McBride is a hard man

Yeah, it's another slang term I don't fully get. I suppose the hockey equivalent would be a grinder or an enforcer or gritty or something like that.

Anyway, this guy is asking about hard men and cites our favorite American striker Brian McBride as a non-goon hard man

Here's the McBride paragraph:

To quote a pro wrestler, "It's true, it's true."

 

That's one of the many reasons he's my favorite footballer.

 

Hard men a fewer in the modern game, since they get sent off too easily. Robbie Savage fancies himself as a hard man, and puts it out like one, but he goes down like a sack of potatoes which rules him out.

Fulham has not had a hard man that I recall. Doug 'hansom' Rougvie was a hard man in his pomp, but when he played for us he was just a geriatric.

The biggest names in hardmen were Ron 'Chopper' Harris (Chelsea) and Norman Hunter (Leeds).

Roy Keane, Stuart Pearce, Vinnie Jones and Denis Wise are more modern hard men.