Tommy Vietor

It is epic in scope.

Three nations hosting for the first time.

Canada, the United States, Mexico.

When it was given, 2018, it was talked about as a unified, almost the NAFTA World Cup.

Obviously, the realities have changed.

It feels almost like three parallel tracks.

world cups um but what drives me in any world cup is the narrative is the story is the the human wonder um the scale of it is epic um you know i think it's projected to revenue wise um reported 80 billion dollars will be made which apparently is the gdp of of belarus but i'm sure you knew that tommy that's really the first thing that went into your head it's the eye of belarus yeah

Yeah, it's really a human ecstasy.

200 million people watch the Super Bowl.

We think of that as the ultimate in the United States.

Five billion people watch the World Cup.

What is the World Cup?

And this is what I wrote in my book.

It's like a global eclipse that emanates from the game, sweeps the entire world instantaneously and holds it in its thrall for 39 straight days.

And so that's the magic of it, the energizing magic.

What keeps me going?

is a sense that when these games go on, we're watching human beings live out under the crucible of pressure, you know, human decision-making, what separates good players from the truly greatest decisions they make under those pressures.

There's going to be heroes whose names we don't even know who are going to reveal themselves.

And within seconds of some kind of Kung Fu fighting-esque goal, their name is going to be bled out by millions of children in schoolyards across the globe.

There's going to be heroes who will fall in tragicomic ways.