Rob Men

[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.

[hannah montoya @hannahcmontoya]

MICROPOD: E12 - STU FEINER

🍜 @StuartFeiner

[Rob Men @robbj24]

Hawkeyes Rutgers making history

[Toad Sports App @ToadSports]

Players known to be using the torpedo bat...

(BAL) A. Rutschman
(CHC) D. Swanson
(CHC) N. Hoerner
(CIN) E. De La Cruz
(CIN) J. Trevino
(MIN) R. Jeffers
(NYM) F. Lindor
(NYY) A. Volpe
(NYY) A. Wells
(NYY) C. Bellinger
(NYY) J. Chisholm
(NYY) P. Goldschmidt
(TB) J. Caminero
(TOR) D. Schneider

If there are others, drop them in the replies.

[Roly ||| 🕊📸 @CursedLemon99]

This is the only The Office clip i have bookmarked but it's an ideal candidate

[Jacob Zanolla @jacobzanolla]

One of the greatest and most out of pocket broadcasting moments in baseball history. Thank you Bob Costas 🙏🏻

[MLB Pipeline @MLBPipeline]

Pete Crow-Armstrong was ZOOMING around the bases on this inside-the-park homer!

The @Cubs rookie posts a 14.1 sec home-to-home time, tops in @MLB this season.

[Shooter McGavin @ShooterMcGavin]

The prefect video to cap off the Waste Management Open weekend

[Rob Men @robbj24]

Hey @ESPNBet you need to pay out Wyndham Clark Tournament Winner bets per your house rules.

[Rob Men @robbj24]

Is this what happens golfing in @_TheCup_ each year?

[Rob Men @robbj24]

@StreamOnMax please fix your “Resume” feature, specifically for @bigbangtheory. It does not show up on my Continue Watching list and goes back to S1 E1 after I search and find it again and again.

[Rob Men @robbj24]

@TheRealHandles @mallyrow Crinkle cut fries are a bottom of the barrel fry. So many better options. Spudcutterie could use some curly fries.

[The Associated Press @AP]

A NASA spacecraft is set to collide with a 525-foot asteroid named Dimorphos at 14,000 mph. Watch live. https://t.co/hnEU8SZgKr

[Rob Men @robbj24]

Hey @FDSportsbook this looks like an “OTHER” to me. Make this right!

[NBABet @nbabet]

First Basket: Robert Williams (+950) ✅

Method of First Basket: Robert Williams Layup (+3600) ✅

[Rob Men @robbj24]

@JaredDeVries95 @BarstoolUIowa This is the correct answer. I (vaguely) remember being there on its last night open. The basketball hoop was 🔥.

[jon drake @DrakeGatsby]

There’s thousands of songs about getting your heart broken but only one about moving to the country and eating lots of peaches

[NFL+ @NFLPlus]

The Cooper-Rush-to-Amari-Cooper TD is the 1st in NFL history where the passer's first name & receiver's last name are an exact match

Cowboys also have the only pass TD where passer's LAST and receiver's FIRST were an exact match: Andy Dalton-Dalton Schultz in Wk 11, 2020 at MIN

[Rob Men @robbj24]

@KingJames It’s a good thing grammar isn’t a requirement to form a super team. Otherwise you’d have ZERO rings.

[Iowa Cubs @IowaCubs]

Alright, let's settle this once and for all:

Who wants Beer Bats at Principal Park this season?

200 RTs and we'll make it happen. 🍺🦇

[Rob Men @robbj24]

@barstoolsports @DogWalkBarstool 4 is by far the worst draft. However gets the steal of the draft with Ice Cream sandwich at #24