David Locke

Just a guy musing about church, theology, and sports. 303 Native. Cambria Pulpit Podcast. Author of Freedom to Flourish (

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

Unpopular opinion: if more cards were given (even if it means the player is sent off like the Swiss player) diving would leave the game and that’s a good thing. The Swiss can whine. But don’t dive and won’t have a problem.

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

Why does @foxsports insist on ramming incompetent former mls players on us in commentary roles? They regularly demonstrate that they are out of their depth. Please just stop.

[Managing Decline @cehoskinson]

This. 100% this.

MLS simply is not the kind of competitive environment for good players to develop. There's no financial or competitive risk to consistently being a shitty team year after year (like DC United!), so the level of play is mid at best. It makes mediocre players like Matt Freese think they're better than they are and robs the national team of the depth it needs.

[Dan Wetzel @DanWetzel]

Maybe making travel soccer even more expensive will help the US finally get good.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year.

That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer.

FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset.

US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records.

So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros.

Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability.

Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business.

They will not.

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

No question this is the worst officiating in the USA Bosnia-Herzegovina game. Complete incompetence that is going to get someone seriously injured. Middle school level officiating.

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

Officiating in this World Cup has been horrendous. Such a good World Cup being marred by incompetence from the fifa match fixers.

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

https://t.co/JFya3QGQs6

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

https://t.co/1lqZbSTPaU

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

@hbcharlesjr Prayers

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

The first installment on our study on biblical parenting

https://t.co/fFJUWGfC4m

[Darren McCarty @DarrenMcCarty4]

Just heard the news on #ClaudeLemieux
This is extremely sad no matter what feelings from past or present you hold. My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends and people who got to see the person off the ice wasn’t the person on. As I’ve said and will always call it as I see it

“If your on the ICE with Claude Lemieux and your turn your back. YOU Are an IDIOT.
But off the ICE I’ll turn mine”

And please. If you are struggling at all please reach out and talk to someone

Godspeed my friend

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

@VicLombardi So sorry for your loss. Thank you for letting us all experience the man your father was through your stories with him on the radio and tv. May God grant you peace

[Rick Davis @TheRhetorRick]

Every single time.

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

@IVMiles When you talk to those students please point them to 1 Corinthians 1. Remind them that God calls them to submit to spiritual leadership and goes to war against pride (1 Peter 5:5). And that there is a difference between knowledge & wisdom.

[Andrew Wilson @AJWTheology]

We short-change worship when we make it exclusively about singing.

We also short-change singing when we make it exclusively about worship (e.g. Eph 5:18-21; Col 3:16; etc).

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

The @nhl must fix the goalie interference rule. Absolutely ridiculous that no one had any idea what it is.

[David Locke @D_Locke1]

Go Blue!!