Why is soccer so unpopular in the US?

[Final-Fan]

Michael Vick's contract averages to $16.7m/y. As for Beckham:

"David Beckham signed a 5-year deal with MLS soccer team Los Angeles Galaxy that was worth a reported $250 million, but that figure included commercial endorsements; only $10 million a year of that figure is salary from the club, while the rest will come via existing endorsements and profit sharing with the club."

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_sports_contracts )

[edit: Or it could be as low as $5.5m/y ( http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/17305349/ ) -- I can't find final confirmation on that number but there were many news sites reporting it and it was more recent than the $10m/y report.]

I don't know much about this, so please enlighten me: don't the big football players get big endorsements and so on above and beyond the actual salary as well? How would Beckham stack up then?

And, although I don't know other soccer player salaries, I think Beckham is a major exception to the rule, since he's being hyped up as the savior of the sport. Do you know what a more normal contract for an American soccer player is?

Again, I agree that football coaches are more important. But are you honestly denying that the football industry has more money to throw around, or are you just denying the connection between huge amounts of industry money and bigger paychecks for those in the industry?

"because proper strategy by a smart coach, and a focus on teamwork well outweighs a players special talents"
It seems to me that the implication of this would be that talented players are more valuable in soccer compared to football, which in turn implies that, all else being equal, a soccer player would get paid more than a football player, even aside from the simple fact that the savings from smaller and fewer coach salaries is obviously going somewhere. But, as I've argued above, I don't think that that's the case.