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Breaking Like Beckham

By Jimmy Scott - Posted on 12 March 2009

Imagine if your favorite player on your favorite team arranged a deal so that he could play baseball for a different team in a different country. And then he decided he didn't want to come back. And then your team got mad and set up a "face-saving" deal for your one-time hero where he came back to play for your team, but only for a handful of games at the end of the season, before going abroad for good. How would you feel if you were a fan? Even more important, how would you feel if you were one of his teammates?

I can tell you how I'd feel. Mad. Upset. Furious. Betrayed. Betwixed. (I'd ask another teammate if it was possible for a man's man to feel betwixed, and if betwixed was really a word, before releasing that statement to the media.) Bottom line: This is worse than the ballplayer who takes part of a season off voluntarily before coming back to play. This is worse than Roger Clemens leaving the team in between starts to watch his wife play golf. This is worse than a player leaving the team for a few days over a contract dispute. As a teammate, I would think this is the ultimate middle finger aimed right at me and the rest of the guys I play with.

And this is what David Beckham is doing to his teammates on the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.

Beckham, arguably the most famous soccer (in other countries it's called "football," but you knew that) player in the world, signed with the Galaxy and played his first game for them on July 13, 2007. It was reported to be a $250 million, 5-year deal (A-Rod & Boras, did you catch that?). Not two years later, Beckham wants out.

If I were his teammate, I would have called him immediately. After leaving a voicemail for his assistant's assistant, I would have tried 8 more times before getting his mother's fifth cousin, twice removed, on the phone to pass along my message: Stay in Europe, David.

No player wants to play with a guy like this. At least, no MLB player would put up with this. You think Derek Jeter would be happy if A-Rod did this? Or Vladimir Guerrero if Torii Hunter did it? No way. In effect, Beckham is breaking his contract. He's throwing it out and starting fresh, with better terms for him long-term. He says his goal is to be playing in Europe so he can qualify for England's team in the 2010 World Cup. If I'm his Galaxy teammate, I think aloud, "Didn't he think of that before signing the $250 million deal?" And then I wonder, "What happened?"

He'd never tell me. He wouldn't need to. When you're as rich as David Beckham, when you're as successful on the field, when you are idolized and fawned over, you don't think clearly. You don't think the way "civilians" think. Ask Alex Rodriguez. He doesn't know how the everyday person thinks. He doesn't know how the 25th man on his roster thinks. He never will because of his success, money, greed, and posse of people around him, from "friends" to agent to family. Beckham wasn't thinking straight when he signed the deal with LA. And, quite frankly, he probably isn't thinking straight now. Because he can't. He never will.

Just be thankful that this unprecedented move has never happened to your favorite player on your favorite team in your favorite sport. Because now that it's happened, there will be other guys thinking the same way.

So, Mr. Pujols, what do you think about playing in Japan?

Jimmy Scott's blog

There's More On This (But You're Not A Moron)

Submitted by Jimmy Scott on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 11:05.

Great comment. I wrote more about this here:

http://www.jimmyscottshighandtight.com/node/577

San Jose Earthquakes player Kelly Gray wrote his opinion, and then I wrote mine.

Breaking Like Beckham

Submitted by Diane (not verified) on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 17:30.

This is a great perspective, thank you. Even though I supported Beckham's transfer request I think that the season-sharing arrangement is terrible. Unfair to fans ad teammates, and transparently based on cash at the expense of building a successful team. I supported his request for the transfer because the World Cup is unique enough in sport to make the aspiration to participate -- if that possibility is presented -- an extraordinary circumstance. In the England NT's coaches eyes, playing for Milan makes that possible, while playing for the Galaxy does not. For Beckham, the possibility of playing in a fourth World Cup would be particularly poignant. Not just because it would be such a rare accomplishment but because he would surely welcome another chance to make things right for England after so many years of captaining the team without the success expected of them. Another thing you might relate to as a player: transfers and loans are much more common in football (soccer) around the world than in other sports. Loans help keep players on rich rosters active, help season young players on big clubs, etc. Transfers are common if just because a player isn't the right fit for a team (which I don't personally think Beckham was for the Galaxy). If U.S. teams want to attract world class talent, they would do better to understand the importance of international play in the rest of the world, and also not make players feel that they are prisoners to a contract if things don't go well. In all fairness Beckham did not ask for this split season. He tried to work out either a long term loan (until 2010) or a transfer to Milan. MLS/Galaxy should have taken the money to build. Or, better for their cash register, made the long-term loan, spared their team the mid-season foolishness, and basked in the glow of supporting Beckham in his efforts to play in the WC -- think of the publicity they could share in if he actually makes it.