Who are we, and why are we here?

It’s not for the money, so there has to be a good reason why four, otherwise sane and productive individuals with grown-up responsibilities and jobs decided to devote a good portion of their free time to starting a website dedicated to a game that many in the U.S. badmouth even as they drive their progeny to a Saturday morning rec. league game.

So, why the beautiful game?

I was born and raised in North London until the age of 16.  My initials are MJ, but my middle name is John.  My dad is the one who invented calling me Jack (as a nickname for John), and pretty much everyone else including my Mom and sister call me Jack now.  As a child, I got the experience of a lifetime in terms of being able to attend football matches.  My Dad is a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur supporter and season ticket holder, and thus, I spent many, many Saturdays and Sundays at White Hart Lane.  I saw the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Jurgen Klinsmann, and Gary Lineker, and we had a banner across our mantle that read Audere est Facere (Latin for “To Dare is to Do”), Spurs club motto.

So, I just grew up to 16 with football every weekend.  I remember going to the original Wembley Stadium for the 1981 FA Cup final replay against Manchester City, and being a young lad of 13 at the time, remember thinking how HUGE it was compared to White Hart Lane and even Highbury, Arsenal’s grounds at the time.  I remember watching a HUGE fight break out between the ICF of West Ham United and one of the Spurs firms at the time, the Yiddos, right out in the street in front of our house, after a rather dour 0-0 draw.  I remember going to Highbury and being amazed that such beautiful football could be played on such a tiny pitch.  I remember my Dad damn near losing his mind when I told him that I enjoyed Arsenal’s football more than Spurs, but then sort of looking at me and saying “Ah, I knew you’d end up liking that lot.  You like things more artistic than I do, it’s no wonder.  Just don’t wear any of that shite in this house.”  As it stands now, though, honestly, I support both clubs because they are both in my heart, Spurs from my youth and Arsenal from my young adulthood and forward.  Derby day in North London is a day I dread twice a year, because I know what those days are like.  My Dad paces the house for days on end, muttering.  My Mom is on high alert most of the time.  Dad gets to the grounds early in the day, he doesn’t go to the pubs that often anymore, he says it’s a “young man’s game” now to do that, drink all day, get pissed up and then turn up for the match.

I was sent here to live with my Uncle when I was 16, to finish high school and go on to college.  The only problem with this was my Uncle was a functional alcoholic who really had no business being around a 16 year old young man, new to this country and needing a bit of hand-holding until I got it straight.  Oddly enough, I went out for the high school footy team and made the squad as a right wing in the midfield, and scored 11 goals as a junior and 13 as a senior.  I got through those two years mostly on my own, trying to find out what was going on at home with the teams, getting the papers sent to me (this was pre-internet days, folks) and generally pining for home.  I applied to Penn State, and got in, and finally got away from a relative I really had grown to dislike intensely.  From there, I lived for four straight years in State College, PA, graduated, and started working.  During all that time I never ever didn’t think about English first division and then Premier League football.  It’s the league closest to my heart.  I spent many evenings trying to explain the FA Cup, the League Cup, the Cup Winners Cup, the Champions League, the First Division, the Premier League, promotion, relegation, the transfer window.  Honestly, my whole sporting life has been devoted to the most beautiful of games.  Our game.  The World’s game.

Since college, I’ve joined the workforce.  I’m lucky enough now to get to work from home if and when I need to, and this comes in handy when there are mid-week matches (like next week, can’t wait!).  I’m going to have season tickets for the Philadelphia MLS franchise when it starts.  I get back to England once in awhile and I can usually either go to WHL or the Emirates with my mates back home, if need be.  There is still nothing like those nights and afternoons in those grounds, honestly.

That’s why I’m here, and that’s who I am.  Now let’s get on with it, shall we?

Cheers.