Hope Solo, the star goalkeeper of the U.S. women’s soccer team, was suspended six months because her behavior was, “counter to the organization’s principles,” according to the team. She didn’t do anything horrible, she just called the Swedish national team a bunch of cowards after they eliminated the Americans from Olympic play. The president of U.S. Soccer, Sunil Galati, went as far as to call the comments “unacceptable.” Beyond the athletic arena and beyond the results, the Olympics celebrate and represent the ideals of fair play and respect. We expect all of our representatives to honor those principles, with no exceptions,” he said in a prepared statement.
U.S. Soccer can take that attitude and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Is Hope Solo a good person? I’m not sure, but it seems soccer fans are evenly divided on the question. Half of the people think she’s a bad person for beating the snot out of her nephew, but the other half realize that the nephew was 6’9” and Solo claimed self-defense.
But whether or not she is a good person should have no bearing on how U.S. Soccer handles her behavior and her playing time. Of course, if all of a sudden it becomes apparent that she’s been diddling little boys, she should never play soccer again and should spend lots of time in jail. But she doesn’t (as far as we know) diddle little boys. All she does, for the most part, is trash talk, which is exactly why U.S. Soccer cannot afford to play cute games with Solo.
She is an electric character in a sport that isn’t all that popular in the United States. I have no statistics on this, but I’m willing to baselessly surmise that more people know who Hope Solo is than they knew who Julie Johnston is (she’s a defender on the women’s team). There’s a reason for that; Johnston is a quiet, on-field and off-field leader (which is apparently the ideal for U.S. Soccer). Whereas Solo is loud, opinionated and far from bashful. She’s a villain, the bad boy of women’s soccer. The heel.
So why is U.S. Soccer suspending her half a year for calling a team cowards? If anything, they should be pushing her to talk even more freely. I’d go as far as to give Hope Solo a god damn script to follow, in which she proceeds to call not only the Swedes cowards but other countries and teams more disrespectful, trashy names.
The fact of the matter is, Americans don’t watch enough soccer. According to a 2012 Harris poll, soccer is America’s fifth favorite team sport behind the big four (baseball, basketball, football, hockey). Only two percent of Americans list soccer as their favorite sport.
If anything, American sports has taught us that we tune in to see villains and it's their "bad" behavior that put asses in seats. They get a lot of hate but also a lot of love which creates an atmosphere that makes everything so much more interesting. Take the UFC, for instance. Connor McGregor has made a name for himself partly off his fighting skills but mostly off his mouth and his swagger. He’s a douchebag, but he’s a douche that everyone would pay to see the fight in the octagon. Look at baseball. Barry Bonds took steroids and pissed a lot of people off, but people stuck around and watched him play because he was interesting.
I understand that sportsmanship is incredibly important. However, I also understand that sports are a business and whether the high-ups at U.S. Soccer want to believe it or not, they are losing the fight against the American people. They aren’t doing a good job attracting new viewership and instead rely on the fanbase they already have, who happen to be one of the most rabid fanbases in the country.
Suspending Hope Solo so publicly is a move that I think will backfire big time for the folks at U.S. Soccer because people want to watch a nephew-beating disrespectful spunky goalie. As opposed to some generic-looking blondes and a few lesbians. Come on, U.S. Soccer, be better.
