Pretty Clear Hope Solo's Teammates Are Deathly Afraid Of Her

August 12th - Hope Solo

Full Hope Solo quote on Sweden after US was eliminated from the Olympics today. pic.twitter.com/UZVCAeur6m

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) August 12, 2016

August 18th - Alex Morgan

When asked about her teammate Solo’s post-match criticism of Sweden, Alex Morgan said she herself always tries to be positive when speaking with reporters or posting on social media.

“I saw her comments but I feel like those are opinions I don’t share,” Morgan said.

This isn’t the first time Morgan and others have had to respond to or answer for Solo’s inflammatory comments. But Morgan thinks that’s part of her job as a teammate of Solo’s.

“I feel like everything is fair game when you play a team sport,” Morgan said. “You have to support each other. Sometimes you have to cover for each other. That’s just part of playing a team sport.”

August 18th - Megan Rapinoe

Midfielder Megan Rapinoe is the latest of Solo’s teammates to distance herself from the remarks.

“Really disappointed, to be honest,” Rapinoe said when asked about Solo’s comments in an guest appearance on NBC Sports’ Olympic coverage Thursday. “That’s not our team. That’s not what this team has always been. That’s not what this team will be in the future.

“It’s frustrating sometimes as an athlete, you’re thrust into the spotlight, and I think this team has always done a really amazing job of understanding we have this incredible platform, let’s do something good with it,” she continued. 

“Let’s inspire, let’s be badass, let’s be fierce, let’s be competitive. But we’re gracious and we’re humble, and we play the game a certain way, whether we win or lose. And we’ve been on the winning side quite a bit, and when we find ourselves on the other side, we need to handle that graciously, and unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”


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​Six days? Six days ladies? That's when you chose to speak up about your teammates inflammatory remarks? Jesus, I'm surprised you didn't anonymously go on television with your faces blacked out and your voices altered, because waiting nearly a week to address a story that would surely be a complete afterthought by then is a telltale sign of fear. I mean, in the eyes of the public the USWNT's loss to Sweden might as well have been part of 2012 London Olympics. That's how far out of our brain it is already. Not only because we tend to forget things quicker when our country loses, but because 6 days is essentially 6 months given the current state of the news cycle.

Taking a stand against a baseless statement that was made hours after the game it was in reference to needed to be done within a day or two to have any effect whatsoever. In six days, the fact that Hope Solo is a bitter asshole went from relatively new knowledge, to common knowledge, to antiquated knowledge. Don't tell me that Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe aren't peaking out their curtains every night before they go to sleep now when they - as teammates that should have been the first to stand up and set the record straight - were so hesitant to say something that they got beat to the punch by literally anyone with an opinion and a website. If I had seen a blog or an editorial discussing Hope Solo's decision to call an entire country a "bunch of cowards" on Monday I would have said it was 2000 and late, never mind the debunking of it three full days after that. Honestly, with the timing of this I have no choice but to believe that Hope is either on vacation or getting her WiFi fixed. I don't blame them for being scared of their goaltender because she is truest example of the term 'wildcard', but maybe don't make it so obvious next time by running from her words until you are far enough away to feel comfortable criticizing them.