I guess we should just be amused when people who don’t know anything about America try and come up with reasons why Americans are, well, Americans. We are somewhat iconoclastic, doing things our way in our almost 240 years as a nation. We drive on the other side of the road than the British. Our horse racing goes the other way, specifically to create an independent state of mind for “the colonies.”

We’ve developed our own sports, some of which we’ve exported to the rest of the world. Basketball is an international game. Baseball has a footing in Central and South America and in Asia. Football has a following, but it would be a stretch to call it “international.”

My European friends call the games we play the “entertainment sports.” To most of them, if it’s not futbol, F1 or Moto (motorcycle racing) it doesn’t count.

Other countries have their specialties. The Irish follow hurling religiously. Australia has it’s own brand of football. And the French have a sport that resembles bocce ball called Petanque. In fact, their biggest tournament was played in Jacksonville in the past two years.

So I suppose I should have just laughed it off when Dutch speedskating coach Jillert Anema on an American cable network during the Olympics, blasted Americans for focusing on what he called “foolish sport.”

“You have a lot of attention for foolish sport, like American football. You waste a lot of talent, athletic talent, in a sport where it’s meant to kill each other, to injure each other. …and when you compete once every four years, with talent, with a few lone wolves, who are skating, you can’t beat the world, it’s no way.”

I was amazed that the “reporter” asking him the questions let him get away with that, just smiling and saying his comments would be considered “blasphemous” in the US. She laughed when she said, “Americans love their football.”

So he continued.

“You’re [the US] is so narrow-minded, and you waste a lot of good talent in a sport that sucks,” he added.

It would be easy to call Anema “misguided” but he was clearly using this platform to slam the States at will.

Unacceptable.

Perhaps he should have been reminded of Shani Davis’ success in the past two Olympics. Or Apolo Ono’s medal haul in Vancouver. Maybe he’s forgotten about Bonnie Blair. Or he wasn’t around in 1980 when the single greatest feat in Olympic history was achieved by American Speedskater Eric Heiden. Heiden won all five gold medals in speedskating at those games, from the 500 to the 10,000. That’s akin to somebody winning the 100 meters and the marathon in the same Summer Games. He set 4 Olympic records and one world record at those games for good measure.

“Coach” Anema should be congratulated for the success the Netherlands scored in Sochi. Speedskating is a national sport in his country of nearly 17 million people. But he should also be reminded that it’s a good thing we’re not serious about speedskating as a nation.

With our more than 330 million people in the States, I’m sure we could find a few who might be able to rival the Dutch in just about anything. Imagine if there was no American football and those athletes turned to speedskating instead.

Our national team would be made up of guys like Maurice Jones Drew in the 500. Chris Johnson in the 1000. Megatron looks like a good fit for the 1500. Larry Fitzgerald could probably handle the 5000 with Tony Gonzalez or Vernon Davis in the 10,000.

So Coach, stay home and stay under the radar until every 4 years you can grab some global glory. Because if we decide we’re going to be good in your sport, you’ll be playing for second.

While attendance at the MLS exhibition on Wednesday night between Philadelphia and New York was down because of the weather, that’s no indication of the passion for “the beautiful game” here in Jacksonville.

When the NASL had a team in North Florida in the early ’80’s it was relocated from Boston and kept the name ‘Tea Men’ despite calling Jacksonville home. That’s only because the Lipton Tea Company was the owner and ran the team from afar.

“We had no business being in places like Jacksonville, Atlanta and Tampa,” one former NASL executive said recently in explaining why the league folded.

On the surface, he’s right. As a professional sports league mostly fueled by ethnic followings in major cities, the NASL struggled to find a footing in places where American football as well as baseball, basketball and hockey were already established. To attract a crowd that wasn’t in town to see the New York Cosmos, whole retinues of minor league style promotions were in play, drawing scant attention from most of the sporting public.

But here, the Tea Men had a following that understood the game.

The crowds in Jacksonville were decent, anywhere from 9 to 17-thousand rattling around the Gator Bowl. But they were passionate and knowledgeable, and they were there for every game. A pair of English stars, Noel Cantwell and Dennis Viollet lead Jacksonville’s NASL effort, bringing in a blend of American, European and South American players to compete. It was a quaint, fun time with a big-time feel in a small-time town.

But it laid the groundwork for so many things to come, whether it was the USFL, the NFL or the Super Bowl. It was part of a dream.

Billy Joel said at his concert last month that it was fun to be back in Jacksonville because the first time he was here “you could smell it coming before you got here.” As the paper mills and the chemical plants disappeared and the quality of life improved, there were more and more queries about the viability of a real professional sports team calling Jacksonville home. Joel’s comments dated him back at least 30 years.

Oh how things have changed.

There will be a NASL team in town next year, with the announcement of their name and logo expected Tuesday morning at the Landing. More than 44,000 showed up for a “friendly” between Scotland and the US last year.

We’re an events oriented town, and if a team with “USA” emblazoned across their chests is taking the field (or pitch in this case) we’re going to show up. Think back to the buzz around the Rugby League match between Leeds and South Sydney a few years ago. It became “the thing to do.”

That’s why one of the final friendlies before heading to Brazil for the World Cup for Team USA should be played here.

Yes our stadium field is too small for an official ‘qualifier.” (A situation that can be remedied with about a $5 million investment for detachable seats in the four corners of the stadium floor) but if you want to send our boys off with a bang, let them depart from here. An early summer game as the jumping off point for Brazil could mimic the weather in that part of South America and would create a buzz in town that would attract at least 50,000.

Outside of Seattle, nobody attracts that kind of crowd.

Make it an event, bring in “our boys” and it’ll be an incomparable evening.