Most soccer players use heads - on and off field

Some stories stay with you for a while.

For instance, there was the long-ago conversation in the Chicago Fire's Soldier Field locker room with then-MLS commissioner Doug Logan.

Logan said his brother-in-law, I believe, was in an airport waiting area when he noticed a group of young, athletic-looking men waiting for their flight. He was interested because these young men also were very studious, cracking books rather than passing the time with video games or whatever.

It turns out these men were players on the Dallas Burn on their way to a game.

Obviously, this happened many years ago. Logan left his job as commissioner in 2000, and the Burn is now known as FC Dallas. MLS teams, however, still fly commercially, with the exception of David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy. Sometimes evading the paparazzi and endless autograph seekers has its perks.

Some things never change. Talk to most MLS players and you'll discover something you might not find in a Soldier Field locker room these days. These guys have thoughts, interesting thoughts, and they know how to express themselves.

Don't start a search for dumb jocks in MLS. Not that you'll come up empty - hey, soccer players can be stupid too - it's just that mental midgets are the exception, not the rule.

"I think for the most part we have pretty educated guys that can take care of themselves on and off the field," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said.

Let's clarify here. These guys are not rocket scientists. No MLS player is going to discover the cure for AIDS, though the league's first college draft pick, Batavia's own Mike Fisher, did spurn MLS for medical school when he graduated from the University of Virginia. (Side note: I'll never forget the bicycle kick on which Fisher scored in the 1992 IHSA third-place game. Just beautiful.)

Besides being more interesting to talk to than you average professional athlete, MLS players also use their heads on the field, and not just to knock the ball around.

Maybe it's the nature of the game in the United States. Unlike other countries and other sports, soccer in America is a suburban game, and some of our best players come from some of our best schools.

And it's only recently that Americans could dream of a big-money professional soccer career. Americans haven't looked at college soccer as just a minor-league stop on the way to the pros. They actually were there to get an education as well as play soccer, out of necessity.

"Not knowing the other sports, I would say that most players in MLS spent four years at a college institution, so I think they're further along than other sports because some of these sports players went directly out of high school ...," Hamlett added. "They're a little bit more mature to handle situations when they're out in the real world."

Fire rookie Patrick Nyarko is a good example. The first-round pick in February's SuperDraft delayed his pro career this spring to finish his degree at Virginia Tech. He's only recently begun to get some playing time.

Even those soccer players who come directly from high school or leave college early get money from the Generation adidas program in MLS to complete their educations. Unlike Major League Baseball draftees who also get college money, soccer players are likely to use it.

It's a fun story to tell.

oschwarz@dailyherald.com