The U.S. is a place where entertainers and jocks are mistaken for people of intellectual importance.
Last week was the worst showing in international soccer for the U.S. women’s team in the history of their competition. For the first time, they did not advance beyond the final 16 teams after losing to Sweden when the enchanting and demure Megan Rapinoe missed her penalty kick. Fittingly, it went well to the right.
Instead of practicing soccer, Rapinoe spends her time griping about America. One of her laments is that women do not get equal pay. This after a local Dallas 15-yr-old boys’ soccer team beat her U.S. national team. Yet she demands equal pay? The market prices labor, and it is not discriminatory. Caitlyn Jenner has made much more money than Bruce Jenner ever did.
As a disclaimer, I don’t dislike Megan because she’s a lesbian. I actually like lesbians, as we share a lot of common interests. It’s her hateful, vapid politics that annoy me.
In short, don’t rely on what Megan Rapinoe tells you about politics. You must wait and see what the drummer from Third Eye Blind has to say about the matter.
What we have learned from businesses that have gone “woke,” and then just about gone broke, is that the same holds true for professional sports. If you do not tend to your knitting and watch the store, but instead venture into politics, things go poorly for you. Bud Light, Target and Disney found this out the hard way, losing billions in market value by virtue signaling missteps. Disney, for example, lost billions with 7 of its past 8 “woke” movies. It is getting so bad at Disney that Minnie and Mickey might be sold to a research lab.
For a woman (he/she) type who has enjoyed the freedoms and fruits of America, Rapinoe kneels in disrespect to our National Anthem. She has the right to do that, as did Brittney Griner of WNBA and Russian prison fame. But we Southerners and good Americans do not like that. The only way we kneel at a game is if our bourbon flask falls out of our sock.
With the angry women of soccer and the WNBA kneeling at the playing of the National Anthem and gushing all sorts of unsubstantiated political nonsense, watching them holds little appeal. When Rapinoe spews her rabid politics with her mangy multicolored hair, she makes me not even want to pet her to see if she is friendly.
My old buddy Lewis Grizzard’s view of soccer is as spot on now as it was thirty years ago: “Being able to bounce a ball off one’s head isn’t that impressive. I’ve seen countless seals do the same thing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
To be fair, it may be a generational thing. Folks my age just do not like soccer; it is long and boring with little scoring. Millennials do like it, I guess because they can go to the game, stare at their iPhones for two hours and not miss any scoring. They have alerts that tell them when to look up. It suits them.
With all its self-aggrandizing, woke showboating, our “ladies” soccer team is the worst it has ever been. Countries that are ranked higher are Belgium and that island Tom Hanks got stranded on in Castaway that had a soccer ball.
Fellow woke sports traveler LeBron James has also failed at real life. His much-ballyhooed school in Akron, Ohio had to report that not a single 8th grader passed the minimum math proficiency test. We know their response will be that math is racist, but when you throw that much money and ego at education and none of your kids pass basic math requirements?
Soccer is a corrupt sport under the shady FIFA. FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (or, in English, the International Federation of Association Football), makes the Biden kickback operation look like kids’ soccer. When the Feds raided the FIFA board meeting to arrest them, out of habit the board members fell to the floor and faked injuries.
Qatar bought the World Cup from FIFA, and Rapinoe said nothing about their hardline Muslim laws which ban booze, pork, gay marriage and anything LGBQ. Note to Rapinoe: In Qatar, you can’t eat, drink or be Mary.
A libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron does commentary on radio and TV. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
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