Posted on by Californiacontrarian

The Good, The Ugly, and The Bad

In the past few days two things caught my attention on the sport’s page because they demonstrated two extremes in the politics-sports dichotomy.

The Good:  Simon Pagenaud. 

After a behind-the-scenes tour of the U.S. Capitol and the White House, Pagenaud and the team spent about an hour with the president. They chatted about racing and posed for photos inside the oval office and outside the White House in front of Pagenaud’s winning car.

Pagenaud said, “He was very knowledgeable about racing. He knew all about Indianapolis. I don’t know what I should be saying or not,” Pagenaud laughed, “but he was very interested in knowing the strategy that was in my head the last 15 laps. It’s very rare that someone has so much interest in the sport like that. It’s very rare that you could keep their attention for so long. So I was very pleased and I was very impressed by the president.”

“To me, when the president of the biggest country in the world invites you to reward you for sports achievements, I think all politics aside, you say yes,” Pagenaud said. “Because it’s a recognition of your work, it’s a recognition of the hard work that was behind it. It’s very symbolic. It’s something that you can’t say no to, in my opinion. I think because it’s sports, you have to put aside any political views. It had nothing to do with politics.”

Good for Pagenaud. Good for NASCAR!

The Ugly: Megan Rapinoe

U.S Women’s National Soccer team co-captain Megan Rapinoe stood silent with her arms behind her back as the rest of the U.S. team placed their hands over their hearts and sang the Star-Spangled Banner ahead of the 6/11/19 game in Reims, France.

The 33-year-old U.S. star kept a stony demeanor as the rest of her team sang the Star-Spangled Banner in the Auguste-Delaune Stadium. Rapinoe had already warned that she would “never sing the anthem again.” Apparently she views her disrespectful actions as some sort of Trump protest. Her stoic selfishness made all the more blatant as it occurred in France where 75 years ago, almost to the day, thousands of Americans lost their lives on D-Day., and Reims is a mere 4 hour drive from Normandy! “FYI, Ms. Rapinoe, President Trump wasn’t even born on D-Day!”                                 

Bad for Megan Rapinoe. Worse for Women’s Soccer!

The Bad: Potentially bad for women’s soccer

The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team is favored to win this year’s World Cup, but you can be sure that if they do win, many will not care as they will have been turned of by the actions of the co-captain, Ms. Rapinoe. It will be too bad if the T.V. ratings for these soccer games are less than anticipated . . . remember what happened to the T.V. ratings after the N.F.L. players pulled their kneeling protests. Her actions being all the more unfortunate, occurring  at a time when women’s soccer is trying to get paid on a scale with men’s soccer. I like women’s soccer, but I will not pay to see Rapinoe play.

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