The Post Goes Barra

Today’s Washington Post features a really fantastic story on the Barra, which comes complete with a well-done audio slideshow and some video clips. Most mainstream coverage of MLS fans is pretty condescending or at least confused (read, for instance, New York Times pieces on Republicans to get the same effect), but this one is spot on. To wit:

“That bleeds off all the excitement,” Mack says. “Part of the thing that makes soccer so unique is the rhythm of it. It is its own dance.”

The Barra Brava is a partner in that dance.

GrillMaster Faulkner started with the Eagles and still is a member. But he stopped cheering with that group when he kept getting yelled at to sit down. “I’ve always been spiritually a part of the Barra,” Faulkner says.

“I’m a boisterous guy and like to make noise, and I have a short temper and everything, so I was in my perfect element.”

He muses, “Do you choose what you love or who you love? No. It chooses you.”

Reading this article, I definitely recognized the group that made me love United and cemented my soccer addiction. Great job, Nation’s Second Newspaper. So good, in fact, I will almost forgive the stealing of my trite metaphors on DC fandom.

Category: DC United Team News