The Real Us

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | July 4, 2026

Sports, we are told (perhaps too often), teach important lessons about life. Teamwork, responsibility, winning and losing, the benefits of effort... lots of lessons. Sometimes, though, what surrounds sports teaches us a different kind of lesson about ourselves.

Every four years the world championship of football (soccer) is held in the form of the World Cup. Nations put together their best teams for this quadrennial extravaganza of extraordinary skill, a competition in which the teams of 48 countries fight to determine which produces the best football. This year, that championship is being held in North America, with two venues in Canada, three in Mexico, and 11 in the United States.

The rest of the world was not that excited about coming to our continent, especially to the United States, and no wonder. Their leaders and media had orchestrated a drumbeat of negativity about our country so convincing some Europeans were actually fearful of coming. They fully expected a violent place with regular shootouts, muggings, and streets lined with begging homeless folks. It would be easy to be critical of that message, except our own leaders were spewing it, too.

Remember we had a certain president who claimed our urban areas were dystopian cesspools, that our country was failing, that our major cities were free-fire zones of endless murder. That message was gladly picked up in Europe where the consensus seemed to be that we were a country “in decline.”

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom all issued travel warnings for their citizens because we had convinced them this is a scary place. Nearly 175,000 Dutch citizens in the Netherlands signed petitions demanding they boycott the World Cup for some political offenses. Others were told they might be arrested or denied entry at Customs and they should completely avoid our violent police.

(And before he repeats his oft-spoken lie, this was not a “dead country” two years ago. In fact, inflation was lower, unemployment was lower, everything was cheaper, we had not started a pointless war we don’t seem able to end, and we were doing just fine.)

It didn’t help that the same president insulted those who would be our World Cup guests, calling our EU and NATO allies “weak” and “failing.” Or that he allegedly referred to at least some African nations, 11 of which qualified to play here, as “s***hole” countries.

That is the atmosphere into which we invited World Cup countries and their spectators. Trepidatiously they came, not knowing what to expect but being prepared for the worst, only to discover their leaders, their media, our leaders, and our media had all lied. The U.S. opened arms and hearts, like always, because political ugliness is not our true nature.

And, oh my, they opened our eyes to ourselves.

The kilted Tartan Army from Scotland who took over Boston literally drank all the beer in all the bars, “relocated” all the orange traffic cones, cleaned up after themselves, made five-figure donations to a children’s hospital, and did it all with joy and without a hint of violence. (Yes, yes, that was binge drinking and alcohol abuse and all of that, but let’s leave that criticism for another day.)

There were thousands of Norwegians “rowing” their way through Times Square, up escalators, on subways anywhere that moved and plenty of places that didn’t. One wag said they were last seen “ten nautical miles out in the Atlantic.”

There were the orange-clad Dutch and their peculiar left-right celebration, which was mighty impressive when tens of thousands of them took over downtown Kansas City. There were the Japanese in Houston, stupefied by the size of a Texas BBQ platter, who actually helped clean the stadium after their match (game).

Wherever the teams and their fans came, their reaction was the same: we are way better than they were told. Friendlier, kinder, more generous and, it turns out, our stadiums are a pretty big step up from theirs. Our cities are cleaner, safer, and way more welcoming. There were few problems getting into the country (one player from Iran and another from Senegal had issues), police were helpful, not hostile, and, hell, yes, we’d be happy to buy you a beer.

A widely distributed quote now ascribed to a Brit or German or Scot goes like this: “If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, visit America.”

Maybe it was a little odd they were so impressed with Costco, Walmart, Waffle House, free refills, air conditioning, and Buc-ee’s (in Texas, world’s largest gas station, 120 pumps, attached to world’s largest convenience store at 76,000 square feet), but what they really liked was us.

What they were told was not who we really are. What they experienced is. The politicians and media no longer reflect the real us; just ask our visitors.