To Rob Mac, the devout Eagles fan, there’s only one ‘football.’ To the rest of us, it’s called soccer.
Rob Mac, co-owner of English soccer club Wrexham, will return to the Philly area later this summer as part of the team's preseason tour that features a stop at Subaru Park.
The FIFA World Cup’s return to American soil for the first time since 1994 has roused an age-old debate: is the sport called soccer or football?
If you ask Rob Mac, it’s football, but for the sake of The Inquirer’s readership, he’ll say soccer.
“I keep hearing this word that I’m not 100% familiar with,” Mac, formerly Rob McElhenney, quipped on a Tuesday video conference. “Soccer? … I remember hearing it when I was a kid, but it’s been a long time, because if I use that word, there’s a good chance I’m going to get taken out in the streets of Wales or the U.K.
“I’ll refer to it as soccer, because my assumption is anybody [reading] the Inky in Philadelphia will think of it as soccer.”
Earlier this week, Mac, Grant Hill, and soccer commentator and analyst Taylor Twellman answered wide-ranging questions from the media on Tuesday ahead of the American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament all three will play in from July 8-12 on NBC.
Mac, a Philadelphia native, is best known for his work on the FX sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and his ownership of EFL Championship side Wrexham, which he purchased alongside fellow actor Ryan Reynolds in 2020.
In addition to co-owning the club, Reynolds and Mac are executive producers of Welcome to Wrexham, a documentary series which has detailed the Welsh club’s rise to the second tier of English soccer.
Wrexham will visit Subaru Park for a friendly against Sunderland on August 2.
“It’s a dream come true, to bring our club back to the community of Philadelphia that I grew up in,” Mac said. “So much of the entire endeavor was to unite people across the Atlantic and across the world in this beautiful sport. My dream was to have people all over the United States, all over North America, all over the world, and very specifically Philadelphia, see themselves reflected back in the streets of North Wales.”
» READ MORE: Q&A: USMNT World Cup documentary creator explains video process, relationship with Tyler Adams, and more
It will not be Wrexham’s first time playing at Subaru Park, as the team made a trip to the Chester seaport for a friendly against Union II in 2023. Mac said he cherishes the opportunity to return to Chester, especially considering his grandfather worked as a longshoreman on the banks of the Delaware.
“I know it’s going to be an emotional moment for me, because so much of my love for sports was the relationship between me and my grandfather,” Mac said. “The theme song [of Welcome to Wrexham] is about a longshoreman, and my grandfather is a longshoreman. You can see the dock that my grandfather worked at through the vestibule of the stadium."
The opponent will be special for Mac, too. Sunderland not only will provide Wrexham a preseason test from England’s top flight, but it is also the team that inspired Mac to look into owning a club of his own after watching the documentary series, Sunderland ‘Til I Die.
Mac also spoke to the importance of the forthcoming World Cup as a tool to grow the popularity of soccer across the U.S., citing popular Apple TV series Ted Lasso and Wrexham’s own show as ways soccer is starting to break through to the cultural mainstream.
“I don’t want to minimize the sport and the athletes themselves, but the idea of storytelling as becoming a huge part of the culture around sports has opened the opened the door for so many people,” Mac said.
Mac compared the discussion surrounding the World Cup to when Duke’s Christian Laettner’s buzzer beater at the Spectrum beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight.
“Everybody knows where they were when they watched that game in the tournament,” Mac said. “I wasn’t even a college basketball fan. I didn’t really know Duke or anybody from Duke, and yet we talked about it. As a culture, it just hits the zeitgeist in a way that very few things can.
“Everybody I know, apparently, was at that game. I was 12 or 13. If you ask anybody from Philadelphia, they’re like, ‘Yeah, I was there.’”
Mac is hopeful that this summer can be the moment soccer enters the mainstream American culture alongside football, basketball, baseball and hockey.
“If it isn’t going to happen this summer, it’s going to happen real soon,” Mac said. “But it feels like this could be the moment.”
» READ MORE: Brenden Aaronson’s Jersey Shore wedding was just one stop in a wild pre-World Cup schedule
Mac reacts
In addition to fielding questions about Wrexham, Mac also took a question about the other football.
What does Mac, a lifelong Eagles fan, think of the team dealing A.J. Brown to the New England Patriots on Monday?
“I am so grateful for the memories that A.J. brought the Philadelphia Eagles,” Mac said. “I wish him good luck. I believe in Howie Roseman, and if Howie believes that ’s what’s best for the Philadelphia Eagles, then I support it 100%. [Brown] is a great player, and I wish him luck. Not too much luck, but it’s the AFC, so, I don’t know, maybe we’ll see him again.”
Mac chimed in on a question asked to Hill about the forthcoming NBA Finals series between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks, who swept the Sixers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Despite his allegiance to the Sixers, Mac is backing the rival Knicks in the series.
“I know that I’m going to get killed at the Inquirer,” Mac said. “It’s hard to root against [Spurs center Victor Wembanyama], so I’m not doing that, but I’m pulling for the Knicks.”
» READ MORE: You don't need a ticket to experience the World Cup in Philly
Mac, who lived in New York City for six years, said the unifying energy produced by the Knicks’ run is “hard to root against.”
“That shows the power and profundity of sports,” Mac said. “That an entire city can get together and be on the same team, checking everything else at the door … There’s just an energy to that that is hard to root against. So I guess, with a question mark, I say, ‘Go Knicks?’”
“Every Philadelphia home game was a Knicks home game, anyways,” Twellman, a former MLS player and current Apple TV broadcaster, responded, referencing Knicks fans’ de facto takeover of Xfinity Mobile Arena during the second round series in May.
“That, I will not comment,” Mac said.
Nine nations will compete in five group stage matches this summer, plus two more in a knockout game on July 4. Here’s what you need to know about those countries — and what those fans need to know about Philly. Click here for more.