>For more than a generation, Deford has been a weekly fixture on NPR’s Morning Edition, offering his unique take on the comings and goings of the sports world. But on Wednesday, Deford delivered his final Sweetness And Light segment for the network, bowing out with the same verbal gymnastics he has employed on air for the past 37 years.
>“I have survived so long because I've been blessed with talented and gracious colleagues, and with a top brass who let me choose my topics every week and then allowed me to express opinions that were not always popular,” Deford said. “Well, someone had to stand up to the yakety-yak soccer cult.”
>“Our fans for football, basketball and hockey have fantasy leagues,” Deford said. “The fantasy for our soccer fans is that Major League Soccer will somehow become major league, because that's all that exceptional Americans are bred to expect.”
>"It is not only that soccer lacks scoring, either. It also has no small victories, no cumulative successes. Baseball teams build rallies. Football teams drive down the field, even if they have to settle for a field goal. Soccer is the coitus interruptus of sport."