Bruce Springsteen summed up the sports world for us today.
We're in love with a Jersey girl.
Carli Lloyd scored a hat trick as the United State women exploded early and rolled to a huge win over Japan to capture the women's World Cup soccer title.
Lloyd, of course, is the pride of Delran, N.J.
I am not nearly the soccer zealot that my son is. I will occasionally tap into it during the huge events, such as the World Cup.
There is always a lot of debate whenever one of these events rolls around and interest in the sport skyrockets. We are told how soccer is now a dominant sport among kids, with youth leagues exploding at the seams.
But it occurred to me while I was watching the second half of yesterday's gold medal game why soccer is always going to have trouble translating to a TV audience, and it's not for the reason you might think.
It has nothing to do with what some clumsily refer as the almost un-American fact that players can't use their hands.
It's not the paucity of scoring, although you'd be hard-pressed to prove that by yesterday's game.
It's much more mercantile than that.
Soccer will struggle to find a huge TV audience for one very good reason.
There are no commercials.
I know, this is going to sound odd. We whine about the ads interfering with the pace of play, and extending baseball, football and hockey games forever.
But the truth is those ads happen to pay all the bills.
They also provide breaks in the action.
Without those, as you witness in the continuous, non-stop clock of the two 45-minute halves of a soccer game, for long periods of time not a lot is happening.
And there also is no break for those most time-honored sports viewing traditions - grabbing a snack or cold beverage from the fridge, or even paying a visit to the bathroom.
Without a TV timeout, we are captives on the sofa, watching and waiting for something to happen.
None of that, of course, diminishes what Lloyd and her mates accomplished.
All hail the conquering U.S. women.
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