WORLD CUP USA ’94 / ROUND OF 16 : SPOTLIGHT : THAT’S IT, THAT’S IT

“Something has caught America’s eye.

“It is the fact that the games go on for an awfully long time without a stop. This might seem a trivial point, but it is not. Like the small boy and the naked emperor, American eyes have been young and clear enough to see the very essence of football.

“So how does the coach control the game, then? Simple answer: He does not, and therein lies the game’s greatest beauty. Coaches can only prepare; they cannot control.

“This is in marked contrast to the big American sports, which center on the Control Freak. American football is centered on the Fat Controller, striding the sideline with his clipboard and his earphones. . . .

“America’s most free-flowing sport is basketball, but the national habit of Control Freakery imposes the time-out, an invention of the devil. . . .

“Almost as bad is American League baseball’s designated hitter, or DH. . . .

“American sport possesses a Control Freak with powers that supersede even the coach. The Ad-Man Cometh. Ad-men love time-outs. . . .

“The sheer novelty of 50 minutes of action without Chevys and razors and beer thrust eternally and repetitively and inanely down your throat has delighted America. It is a freedom from market worship; if you like, a freedom from America itself.”