As many of you know, the US Women’s Soccer Team won the World Cup this year. What should have been a happy occasion turned into another chance for us to use sports to bash one another with our own politics. Even though I don’t really care for watching soccer on TV, I’m always happy when a US Team is able to bring home achievements. Every time that happens, I believe that is a call for celebration. This should be a shared victory for the entire country.
Their were a few big subjects that got brought up after the US Women’s Soccer Team won. One of the biggest ones was a supposed pay gap between the Men’s Soccer Teams in the World Cup and the Women’s Soccer Teams in the World Cup. Another, but less important subject was the refusal to go to the White House over disagreements with the President. The final big subject was the matter when the players dropped the US Flag.
For the first subject, the supposed pay gap between the Men’s Soccer Teams and the Women’s Soccer Teams. The argument is that the Men’s Soccer Teams are making far more than the Women’s Soccer Teams, which would be true if you are looking at just the dollar amounts. But this seems to be an unfair metric to use considering how much more the Mens World Cup generate in revenue versus the Womens World Cup. According to this article from Forbes, the Mens World Cup generates over $6 Billion in revenue, while the Womens World Cup generates $131 Million. The Mens World Cup Teams are expected to share $400 Million of that revenue and the Womens World Cup Teams are expected to share $30 Million between the teams participating. The percentage of $131 Million out of $6 Billion for the Men is about 2.1%, meanwhile, the percentage of 30 Million of 400 Million is about 7.5% (I hope my math is correct). According to those, percentages, the Mens Team shared a significant amount less of their revenue than the Womens Team shared compared to the percentage of their revenue generated. So really if pay equality is the concern, then the Mens Team should be the ones complaining.
The second subject was the refusal to go the White House due to the teams disagreements with President Trump. Megan Rapinoe (a star player on the team) has been kneeling during the National Anthem in protest and has been a supporter of Colin Kaepernick. Normally, when it comes to teams that are mostly within the US and are representing different cities or states and you decide to kneel during the national anthem, I may find that objectionable, but I respect your right to do so, because we live in a country where you have that right (probably a reason you should stand for the national anthem and respect the flag). But I think especially when you are representing a country, you should absolutely respect that country’s traditions, which would include the National Anthem. While I think you should respect that country’s tradition, I don’t think you have to agree with that country’s leadership. No leadership should ever be free from criticism, especially our country’s leadership. In fact, if I was in the position of the US Women’s Soccer Team and I disagreed with President Trump so much, I would absolutely go to the White House. I would take that opportunity to ask if I could talk to the President and tell him how wrong I think he is and where he could improve. One final thing on this subject, I can’t understand why a lot of the Presidents most vocal critics, who seem to be most concerned with the way he expresses himself, don’t act in a more virtuous manner that would be setting a good example. It seems to me, a great way to display the President is acting in a less than desirable manner, would be to show the President the virtuous way to act, not to match him in the same manner you find undesirable. Because it’s pretty obvious, no one can out-Trump, Trump.
The final subject is the the US Womens Soccer Team dropping the US Flag after they won. This goes back to my point above how I believe if you are representing a country, you should respect that country’s traditions, especially the national anthem of that country. In addition, I think you should respect the flag of the country you represent and not do this. I do appreciate that after it was dropped another player on the team picked the flag up, it should never have been dropped to begin with. If you are representing a country, I don’t think it makes sense for you to disrespect the most recognizable symbol of that country. If you are doing that, then why are you even there representing that country?
Am I dead wrong on this? Am I dead right on this? Am I a little of both?
Let me know what you think.
As always, thanks for reading!
Moderately Conservative 