Grant Wahl has an outstanding article in this week’s Sports Illustrated about Jay DeMerit, an American playing in the English Premiere League. If you’re thinking to yourself “DeMeritt? I’ve never heard of him,” there’s a good reason. He’s never played for a US team at any level. He played his college soccer at Illinois-Chicago. He wasn’t drafted and never played in the MLS. He started out playing in the ninth-division in England and worked his way up.

I don’t want to write too much about this, because Wahl did such a good job with the article and anything else I say can only hurt. It’s an incredible story and you’ll thank me for reading it. I just finished and I’m so pumped up right now I’m ready to go run some laps and pump some iron!