The red-blooded nationalism of American sports fans is already ramping up to its acme for the 2012 London Olympics. Late Saturday night, we got a preview of what might happen if football ever gets included in the Olympics — and if the U.S. loses.
That happened because the U.S. team at the IFAF U-19 World Championship fell to Canada, 23-17, in the gold medal game. The American team was the defending champion in the event, and had won its first two games in the 2012 event by a combined 97-13 score.
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An American team losing in a sport that theoretically only America is any good at? And to Canada? Never mind that gridiron football — the umbrella term for football played in the U.S. and Canada that encompasses both American football and the Canadian football that actually existed a few years before it — is about as much Canadian as American; do you expect most American fans to know that?
Thus, it was no wonder that the jokes came out on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Canada just beat the U.S. is a football game. U-19, but still. I blame Obamacare.
— Ryan Hudson (@ry_hudson) July 8, 2012
FIRE BOB BRADLEY RT @MattRHinton: End of 3rd qtr, Canadians lead U.S. in the U-19 football world championship in Austin, 16-14.
— John Infante (@John_Infante) July 8, 2012
That's it, Canadian teenagers defeat U.S. team made up almost entirely of D-I recruits in U-19 football. A nation hides its face in shame.
— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) July 8, 2012
This is all, of course, incredibly silly. The American team was made up of high schoolers — rising seniors who didn't end up at Nike's The Opening this weekend — and coached by high school coaches, while Canada's squad had some of the best the nation had to offer in the age range. And no one thinks for half a second that any nation could put together an Olympic squad anything like the one the U.S. would assemble; that's why football will probably never be an Olympic sport.
But a Canadian team beating America in football? That's almost like American teams holding the Stanley Cup time and time again.
Oh wow. Canada beat the U.S. in high school football. That makes up for not winning the Stanley Cup in 20 years. Totally.
— Dave Lozo (@DaveLozo) July 8, 2012
Oh, right.