Hope Solo broke her silence on Tuesday, and she covered plenty of topics in her interview with 60 Minutes Sports on Showtime, including her ban from the U.S. Women’s National Team and her rapid progression in healing from her shoulder surgery.
Solo, whose suspension from the USWNT ends on February 22, started making her case to be recalled, no matter how unlikely that may be.
“The next World Cup is in 2019,” Solo said. “Nobody beat me out physically. And for me not to have the opportunity to see if there’s another goalkeeper better than me, that doesn’t seem right.”
The 35-year-old goalkeeper questioned her the validity of the suspension itself, which came after she called Sweden “cowards” after the Scandinavian nation knocked the USWNT out of the Olympics last summer.
“I never thought you could get fired for being a poor sport,” Solo said. “I was a poor sport. We had just lost the Olympics. We’re supposed to be the No. 1 team in the world. It’s OK to be passionate. It’s OK to hurt.”
Solo also doubled down on claims that her removal from the USWNT had to deal with her role in the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.
“I think that the federation thought that if they removed me from the team that they could also remove me from this fight from equal pay,” Solo said. “And they got that wrong because I am more impassioned about this fight now than I ever have been before.”
In terms of a potential comeback, Solo said she is ahead of progress in recovery from shoulder reconstruction surgery, but despite the progress, there’s no guarantee she’ll be called back into the squad by manager Jill Ellis.
“The rehab is tough,” Solo said. “It’s about a two-year full recovery. I’m way ahead of schedule. So I expect to be back and able to perform at a high level within the next year.”
You are the best in the world and the USWNT need you. All the best on a speedy recovery.
Best in the world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffsbYRBinmg
This is always an interesting question in regards to public figures. How much do you disregard or put attention on the personal life of a sports star or entertainer? Society certainly has not been consistent and societal norms have changed, too. In the past the personal life of public figures was often hushed up. Ty Cobb was a virulent racist, a truly mean s.o.b . who was hated by his own teammates, but he was one of the first baseball players read about a story where Bab Ruth, a man of very large appetites of more than one sort, was on a train going West for a series and a bunch of sports writers were in a club car playing cards late at night when Ruth burst into one end of the car and ran across out of the car, stark naked, pursued by a shrieking barely dressed woman waving a high heel shoe at him . One of the writers said, that would have made a great story if I had seen anything. And, of course, we now know about President Kennedy’s affairs which were apparently known among the press corps then. voted into the Hall of Fame. Frank Sinatra and one of the McGuire sisters openly consorted with members of the mob, yet peopled still bought their records. Not so much in this country, but abroad, there have been numerous soccer/football players who have committed transgressions far worse than Solo and their playing careers didn’t really suffer. I don’t have the answer, but I do suggest we strive for consistency and not judge her either less or more harshly than others are judged. My own feeling is that she has been judged more harshly in general because she is a woman and, I think, we expect better behavior from women than men. My own life experience has taught me that men and women can be equally bad, just in different ways.
My own life experience has taught me that men and women can be equally bad, just in different ways
Bad people are bad people, period. That entire statement highlights why there’s a double standard that should not exist.
I think there is a double standard and either men should get away with less or women should be given more slack. Of course this is a general statement and one cannot ignore individual cases and circumstances. Still, some instances stick out. I think suarez should have been suspended for at least a year after his third biting incident. His punishment was not much worse than Solo got for mouthing off about an opponent. IMHO, Solo was punished too much and Suarez too little.
Like I once said to Hope, in a previous post. “Which part of, ‘Get a sponsor, and don’t drink or drug,’ did you not understand?” Grow up, love. Be 100% responsiible, and accountable, for your words and deeds.
Physically she’ll be ok. Mentally?
This entire passage is comical for how out of touch she is and still doesn’t “get it”.
If the USWNT want to progress, both on the pitch and off the pitch, they should continue to distance themselves from this individual who is the antithesis of who they’re wanting to portray themselves as: classy professionals.
I don’t know if she controlled it, but timing this to parallel the call-ups for a tournament we are hosting is a little tone deaf and disrespectful, like stealing thunder to push one’s relevance when their suspension ends.
I thought the cowards bit was fine, she was venting, it was a fair beef, and they were looking for an excuse to hang her out to dry. But when the basic complaint is “tude,” timing your appeal to be reconsidered for the same time as their roster sheet may be taken like she hasn’t gotten the message yet.
Old School – I would be more concerned with the USWNT portraying themselves as winners and keeping people like Solo, who while being controversial, almost always puts forth a world-class effort. Who the team should distance itself from are players like Allie Long, who looks lost out
there most of the time. The specter of Long standing out there while that player from Sweden
blew by her to score the Sweden goal will be indelibly etched in my mind for a long time. While I would like to see the other USWNT goalies get some experience in “friendlies”, until someone equal or better comes along, I see the GK position as being too critical to allow a 2nd stringer in there.
BTW, had Solo appeared her suspension she would have won. What she said after the Sweden match was not grounds for disciplinary action. Obviously she pissed someone off about something else and that person saw a chance to get some revenge. She was smart not to appeal that suspension which was meaningless given the matches missed, and her injury. Anyway, its time to get over Sweden and look to shore up some of the USA weaknesses.
Old School – I would be more concerned with the USWNT portraying themselves as winners and keeping people like Solo
I mean, if you’re going to associate your court case with an individual with substance issues, domestic violence issues and general deviant/criminal behavior that the manager, and countless teammates appear to have lost patience with – have at it.
Putting aside she seems like an absolute miserable person, she certainly doesn’t conduct herself befitting of representing her country. She gets a pass from the same demographic/fans who claim the women’s national team are “great role models” but luckily the federation disagreed (and almost none of her teammates defended her).
Win at all costs is good in theory, but having someone who’s arrest record rivals her caps for the national team isn’t a good look. To each their own, though.
(Old School) She gets a pass from the same demographic/fans who claim the women’s national team are “great role models” but luckily the federation disagreed (and almost none of her teammates defended her).
I’m not surprised that none of her teammates defended her against the Federation, Old School. After all, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you. And l think they probably saw that the suspension was no big deal, and simply a way for the Federation to pacify those who were critical of what the Federation does or doesn’t do. Anyway, I tend to judge an athlete by what they do on the field. If there are team rules about what they do off the field, like in College, then they need
to abide by those rules while on the team. If no rules, then they are entitled to their personal lives. The sport doesn’t pay that much to where they should be able to control peoples personal lives 24/7.
In any case, controversy can sometimes bring more attention to a team that it would get otherwise.
Personally, I think that there are a lot of jealousies about the successes and accomplishments she has enjoyed off the Soccer Field.
I’m not surprised that none of her teammates defended her against the Federation, Old School. After all, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.
You mean…like pursuing litgation against them? I think there’s enough reason to believe the lack of support was genuine and not some charade for fear of persecution.
The majority of the team (absent of Abby Wambach) are reasonable professionals who conduct themselves as such. I applaud them for distancing themselves from someone who regularly behaves in unprofessional and criminal behavior.
Her rocovery from addiction to alcohol is the real concern… I hope she never returns in a USWNT shirt… but I do hope she continues to fight for equal earnings.
fight for equal earnings.
I notice you used the term “equal earnings” instead of “equal pay”. I’ve yet to here a conclusive definition of what this entails, but I’m curious if you can provide one for conversations sake.
I would assume literally equal paychecks with accommodations for some of the personal factors than can otherwise impact the numbers, eg, unpaid personal leave. I don’t know how relevant those would be to an athlete gig but otherwise, if two people are equally paid but, say, hourly wage, no paid vacation, something child related comes up, you get sick, you are giving birth and on childcare leave when your cohort is promoted and paid more, etc……roughly anything that comes up in standard conservative excuses for why A should be paid more than B. You can be cold blooded and say someone hasn’t earned it, or you can value them like they mean as much as someone without all the family distractions.
I would assume literally equal paycheck
I know it’s hard for us to spit ball from the sidelines since we don’t have access to the numbers, but the lawyer teams and federation do and I wouldn’t place my bets on believing the ladies have a compelling argument to justify such demands unless they’re simply rooted within social narratives and political talking points (that are unequivocally false and misrepresented to begin with).
The next logical question is what metrics are we placing equal paychecks being earned? Are we talking something tangible in revenue/dollars and cents or are we philosophically? If we’re talking philosophically, that’s not a strong leg to stand on, but it’d probably be ideal to get 100ft away from train wrecks like Hope Solo if that’s the gameplan.