{"id":31128,"date":"2023-12-29T08:29:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T13:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=31128"},"modified":"2023-12-29T08:29:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T13:29:05","slug":"is-playing-for-the-uswnt-the-worst-job-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/12\/is-playing-for-the-uswnt-the-worst-job-in-the-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Playing for the USWNT \u201cthe worst job in the world?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Mikolaj Barbanell \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently-retired and recovering from her season-ending injury<\/a>, US Women\u2019s National Team (USWNT) soccer player Megan Rapinoe is sharing criticisms for her time spent on the team. Speaking of her experiences on the Netflix documentary series, \u201cUnder Pressure: The U.S. Women\u2019s World Cup Team,\u201d Rapinoe spoke about the pressure she faced as an elite athlete. \u201cI always say it’s the worst job in the world because if you do your job, then you were supposed to, and if you do one hair less, then you are gonna get lambasted for it,\u201d she said. She added that despite the US women\u2019s team being knocked out early during the FIFA World Cup last season, she still sees her last World Cup as special. \u201cI think it’s just such a different feeling knowing that this is going to be my last World Cup, being kind of an old head and having a different role on the team. It means a lot to me in a lot of different ways than the other ones did. Yeah, this one’s very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rapinoe\u2019s professional club career spanned from 2009 to 2023 and during that time, she was no stranger to criticism. In 2016, she sparked controversy after kneeling during the US National Anthem. She said the decision was in support of Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling prior to football games to protest what he claimed was America\u2019s unfair treatment<\/a> of black Americans. In an interview, she said Kaepernick\u2019s accusation of inequality in America resonated with her. \u201cBeing a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties,\u201d she said<\/a>. She also began decrying pay inequality<\/a> between women\u2019s and men\u2019s soccer. In 2018, the winning men\u2019s World Cup team was paid $38 million while the winning women\u2019s team in 2019 was paid $4 million. Prize money for those games was $400 million for men versus $30 million for women. Rapinoe\u2019s critics, however, noted the discrepancy in popularity as the reason for the gap, not the sexism that Rapinoe claimed. \u201cBut this isn\u2019t evidence of deeply-ingrained sexism. It\u2019s a reflection of the relative commercial status of men’s and women’s soccer, and each one’s ability to draw a consistent audience. This is the core factor driving merit-based compensation in the entertainment industry. When judged on their merits, the Women\u2019s World Cup teams don\u2019t deserve to be paid as much as their male counterparts,\u201d wrote Brad Polumbo for The Washington Examiner<\/em><\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

Rapinoe\u2019s retirement hasn\u2019t kept her from receiving criticism either. After an injury ended the final game of her career early, Rapinoe stated it was a sign that God did not exist, which earned her the ire of critics. \u201cNarcissism at its finest,\u201d wrote<\/a> former ESPN host Sage Steele. Her latest comments on working for the USWNT didn\u2019t help her much either. Sports outlet Outkick\u2019s<\/em><\/a> Mark Harris called Rapinoe\u2019s statements signs of a \u201closer mentality.\u201d \u201cRapinoe has portrayed herself as some sort of fighter, and won the fight for equal pay, yet doesn\u2019t want to be criticized when the team doesn\u2019t meet expectations. The lack of self-awareness with Rapinoe is off the charts,\u201d wrote Harris. \u201cThat\u2019s a loser mentality to a tee, and we\u2019re talking about a woman who has won Olympic gold medals and multiple World Cups. She accomplished those things with the stars and stripes on her chest, however, which left a sour taste in her mouth turning her into one of the most bitter people in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently-retired and recovering from her season-ending injury, US Women\u2019s National Team (USWNT) soccer player Megan Rapinoe is sharing criticisms for her time spent on the team. Speaking of her experiences on the Netflix documentary series, \u201cUnder Pressure: The U.S. Women\u2019s World Cup Team,\u201d Rapinoe spoke about the pressure she faced as an elite athlete. \u201cI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":31134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Playing for the USWNT \u201cthe worst job in the world?\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Megan Rapinoe is sharing criticisms for her time spent on the US Women\u2019s National Team.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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