Must read for sports fans who don't "get" or appreciate or watch the World Cup or soccer

Why I like World Cup soccer over NFL football:

• Pure, genuine, unbridled nationalistic fanaticism and no fantasy leagues.

• More human drama, even if some of it is manufactured in fouls and flops and feigned dial 9-1-1 pain.

• Simple analysis instead of breaking down incessantly the games/the draft/the quarterbacks/the free agency period/even the new schedule.

• Players and coaches proudly and loudly singing the National Anthem.

• Players clapping and acknowledging  their fans’ support as they come off the field for substitutes.
• Substitutes who enter the game and stay in it until the end

• Players and coaches rejoicing on the field when they win. Or draw.

• The Group of Death instead of the NFC West.

• Headers without concussions.

• Injured players are unceremoniously carried off the field on uncomfortable hard plastic “stretchers,” and not ambulances.

• One referee, therefore only one lightning rod for controversy, who doesn’t have to take time to explain decisions on the field to players/coaches/announcers/viewers/anyone. Play on!

• A whole country feels it got screwed by a call instead of one team or one city.

• High-tech replays without stopping the clock and looking under a curtain on the sideline.

• Fans who are watching the action on the field and looking up at the stadium’s video board instead of looking down at  their cellphones.

• Yellow and red cards and no discussion instead of penalties flags and huddles.

• Extra time that counts instead of running out the clock without snapping the ball.

• No sideline reporters who get in the way of the game if only to justify their existence therefore eliminating any Richard Sherman Moments.

• Spontaneous no frills outdoor public viewing parties instead of invitation-only private Super Bowl parties.

• No TV commercials during the match or the overtimes or reminders that “60 Minutes or Your Late Local News Is Next Except On The West Coast.”

• No penalties or punishment for creative or excessive celebration. Ole! Ole!

• No Chris Berman.

• One unapologetic Alexi Lalas who, through his smugness, still gives his honest opinion.

• Exciting tie games, assuming you judge the action and not the scoreboard.

• The suddenness of goals, no matter how rare.

• Several kicks needed to break a tie, not often times an anticlimactic one at the end.

• That hot Brazilian woman in the black dress and the Kia turning football games to futbol games.