Something has always flummoxed me in sports. It's the propensity of lesser informed fans and a few media blowhards to stand on high, reeking of tough-minded and righteous superiority, and label some professional athletes as "soft."

This is especially bothersome in American football.

File photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union

On Thursday night, the Union held a town hall meeting with invited season ticket holders among the top 100 loyalty reward accounts. The discussion featured Nick Sakiewicz, Dave Rowan and Bob Rigby. Based on information from season ticket holders who were in attendance, as well as tweets from Union fan extraordinaire BarbCV from the event, here are some of the topics that were discussed:

• The Union is very sound financially with a very healthy coffer for improving existing player contracts and new player acquisition.

Would have been a more appropriate brand Toronto
Despite last Wednesday night's crowd at SkyDome creating a banner night for North American football, only one annoying aspect of the evening caught the world media's eye. Instead of 47,000 attending a CONCACAF Champions League match being the story, a foolishly tossed can of beer landing in the general vicinity of the world's most famous footballer grabbed headlines.

7 Spectacular Non-Football Chokes - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

It isn't often that you'll see a team throw away a three-goal lead in the second half as Chelsea did earlier this season in their 3-3 draw with Manchester United. But as wild as this English Premier League season has been, from 8-2, 1-6, 3-5, and beyond.

In honor of the fact that the U.S. is playing Venezuela the University of Phoenix Stadium, and that the stadium staged Super Bowl XLII, and that it's playoff time in the NFL, we decided to look at the USA's record in venues that have hosted the Super Bowl.
The U.S. has played in 13 stadiums that have hosted the domestic American Football championship, one as many as 15 times (Rose Bowl).

Like many Americans of my generation, I fell in love with football at age 14 during the 1994 World Cup.
Prior to 1994, I did not even realize that you could play football professionally. I figured it was something to do for fun. It was nothing more than a PE activity to do in between American football and basketball seasons.

Yes, I admit that I enjoyed American Football today, Super Bowl Sunday, but in the rest of the world, Association Football was played as usual. Especially in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, co-hosts of the 2012 African Nations Cup.Yesterday, powerful co-favorites Ivory Coast defeated co-host Equatorial Guinea 3-0.

Kelyn Rowe (left) launches a free kick during the Revolution Mar. 3 preseason match against Los Angeles (Photo: Joshua Pearson).

If there was any thought that Jay Heaps would turn the Revolution into a team on the rise overnight, the last 180 minutes proved that the "under construction" sign isn't ready to be taken down.

Ok then, after a relatively quiet week it all kicks off again today against Stoke.

Their season is more or less complete, they're in no danger of relegation but you can be quite sure they'll be up for this one today. Their fans don't like us very much after we hurt their feelings by being upset that one of their players smashed Aaron Ramsey's leg in two.

I recently read somewhere (I wish I could remember where so that I could link to it) that OPTA uses the amount of passes in a game to determine possession. This surprised me. Basing possession on passing has the potential to produce some skewed results. The most obvious argument against this is that a team that uses the short passing game is going to have a larger portion of possession regardless of the actual amount of time that they truly have possession.

I don't care if there's no 'end product'. I've honestly never seen a footballer who's as fun to watch as Mousa Dembele.

We sit in what I used to think of as "Paintil Corner", the area of the Riverside where John Paintsil was most active when defending the Hammersmith End. The thing with being that close to the action is that you lose a lot of perspective, but you do grow to appreciate the speed and nimbleness of top level football.

I don't care if there's no 'end product'. I've honestly never seen a footballer who's as fun to watch as Mousa Dembele.

We sit in what I used to think of as "Paintil Corner", the area of the Riverside where John Paintsil was most active when defending the Hammersmith End. The thing with being that close to the action is that you lose a lot of perspective, but you do grow to appreciate the speed and nimbleness of top level football.

The whispers of an Alessandro Del Piero transfer to Major League Soccer are once again being heard.

Del Piero, the face of the Juventus organization, has been rumored to leave the Italian side multiple times in the past, including a rumored switch to the New York Red Bulls in 2010.

The Italian ace left his club in style, lifting the Serie A trophy at home, giving the Juventus supporters a memorable farewell.