a man of his word

Here's a different kind of sports' story, one that might even interest the non-fan.

It is hard to explain to outsiders just how pathetic is that status of the San Jose Earthquakes in the soccer world. The USA is not one of the major powers in the game, and our league has been around for about a century less than some of the others. The play in MLS is much better than when it started, but if the top leagues are at the A level (and the top teams in those leagues at the A+ level), and the second-tier leagues are on the B level, then MLS is probably still only a B-. Point being, the rest of the world thinks MLS is a joke. Foreign players who come here are always surprised at the level of play, which says more about their expectations than the actual play itself ... in short, MLS isn't a bad league, but its reputation is even worse than its quality of play.

And San Jose is the worst MLS team. They play most of their home games in a little "stadium" at Santa Clara University, where 10,000 is treated as a sellout. They were the league's laughing stock for many years, then suddenly because an elite team for a few years, only to see the club move to Houston. Now, the Earthquakes are an expansion team, one that never scores goals, never wins, never entertains.

OK, you get the point.

Darren Huckerby is an English soccer player in his early-30s. He's on the downhill side of a fairly solid career, and MLS attracts a lot of those kinds of players, but based on the available evidence, he hasn't lost THAT much, he has been a good player, and he will likely help any team he plays for this season and next. Huckerby is also beloved by his fans. He spent the last several years with Norwich City in England, and since it was announced that he would be moving on, tributes to the man have filled YouTube and the rest of the Internets. He is the ultimate Fan Favorite.

According to this interview, Huckerby received offers from a dozen clubs, good clubs, one reported to be an English Premier League club. But there is a problem. Huckerby promised that he would never take the field in a match to play against his old club Norwich City. He loved playing there, he loved the fans and they loved him back, his family (wife and two kids) live there ... and all of that put together convinced Huckerby that he couldn't bear to go against Norwich.

So he turned down those offers, because they were all from clubs who might find Norwich City on their schedule.

But Huckerby still wants to play. And so he found a team that is very unlikely to ever play Norwich City. Yes, Darren Huckerby is joining the San Jose Earthquakes. For, it is worth noting, a lot less money than he'd make if he stayed in England (MLS does not exactly pay the highest salaries in the sport).

So we've got a fan favorite who still seems to have skills, and he actually wants to play for San Jose. It's not quite like when the Giants signed Barry Bonds, but it has a similar feel. When Barry became a Giant, we were stunned in part because we couldn't imagine anyone wanting to play for our team. In that regard, anyway, Huckerby is very much like Bonds.

But mostly, I'm just fascinated by a man who would turn down a dozen lucrative offers in favor of playing in California (and not for Los Angeles, either), simply because he didn't think it was right to play against his old team.

Sean's got a series of columns on Huckerby, with lots of videos, which are not hard to find. Here's one:

Watching the videos, it's clear that Huckerby is quite the dribbler. Since that is my favorite kind of player, and since dribbling is something of a lost art in the modern game, I think I'm going to like Darren Huckerby a lot. If he plays on the wing, he could replace Brian Mullan in my Quakes heart.

Comments

[Chris]

That's a good story!

[Steve Hammond]

What is that ugly yellow game ball? I thought at first it was a rugby ball. Is it used in one of the leagues below the EPL?

[Steven]

It's probably just the winter ball. All the UEFA teams use a colored ball during snow season, far as I know ... I think they have dates written into the rules. I think I've seen it in South America, too.