SAVE HOPE FOR WOMEN'S SPORTS...BY DUMPING HOPE!

I discovered in the 1990's that I really love watching soccer…played at an elite level, that is. I hated playing it. The game is a snooze fest. Get the ball, boot it away, get the ball, boot it away, lather, rinse, repeat. So after eighth grade I made a rule that I would no longer play any sport in which you can't use your hands.  

But things like this, notwithstanding:

It's a totally different sport when it's played right by players who have serious skill. Abby Wambach connecting with an absolutely perfect cross from Megan Rapinoe to head in the tying goal in the 122^nd minute in the 2011 World Cup quarter final against Brazil to send the game to PKs was one of the most exciting moments in sports history. I literally jumped up and ran through my apartment, screaming like an idiot.

I love the USWNT!

Now, my point…

I hate professional sports. I don't watch them and I couldn't care less about them. And let me tell you, living in a place where people eat, drink, and breathe Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, and Red Sox, it's no small task to avoid them.

In my opinion, pro sport is a bunch of self-aggrandizing, overpaid prima donnas. It is a sad commentary on our society when we value a person who can throw a ball more than someone who is teaching our future generations...or someone who runs their lab work------------------------>.

And there is nothing more pathetic to me than a professional athlete who scores a touchdown and starts dancing around and acting like he's never crossed the goal line in his life (full disclosure, this is one thing I hate about soccer, as well). Act like you’ve been there before for Christ’s sake.

Pro leagues have become about being a spectacle and not about love of competition. Just look at the steroid scandal in baseball. In my opinion, Barry Bonds was far more impressive as a 30-30 man then as a 70 homerun hitter…but the beer guzzling wannabe pays $300 dollars for a ticket to see him dump a few hits into the San Francisco Bay, not to see him steal second base. I tell you, this is the shit that has ruined professional leagues.

And now I’m starting to see the same bullshit in my one remaining refuge: women’s sports—namely in the form of Hope Solo.  She is destroying everything I love about watching the USWNT. I can't stand her. She needs to go away. Her supercilious and self-glorifying behavior is completely demeaning the accomplishments of her team. There’s no question that she’s the best keeper in the game, but maybe she needs to be reminded that she’s also on a team who has possession of the ball way more than their fair share of the game. Easy to be great when no one’s shooting at you.

I love women’s sports because it’s about love of competition and promotion of the team, not love of money and promotion of self. It was disappointing enough when the USWNT immediately festooned themselves in t-shirts claiming “Greatness Has Been Found” after their Olympic victory (maybe they should have learned a lesson in winning graciously from the same Japanese team who had beaten them a year before). But Hope Solo’s comments about Brandi Chastain, throwing a public tantrum about being benched in a game, being drunk on the Today Show, just the fact that she even went on Dancing With the Stars, and writing a book that accuses two men of hitting her all make me want to vomit and subsequently flick the TV back over to CSPAN.

Brandi Chastain sucks as a commentator and she’s famous not because of soccer, but because she ripped her shirt off. Guess what, Hope? You’re famous because dudes think you’re hot. If you were ugly, no one would give two shits about how good of a keeper you are. And you were right. Greg Ryan’s decision to bench you in the ’07 World Cup was one of the most asinine decisions in sports history. But you made the puerile decision to publicly demean your own teammate. And DWTS…Where are we going to see you next, Celebrity Boxing? Your narcissism knows no bounds.  

Hope Solo thinks she is advancing women’s sports by exposing the double standard that exists between men and women in terms of what’s acceptable behavior. I say bringing women’s sports down to that level and creating a circus will destroy it just like it has men’s pro leagues. I love sports and it saddens me that I no longer get any enjoyment out of watching a Red Sox/Yankees game. Please don’t sell out women athletes by elevating spectacle over sport. Please don’t allow this self-serving, childish woman to ruin the women’s game.