It's Thursday Night, which means several things: 30 Rock, the start of my weekend, and - as I'm sure everyone in America is well aware - MLS soccer on ESPN2. All season long, ESPN2 has been giving us one game a week, every Thursday night. It's been great, you know, because I can actually watch soccer on basic cable. And there's usually nothing else on, so that means the bars will toss on The Beautiful Game sometimes as well.

But that is not the case tonight. There is no MLS on ESPN2 this evening. This is because ESPN had the rights to show NFL games, in this case an NFL preseason game that ESPN will pretend is a Monday Night Football game. It's the National Football League's world, and the rest of us are just paying rent. And that means ESPN has to preempt a game on ESPN2 just because the NFL is on ESPN.

How long until the NFL backlash begins? How much longer can ESPN pretend that football is the only game in town before people get sick of it? I thoroughly enjoy the (REGULAR) NFL season, but ESPN is straining that relationship. ESPN is somehow making me hate sports I used to love.

Now, granted, this is not going to ruin my whole night. It's not as if I plan my week around MLS Thursday Nights. I'll probably just go to the bar like I normally do. But I would enjoy watching some soccer if I got the chance. Of course, that won't be the case tonight. On a day in which much of ESPN's programming (from SportsCenter to Around The Horn/Pardon The Interruption) hyped the "arrival" of Beckham - and his one goal, one assist performance in last night's L.A./D.C. SuperLiga match - they have decided to cancel the one opportunity most people will get to watch an MLS game this week.

God forbid someone would want to watch a regular season game of "their" football over an over-hyped, meaningless, preseason game of "our" football. I'm just glad to know that ESPN has gone ahead and made the decision for me tonight. I know I was going to have to think long and hard about if I wanted to watch some soccer (which I get once a week) or some third stringers fight for their spot on Kansas City's special teams unit. Thanks again, ESPN, for looking out for the fans.