The most important thing to note is that all of the soccer talent in my extended family went to my brother Corey. I did play until my early 40s normally as a center defender with great enthusiasm and limited skill. I never drew a red card and my last yellow card was in high school. I did break the hand of my goalie who did not hear me call “CLEAR!”. When I yelled “CLEAR!”, I always either won the ball or took the man down outside the box without a card. I did feel bad about breaking my goalie’s hand and just like most goalies, he just played the game with a broken hand. My memory might be faulty in this regard on yellow cards.
When I stopped playing, I was blessed to join the coaching staff as the head officer representative for the West Point women’s soccer team. I quickly noted that of the 150 women who were on the team over six years, all of them were better soccer players that I was. I went to all the practices, traveled with the team, was on the sidelines during the game and was quite vocal. I did not get a card from the sideline although I was danger close a couple of times. In my last year with the team, I was the color commentator for the radio show which was ridiculously fun.
Regardless, I enjoy watching soccer these days and hope to make the world cup match one day.