By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

RIP, Terry Jones.

Jones was a member of the great Monty Python team, which entertained fans throughout the world for decades on its TV show and several films. He was 77.

Now, if you are wondering why I am writing about a comedy team that supposedly has nothing to do about soccer, well, in a way it did.

Python did one of the funniest (and brilliant) bit about soccer, entitled International Philosophy. The three-minute sketch parodied an international soccer broadcast back in the day — we’re talking the seventies. The game pit teams from Germany and Greece. No, not soccer teams, but famous philosophers.

I’ll try not to give any spoilers away, but you must watch the sketch because if you are a soccer fan, you should be entertained.

I got an opportunity and the honor to meet and talk to Terry Jones at a book signing along with Douglas Adams (Of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy book fame) at a Barnes and Noble in 1997. Jones had written this book for Adams, the rip-roaring hilarious Starship Titanic Since I was on a long line to get my books (I bought another for my two-year-old nephew, Jacob), I realized any conversation could not last very long. I told him that I loved International Philosophy.

He replied that he wrote it and that he played Karl Marx in it. I believe he liked the fact that someone remembered that bit.

Heck, I’ll never forget it.

RIP, Terry Jones.

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.