World Cup. I'm not a soccer fan -- but, let's face it, most of the world follows fútbol, so, borrowing from my wife's example (deciding in 1985 to become a football fan), I started following World Cup action.

One of the best ways to follow something is to have a stake in it -- with sports, the "fantasy" leagues motivate one to track many teams and individuals at once. So when I saw the WaPo having a fantasy tourney, I signed up. I'm please to report that for someone who on June 1 had no idea who Zinedine Zidane was, I did pretty well. My team came in 24th out of 1,640 and I watched the final game today, rooting for Italy (well, really their defense). Even when the aforementioned Zidane scored his goal, that was okay, because he was on my fantasy team -- a late pick up. When he got tossed (or shown a red card, as they say), that set me back. But it was all fun.

I agree completely with Bill Simmons on this one: "10 Reasons I Love World Cup."

More. here's the head-butting video .