I was out with some long-time soccer teammates this weekend swapping old war stories that sounded like that marketing theme, "the older I get the better I was." We weren't talking about our own game so much because we've all come to the realization that our better days are long since behind us. We knew our limitations "back in the day" and with every grunt, crackle and moan as we each make our way across the room, we understand the reality the effects of many years of competitive sports have had on our bodies.
We weren't talking about us. We were talking about Kyle Rote Jr. Unless you were from my generation and a soccer player in your teens, you probably have no idea who Kyle Rote Jr. is. My parents knew of his father who was a standout collegiate and professional football player for SMU and the New York Giants. If you were a fan of the ABC Wide World of Sports "Superstars" competition, then you may know Rote Jr. as a three-time champion, second only to University of Maryland's own Renaldo "Skeets" Nehemiah, the only four-timer.
Kids now have so many potential role models in professional soccer. With the coverage of the sport on every continent by ESPN, GolTV and Fox Soccer Channel, our kids get the exposure of so many players and can choose who they want to call their hero. They can choose American players in the MLS, American players playing abroad, foreign players playing on American soil and even foreign players that you only get to see every four years in the World Cup. It's a smorgasbord.
We didn't have that luxury "back in the day." I was fortunate to have lived overseas and seen the game first hand witnessing some of the best players in the world. I connected with players named Pele, Jairzinho and Tostao. When I came home to the U.S., the role models that were available to me were names like Unitas, Matte and the Robinsons and you couldn't ask for better ones than that. But I couldn't identify with them the way teenage soccer players like me could with Kyle Rote Jr.
Rote Jr. wasn't anything spectacular in comparison to modern players or even most international players of his day. His professional career only lasted 7 years. He lead the North American Soccer League in scoring as a rookie, the first American and first rookie to do so. He only received five "caps", a term used when a player represents his country on the field for the national team. Former average at best U.S. National team player Cobi Jones has the record with 164.
He wasn't as good as most of the international superstars that flooded the New York Cosmos' roster like Giorgio Chinaglia, Carlos Alberto or Franz Beckenbauer.
But he was our soccer player, our hero.
I wonder why we followed the leaders we did and why we emulated the heroes we chose. As Ernest Hemingway said, "As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."
Approaching the wrong side of 50, I wonder who will be that Kyle Rote Jr. for the second half of my life.
Reach staff writer Robert Brown at 410-857-8552 or robert.brown@carrollcountytimes.com.
