A Defense of Hope Solo
You know something is painfully obvious if somebody at the World Wide Bottom Feeder gets it. More importantly, you know something is painfully obvious is somebody at the World Wide Bottom Feeder is willing to incur the wrath of the PC police by saying it. While he wasn’t talking about this situation specifically, Mike Greenberg nailed my point for this article:
“Either you’re for free speech or you aren’t.”
By comparing and contrasting a set of hot topics broiling in the lame-stream media right now, you will easily see that studying the demise of of U.S Women’s Soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo is really a look into the hypocrisy by those who create, maintain, and multiply double standards.
The official story is Solo was suspended for six months by U.S Soccer for her comments following the U.S. teams’ loss to Sweden in the Olympics. I’m not here to try to sell you a load of bugle oil about “free speech” because that only exists between individuals and the government. Employers can deal with an individual in any way they wish for things that individual says. But that also not what this is about. What this is about is where Mike Greenberg was headed with his comment.
To see that, let’s first take a look at what Solo actually said. Here’s the unedited quote that made her persona non grata.
“I thought that we played a courageous game. I thought that we had many opportunities on goal. I think we showed a lot of heart. We came back from a goal down; I’m very proud of this team. I also think we played a bunch of cowards. But, you know, the best team did not win today; I strongly, firmly believe that. I think you saw America’s heart. You saw us give everything that we had today. Unfortunately the better team didn’t win. Sweden dropped off. They didn’t want to open play. They didn’t want to pass the ball. They didn’t want to play great soccer.”
Everybody who wanted to make political hay with this latched on to the “cowards” part of that quote. It’s easy to do that when you lift the “hot” word out of a paragraph. The shopworn term for that is “taking it out of context.”
When you read the full quote, she explains clearly why she uses the term “coward.” Not only does it makes sense, but if you watched that match, you realize that she’s absolutely right. The Swedes employed an exceptionally defensive philosophy, stopping just short of digging anti-tank trenches and building sandbag bunkers in front of their goal . They put literally no effort into offense after they scored; instead they turtle-shelled intending to make that goal stand, survive any American onslaught, and hopefully win on penalty kicks.
Hope Solo was simply pissed the Swedish strategy worked. The ugly reality here is that Solo played terribly throughout the Olympics, and the Americans depended on their opposition making mistakes on the attack, then attempting to get some cheap goals on breakaways. They had to do this because Solo gave away a lot of bad goals herself. She knows that. Hence the heated comment.
That leads us to Greenberg’s point. It’s complex, but it revolves around double standards. Greenberg knows he lives in a world at ESPN in which journalistic integrity is largely dead, and the name of the game is drawing an audience.
In the first case, the double standard exists by arranging contractual agreements with sports leagues which force athletes into post-game interviews. This is done in the hopes of getting somebody to say or do something “controversial,” then flaying them when they do. The examples are numerous; my favorite being all the shit Cam Newton took after walking out of a post-Super Bowl interview.
In other words, sticking a microphone in the face of a fierce competitor like Hope Solo moments after a tough loss, asking loaded questions, then acting shocked when a “hot” comment results is as much hypocrisy as giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys and acting horrified when that car gets wrapped around a tree.
Then when they don’t get that “hot” comment, they double-down by creating controversy where there is none. Hope Solo essentially got banished from soccer for saying something that A) wasn’t offensive, B) was true, and until ESPN made a story out of it C) nobody gave a shit about.
The real tell in this is in the inverse. Colin Kaepernick can take up the cause of terrorist cop-killers, and all the World Wide Bottom Feeder can do is cry about his right to do it. Hope Solo says a word they don’t like and they whip up a firestorm. Double double standard; plain and simple. I guess In-N-Out Burger isn’t the only place you can get a “double double.”
Again, the “free speech” protections exist between individuals and government. “Free speech” is about the exchange of ideas, but if we are going to allow the manipulation of that exchange for mere profit or for the advancement of an agenda, is that not just as much of impingement? ESPN can’t throw Hope Solo in jail, but they surely cost her a job.
Either you’re for free speech or you aren’t.
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None of that changes the fact that this chick is bat shit crazy.
Any truth to the rumor that you wrote this piece because you’re scared of her?
I can see her going full Misery to your James Caan and holding a gun to your head or a sledgehammer to your ankles as you wrote this.
Nod twice if you need help.
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Thank you Captain Obvious…of course she’s bat shit crazy. Goalies in ANY sport are like left-handed pitchers; their TVs are tuned to AM radio. I’m not worried about a soccer player. She probably hits like the Rays outfield (rimshot).
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