Stupor Bowl

The big, big, big game in "major league" (by American standards) soccer is going to be held in Portland on Saturday. The home team, the Timbers, is playing against New York City.

There was a time, not so long ago, that this would have been a day of enormous pride for Portland, with thousands out on the streets celebrating. The partying would have already started by now.

But instead, it seems like the town isn't feeling it.

I guess there are several reasons for this. For one thing, there's a pandemic on, and getting up close and personal with thousands of strangers doesn't seem well-advised at this point.

But more importantly, the pro soccer organization here, led by Little Lord Paulson, was recently shown to have acted abominably toward its women players with respect to sexual abuse and harassment. Their response hasn't seemed to satisfy anybody.

And of course, there's the sorry state of the city itself. I see they had volunteer crews out around the stadium cleaning up the filth yesterday. God forbid City Hall should do it. But anyone coming to Portland from out of town is still going to see lots of garbage, graffiti, and general lawlessness on their trip from the airport to wherever it is they're staying, and from there to the stadium and back.

You just hope none of them gets shot or stabbed.