He's in a movie called "Astérix aux jeux olympiques"

A confession: Major League Soccer's acquisition of David Beckham scared me.

It wasn't just because the reported $250-million deal turned my one day off last week into a frenzied six-hour cell phone fest. (The result can be found here.) In all honesty, I was simply dreading a new run of the "Soccer is too boring/slow/low-scoring/Communist to find an audience in the US!" stories, columns and "Around The Horn" commentaries that accompanied June's World Cup.

Instead, the American media's Beckham Blitz has been shockingly well-informed (These guys aside). Sure, plenty of editors decided "Spend it like Beckham!" was a clever, witty headline. But, for the most part, few derided the signing as the wail of a dying league (it's not), or the reincarnation of the ill-fated NASL (again, not). While some tried to pass judgment on whether the economics of the deal made sense, most at least got the facts straight -- that the Los Angeles Galaxy and parent company AEG are paying a relatively tiny amount of the quarter-billion dollars Mr. Posh Spice could earn over the next five years. And, again for the most part, debate over the 31-year-old Brit's skills on the field was intelligently centered, rather than leaning on the over-simplified, opposite crutches of "Beckham sucks!" and "Beckham is God!"

Let's hope it continues when 90-odd percent of American sports fans discover the Londoner who's become synonymous with overseas soccer talent isn't much of a goal-scorer ...