advancing to the Champions League...or dare I say, relegation.

In soccer, a tie can essentially put you into the Super Bowl. Or it can drop you from P5 to G5. So if you like drama, you understand that the tie you get today might send you to the highest echelons 2 months from now.

Or it can relegate you to Ted Lasso status.

I don't like PK's. And I don't like ties. But I like soccer, and I understand the role they both play. I understand the nuance involved. I didn't before, because I was uneducated and close-minded.

I still don't like them. But I understand the role they play in the system.

Nobody forces anyone to watch soccer, but soccer is growing in the United States for a reason. It's not growing in the United States because it is incapable of providing "the human drama of athletic competition." It's growing in the United States precisely because it does.