By now, it’s no secret that US Women’s National Team member Megan Rapinoe isn’t exactly doing her team any favors. For starters, she isn’t their star player anymore, not even starting in one tournament game this season. And secondly, she’s put the team in yet another controversial limelight.
If you know anything about Rapinoe, she’s likely all about the controversy.
Like American football’s Colin Kaepernick, she has been the face of her team, kneeling during the national anthem and complaining about so-called racists, inequality for LGBTQ+s, and lesser pay for women athletes.
And now, she’s apparently laughing at her team’s expense. Or at least that’s what it seemed like when she laughed off a missed penalty kick on Sunday in the Women’s World Cup.
Megan Rapinoe misses a crucial penalty kick and laughs about it. She's pure trash🗑 pic.twitter.com/cGgkDhtzMy
— James Rossi 🇺🇸 (@realjamesrossi) August 6, 2023
Now, to be fair, she likely wasn’t laughing, laughing, as if she actually thought her missed kick was funny. Instead, it was probably a nervous reaction to being on center stage in front of the world and screwing up a crucial play for her team.
In fact, she pretty much even said so later, noting that the whole thing was a “sick joke,” a “dark comedy,” knowing that had she made the kick, it would have put her team that much closer to winning.
However, that doesn’t necessarily make most fans feel any better about the team being ousted early from the World Cup or that she didn’t appear to take the loss seriously.
Laughing after missing a PK that effectively eliminated your country from the World Cup is certainly a choice
Is Megan Rapinoe the most unlikable American Athlete of all time? pic.twitter.com/v2Bj1NO1q3
— Nick Perkins (@NPerkins96) August 6, 2023
And sadly, for her, this just might be what fans remember Rapinoe for most, seeing as she likely just played her last game. According to the BBC, she’s already announced that she’s retiring after this tournament.
Probably not exactly how she was hoping she’d go out…
