Clint Dempsey won't wear a mask against Portugal because he is a badass

Clint Dempsey's nose is broken. It won't be healing anytime soon. Most reasonable people would probably make one of two choices: They'd sit out or they'd fashion themselves a protective mask and deal. Clint Dempsey is not a reasonable person.

Clint Dempsey says he probably won't wear a mask against Portugal to protect broken nose. Has a nice bright shiner too.

— Jeremy Schaap (@JeremySchaap) June 19, 2014

As crazy as this may sound, there are probably somewhat rational reasons for Dempsey's decision. The biggest is simply comfort. Sunday's game is in Manaus. That's in the Amazon. That's basically rain forest. Our projections have the humidity somewhere near 1 billion percent. It's going be like getting out of a hot shower, walking into a hot tub that's inside a sauna that's inside a jungle. Chances are, wearing a mask is going to be super annoying.

Also, just ask Lebron James how badass you can look while wearing a mask. Unless you happen to be a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, it's just not a good look.

The risks, it should be said, are also possibly a little overstated. The worst-case scenario is that Dempsey breaks his nose again. That would obviously suck and playing with a broken nose is surely less than ideal. But he did do this for about an hour against Ghana and this can't possibly be anymore risky than that ... right?