Megan Rapinoe shanks the end of her career – Flopping Aces

The US Women’s National Soccer team saw its World Cup chapter come to a close the other day. It ended on penalty kicks. They lost to the Swedish National Team who had been their nemesis for some time. USA today ascribed their demise to being “old and slow.” They’re right, but that’s not all of it.

It was wonderful when the USWNT won the World Cup in 2019. All of the US supported them. Funny thing about notoriety, though. How you use it has so much effect on so many other things. In 2015 it was all about team. By 2019 cracks were appearing in the facade. In 2020 the USWNT decided to politicize their notoriety by wearing BLM warm-ups, taking a knee during the national anthem and issuing statements like this:

“Today, we wear Black Lives Matter to affirm human decency. We protest against racial injustice and police brutality against Black people. We protest against the racist infrastructures that do not provide equal opportunity for Black and brown people to fulfill their dreams, including playing on this team.

“As the United States Women’s National team players, we collectively work toward a society where the American ideals are upheld, and Black lives are no longer systematically targeted.”

Amusingly, they were never particularly diverse.

Over time Megan Rapinoe assumed the mantle of lightning rod and the team increasingly became about her. She took a knee in support of Colin Kaepernick in 2016.

This gradually began into infect her teammates.