JACKSON, MI – These are sobering times for old-fashioned American sports guys. We must accept the plain truth: soccer won and we lost.

Nine days ago, I enjoyed an old-fashioned sports dream weekend by attending a Detroit Tigers baseball game and then visiting Allen Park to watch the Lions play a "simulated" football game at their practice facility. Fifty-six years of steadfast futility suggest they need practice.

As I drove home full of the thrill of pro football training camp, I hit a dead-stop traffic jam on I-94 near Ann Arbor. To avoid that mess, I jumped onto US-23 and found more gridlock continuing for miles.

"Stop cursing at the other cars," my wife said. "It's not their fault."

"Of course it's their fault!" I roared. "They're in my way!" Outbursts like that explain why she claims I need blood-pressure medication.

"These traffic jams cannot be a coincidence," I surmised. "There must be something going on in Ann Arbor."

Checking her smart phone, my wife provided the answer.

"There's a soccer game in Ann Arbor," she said. "Manchester United versus Real Madrid."

"Good Lord, the end is near," I stammered.

We had stumbled into the largest crowd ever to watch a soccer game in the United States, 109,313 people converging on Michigan Stadium to cheer European teams. Many paid hundreds of dollars for tickets, and it wasn't even a real game. It was an exhibition game.

Old-fashioned American sports guys grew to adulthood mocking soccer because it's boring and it had no tradition in the United States.

My high school did not have a soccer team, and we didn't want one. No schools in our area played soccer. That started to change in the 1980s.

Our generation fought a good fight, snorting at the absurdity soccer taking root in the United States.

Then, all of a sudden, our kids started playing soccer. We had to pretend to like it, even though we feared it could ruin real football.

"If good athletes play soccer," we grumbled amongst ourselves, "how will America produce running backs and wide receivers?"

Eventually we noticed young adults crowding into sports bars to watch World Cup soccer games. They seemed excited even though the score was always 0-0.

If 109,313 people will now pay to watch soccer on the most sacred turf of college football, the fight is over. The Big House was even splashed with ads for European beer.

Reality cannot be denied. I now suspect we are watching soccer become the most popular sport in the United States. Two generations more should do the trick.

Prepare terms of surrender, old-fashioned sports guys. We lost.

-- Contact Brad Flory at brad@lifeinplaid.com