The Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro offered his thoughts on retiring women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and her less-than stellar performance at the World Cup — which resulted in a loss to Sweden and an early exit from the competition.
At particular issue for most was a penalty kick — which Rapinoe whiffed, handing Sweden the win — and the striker’s awkward response to the loss, which appeared to at least initially be laughter.
Conservatives mocked the outspoken player — who is best known outside of soccer circles for her blue hair, her protest of the American national anthem, and demands for “equal pay” despite the women’s team delivering far less market value than the men’s.
“All righty. So Megan Rapinoe, one of most irritating people on planet Earth,” Shapiro said by way of introduction. “She had an opportunity to push the United States women’s national soccer team into the next round. Now, she’s most famous for having blue hair and also for really hating America. I mean, the national anthem is bad and America is a deeply sexist and racist place, even though they’re paying her way too much money to play a sport no one has ever watched, except once every four years when we all pretend to be interested in women’s soccer and all the rest of it.”
“Well, Rapinoe apparently had a penalty shot and she missed and the United States lost and they got booted by Sweden. And bizarrely enough, she started kind of laughing and smiling after she missed the shot,” Shapiro continued. “And she didn’t miss by a little, she missed by like a lot.”
Shapiro went on to note that he didn’t really fault her for having a “weird” initial reaction, saying that people often handle horrible news in ways that seem strange in the moment.
“So I’m not going to blame her for like laughing and then crying. People do react in weird ways to bad situations. If you’ve ever had to tell somebody truly horrible news, you don’t know what to do,” he said. “So I get that.”
“The part about Megan Rapinoe that is annoying is that she’s Megan Rapinoe,” he continued, pointing to her postgame interview and the fact that after playing and winning in international competition, the part of her career that stood out most was scoring a point for “equal pay.”
Shapiro concluded with his final assessment of Rapinoe, saying the real problem wasn’t what she did in her last World Cup appearance — no matter how dismal that may have been — but who she was as a person.
“Again, the problem with Megan Rapinoe is not that she missed a penalty shot. A lot of people miss penalty shots. The problem is not that she reacted weirdly. When that happens, when bad stuff happens, bad stuff happens,” he explained. “The problem with Megan Rapinoe, is that she’s kind of a terrible person and that she’s spent her entire career pressing for the idea that America is a terrible, horrible place that has made her extraordinarily wealthy and famous for playing a sport that no one cares about worldwide.”
“So that’s — that’s that. And we bid a not particularly fond farewell to Megan Rapinoe. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
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