Ah, but I'm sure they're already on top of it.

HireAFan.com (from Deadspin)

"The site has been born after the World Cup of Soccer 2006. During the world cup, I was lacking loyalty to a specific country so I decided to auction off my loyalty via Ebay. The auction was a success with much media interest, and the business of hireafan was born. After my loyalty was secured for Serbia and Montenegro, I discovered there was a market of people that were willing to cheer for any game for a price."

Ha, no shit.

"The concept behind this site is simple. Hireafan.com is exactly as is seems, you pay for a fan to cheer for your team for a specific game. In return for your fan purchase, you will receive advertising on this site, as well as a photograph of your fan in front of a television set during the game."

Gee, anyone know a team with a lot of money to throw away, to go with a glaring lack of attention to its "product"?

Actually, amidst the Beckham-to-MLS nonsense being thrown around last week, someone made the point that for $100 million, the league would be better advised to offer 20 dollar bills to the next 5 million people to come through the gates. That is a sharp take, but at $5 a head this is even more of a bargain.

And it's already got sponsorship from multilevel marketers and online touts? Google is scraping together another billion dollars as we speak.

Nicklas Backstrom - Something like the Swedish Ronaldinho of hockey.

Not as incredible as the original, of course, but this looks like it was done without the aid of special effects.

Poor Rob Johnson. Original Metro, the first and best purveyor of the flip throw-in in MLS (hey, anyone could pull that off on the wide sidelines of Giants Stadium or Foxboro, but in Spartan Stadium??) but forever to be remembered Metro fans as the guy who took down Marco Etcheverry for a penalty in the dying minutes of the 1996 Metro-DC playoffs. If only we could go back in time, back to that fall evening at RFK, and remind him not to go flying recklessly in...so much might be different for us today.



(the very epitome of "scything the attacker down")

Now an assistant coach at Temple University, he's one of many Robert Johnsons on the government no-fly list, according to a story on 60 Minutes last night.

DC scum: Still fucking with Rob Johnson, and all of us, ten years later.

This may have started as a blog dedicated to the fortunes of Metrostars soccer (it's right there in the name, after all) but given the sour-tasting mix of blandness, agitation and indifference CFKAM has been delivering since March, the ever-increasing joylessness that comes from "following" what isn't a club so much as a pure global marketing exercise, I'm so very glad indeed that NHL hockey is back.

But as for hockey fans being back...not so much. At least not the sort who make totally bizarre street hockey-inspired movies like this. Just enough production values (I mean, there's titles! And not just that, but the tinkly sitcom piano, the chiller-thriller shriek sounds) to let you know that a modicum of thought and effort went into this. It would be so much less disturbing - but certainly less funny - if it was just your typical stupid stoner kids joint.



There are at least 3 adults involved with this "production;" clearly, all should be put on a DCYS hotlist, stat. That said, I sure hope that when the NHL rips off Youtube like they're ripping off Myspace (fallen a little behind, haven't they?) the same production company deranged hockey dad has a sequel ready.