On September 28th it will be three decades since a very early edition of Sky’s new Monday Night Football featured an infamous half-time show headlined by The Shamen performing Ebenezeer Goode, accompanied by a cheerleading troupe known as The Sky Strikers. Fans who had come to Highbury to watch Arsenal take on Manchester City were suitably dismayed, booing the band and the pom-pom toting ladies off the field.
At the time, there was much harrumphing about what was perceived to be a misguided attempt to introduce American accoutrements and faux razzmatazz to the English game.
Todd Boehly was an undergraduate at the College of William & Mary back then, studying business administration, years away from becoming an investment banker, buying the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chelsea, and suggesting the Premier League should consider an annual North v South All-Star Game.
The overreaction to him flying that kite the other week was instructive. Words like history and tradition were bandied about because, apparently, only English football has those, adjectives like stupid and hair-brained thrown in his face. A mild bang of xenophobia off the whole affair, the nerve of the arriviste from the colonies speaking out of turn.
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The most vehement opposition to the proposal came from the ranks of the media and superannuated players-turned-pundits, all of whom are in roughly the same age profile, none of whom are kids. Maybe they should have asked some children for their opinions of the idea. In my experience, the younger demographic loves the concept nearly as much as old fellas hate it. The video game generation, raised on daily mixing and matching players from different teams and eras on NBA 2K and Fifa, embrace All-Star Games, relishing the novelty of rivals joining forces for one night only.
Over here, All-Star Games have evolved into three-day occasions where the entertaining ancillary events are a compelling part of the attraction. Baseball’s home run derby and basketball’s slam dunk contest are made for television gimmicks that bemuse and appal the middle-aged (Not in my day!) while thrilling and enthralling 11-year-olds.
Would the children who obsess over the Premier League be just as smitten by their heroes participating in crossbar challenges or skills competitions of some ilk? Perhaps it might be worth asking them before the notion is so summarily dismissed.
The players might not share the negativity of the English pundits or the likes of Jurgen Klopp either. A feature of American All-Star affairs is how child-like many of the participants become during the festivities. Grizzled old pros are suddenly videoing every moment like starstruck tourists, and many inveigle their own kids or fathers onto the sidelines to sit with them. They appear to be savouring every drop of the experience.
For a time there, it was customary for elder lemons around football to tut-tut about excessive and often choreographed goal celebrations. Frowning at the whole business, the naysayers seemed oblivious to the fact younger fans cherished every single one of those ridiculous responses to scoring.
That’s what the kids were recreating and imitating in the park with their pals. To them, over-exuberance was attractive whereas, to commentators of a certain age, it was offensive simply because that’s not how it was done in their time. The same applies here.
There’s a lot wrong with American sport but there is plenty too the Premier League could borrow from it. For starters, how about introducing a salary cap to stop the richest clubs so far outspending their less well-off competitors? Imagine a competition where Man City had to pay an annual luxury tax for breaching that protocol, a sum subsequently redistributed to their more mendicant rivals.
Then there’s the annual draft to ensure the best young players get sent to the worst teams each season just to make the whole thing more competitive. Another bonkers American idea that ensures genuine parity. Twelve different outfits have won the last 15 Super Bowls, there have been seven different NBA title winners since 2013, and baseball’s World Series trophy has gone to eight different cities in eight years. A type of radical egalitarianism that the lop-sided Premier League will never experience.
Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium is something else worth considering. Before one afternoon game each summer, the club invites back all its living players for a shamelessly nostalgic, poignant ceremony in the Bronx. One more sentimental time, former greats are introduced over the PA and walk from the dug-out to the field soundtracked by the cheers of the crowd.
Some rheumy-eyed older stars can barely make it that distance, and, up in the stands, fans see once mighty men now mere tattered coats upon sticks and wipe away tears recalling their wondrous feats in the great games of long ago.
If the denizens of the Premier League could open their eyes just a little wider, they might realise there is much to be learned from the dreaded Americans. They should already know this.
While dated footage of The Shamen is regularly touted as evidence of how Sky got so much wrong back then, and the musical interludes and dancers were certainly ill-judged, Monday Night Football, long a staple of America’s NFL landscape, was a very smart idea to copy. It became an intrinsic part of the English calendar and appointment television within a generation.
Tradition and history are great, change and innovation can be too.
