from these mouth breathing boomer douches who have been pushing the same old trite dinosaur routine for their entire lives.

That’s why it bothers me.

EDIT 2 – You know what? You should let your kids play soccer. Girls can go play in college, then professionally with NWSL. If they’re the best, they can play for the national team. Likewise, boys can earn a full ride in high school with Philadelphia Union academy, then go to college or play professionally. The USA World Cup team has four dudes on it who followed this exact path. It’s a good path for your kids. Soccer now has a high ceiling and raised floor because of the youth infrastructure we’ve built over the years.