Megan Rapinoe and Necessary Schadenfreude
Megan Rapinoe and Necessary Schadenfreude
The United States Women’s National Soccer Team is out of the Women’s World Cup. You couldn’t have missed the story, the media was more invested in the team than some team members appeared to be – hyping their every move. But the dream is over, they lost to Sweden on penalty kicks. While the press laments their defeat, a lot of normal people, myself included, are either engaging in schadenfreude over the loss or desperately fighting the urge to. If you fall into the latter category, let it go. Sometimes schadenfreude is warranted and useful to prevent the need for much more of it in the future.
Megan Rapinoe is a hard person to like. Personally, I find it impossible. There’s something especially annoying about people who have so much whining about what they don’t have like they’re entitled to it. That’s why I can’t stand Democrats – you want “more”? Get off your ass and earn it.
Rapinoe felt like she deserved more because she was the best women’s soccer player in the world and she wasn’t making as much as men were. So what? Women’s sports don’t bring in nearly as much as men do, so the pay should be less. Draw a crowd, sell some merch and the cash follows. She didn’t want to earn it, and it turns out she didn’t have to.
The US Soccer governing body caved to the demands and now offer the equivalent of socialism in pay to both teams.
Of course, Megan was already raking in the cash – probably the highest paid player with all her endorsements, bringing in an estimated $7 million. Can you imagine a world where she is worth $7 million?
Megan Rapinoe might have been worth that much when she was good, but she’s not good and hasn’t been for a long time. She had no business being on this team this year, let alone on the field when they finally lost.
Long past her prime, she was terrible when she played. Megan added nothing on the field – she was a non-entity in the games she entered, no matter how much the announcers tried to hype her – and she couldn’t have brought much benefit off the field since the team played like they were asleep most of the time.
A true leader knows when their time is over, Rapinoe didn’t. Retroactively, that should tarnish her legacy.
Who didn’t get a slot on the team because management was likely terrified of cutting her or worried interest would wane with fans if she weren’t there? Megan could have headed off this problem easily by stepping up and announcing her retirement before the team even came together. Whatever off-field leadership she had to offer could still have been offered, though much of what she brings off the field is described by former teammates as bullying on political activism.
Megan got her activism – many on the team disrespected the national anthem, something Rapinoe pioneered. Who knows what would have happened if she and her toxic attitude weren’t there?
Even if she were honest and realized her making the team was more of a PR stunt than merit based, she could have told the coach to put someone else, someone younger and better, in the final game over her. But ego is was Megan Rapinoe had more than anything else throughout her career.
She led the team by attitude when it wasn’t game time, embarrassing herself and the country. But when it mattered, she choked.
She should not have been on the field in that final game and should not have been chosen to kick a penalty shot. I see why the coach did it: if this was the last game of her career, he felt pressured to have her on the field. And if they were going to win, it was going to on penalty kicks, so what harm is there in having her take one? What harm was there in leaving a hobbled Bill Buckner at first base in the 1986 World Series when you were pretty sure you were going to win and thought it would be nice to have him experience it from the field?
Megan Rapinoe missed the largest physical goal in all of sports…by a lot. I’m not sure most people could miss by that much on purpose, yet this “professional” did it and cost her team everything. All because she wanted one more shot at glory and couldn’t admit her talent had faded.
Rapinoe is the Buckner of women’s soccer, except Buckner still had a few good years left in him and he didn’t force his way into that game. It’s perfectly acceptable to engage in schadenfreude when it’s self-inflicted and ego-driven. We won’t know for four years whether or not the damage Megan Rapinoe’s ego did metastasized throughout the program or if it will fade as she does. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
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