Commentary: Megan Rapinoe will retire with amazing legacy on and off the pitch

SEATTLE – When Megan Rapinoe was named Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year” in 2019, the accompanying article told of her occasional attempts to seek anonymity when the tumult surrounding her became too great. Her teammates on U.S. Soccer referred to that version of their superstar winger, ball cap pulled down, as “IncogPinoe.”

But that’s hardly the Rapinoe image that prevails as she announces her impending retirement from soccer. Rapinoe said Saturday that she plans to walk away from the game after her fourth and final FIFA Women’s World Cup with Team USA this month in Australia and New Zealand. The final game of her spectacular, groundbreaking career will be with Seattle’s OL Reign whenever their National Women’s Soccer League season ends.

Far from incognito, Rapinoe made her mark by being aggressive, bold and innovative on the pitch. And, especially, by being fearless in speaking her mind off it. It’s hard to imagine the outspoken Rapinoe, with her shock of white (or pink, or purple) hair and strong stances on a variety of social justice issues, ever being overlooked.

Much like what occurred when Sue Bird, her fiancé and the other half of Seattle’s reigning power couple, announced her decision to retire from the Storm after last season, there is ample time to laud Rapinoe’s accomplishments before she steps away. And also to ponder her impact on soccer, and beyond that, on women’s sports writ large.

Indeed, Rapinoe said she drew strength and inspiration from how Bird handled the waning days of her basketball career, and the processing of her decision to retire, just as Rapinoe had prolonged her own career by following Bird’s training and diet regimen.

“She’s five years older than me, and she seems to be the Benjamin Button of sports. So I was like, ‘Well, whatever you’re doing, I’m gonna do,’ ” Rapinoe, 38, told Marie Claire Magazine in 2019.

Last month, when Bird’s jersey was retired by the Storm in a ceremony co-hosted by Rapinoe – who congratulated her partner on “arguably the best career that anyone has ever had in the history of any sport ever” – Bird spent 90 minutes at the mike reflecting on her career and thanking those who helped her along the way.

One wonders if Rapinoe might go two hours in her acceptance speech when she is eventually commemorated in similar fashion, considering the scope of her soccer accomplishments. The Reign plans to honor Rapinoe at the club’s home finale at Lumen Field on Oct. 6, when they play the Washington Spirit.

There’s no doubt that Rapinoe belongs in the upper tier of all-time American women soccer players with the likes of Mia Hamm, Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy and a few others. Rapinoe announced her arrival on the international scene in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup, when the U.S. was trailing Brazil in stoppage time in the quarterfinals, facing an ignominious early ouster. But Rapinoe, who is right-footed, sent a perfectly timed 45-foot cross with her left foot that resulted in a flying header goal by Wambach in the 122nd minute that sparked a U.S. win on penalty shots.

“I just took a touch and friggin’ smacked it with my left foot,” Rapinoe told reporters afterward. “I don’t think I’ve hit a ball like that with my left foot. I got it to the back post and that beast in the air just got ahold of it.”

The U.S. would lose in the finals that year to Japan, but came back to win the World Cup in both 2015 and 2019 with Rapinoe playing an integral role in both, as she did in the U.S. gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. And that doesn’t even cover Rapinoe’s career with the Reign that dates back to their inaugural 2013 season. With Rapinoe, the Reign have twice played for the NWSL title and won three NWSL Shields symbolic of the highest-finishing club in the regular season, though a NWSL championship still eludes her.

But Rapinoe is just as likely to be well-remembered – not fondly by some of her critics – for her penchant for speaking out on, and advocating for, causes about which she is passionate. That has run the gamut from LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality to equal pay for the women’s national team.

In April, Rapinoe and Bird signed a letter voicing their opposition to H.R. 734, a federal bill that would ban transgender and intersex girls and women from participating in girls and women’s school sports.

Rapinoe was the first prominent white athlete and first female athlete to kneel for the national anthem in 2016, in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. She ran afoul of President Donald Trump and his supporters when a video was uncovered a few months before the 2019 World Cup began; in response to a hypothetical question about whether the American women would be excited to go to the White House if they won, Rapinoe responded, “I’m not going to the f–– White House.”

Bird once explained what it meant to look at the world through what she called “Megan goggles.” On the Players Tribune Instagram page, she said, “O.K., so: Megan, she just does things sometimes. Do it….. then love it….. then – later, at the very end, if there’s time – worry about it. That’s her M.O. Me, on the other hand….. I’m nothing like that. I’m more of the worry about it first….. and then later, if there’s time, do it type.”

Rapinoe was part of the lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation filed in 2016 charging gender discrimination in the pay structure of the national teams. And part of her legacy that came out of that is the 2021 collective bargaining agreement that mandates an equal split in World Cup prize money between the American men’s and women’s teams.

Speaking that day at the Reign’s practice at Bellarmine High School after the decision was announced, Rapinoe took great pride in being part of the fight for equal pay that began in the generation of players before her.

“I feel like we’re just building blocks on each other,” Rapinoe said. “I think this fighting spirit that we have, and just our inability and unwillingness to quit or take less, or to be quiet about the inequities that we face, comes from them – ‘91, and ‘95 and ’99 [previous World Cup teams]. And all of those players that came before – that’s the DNA, that’s the fabric, that’s why we’re here fighting the way that we are.

“I know they won’t see the benefits of it. I’ll barely see the benefits of it. But I hope everybody takes pride in knowing that they were a huge part in hopefully seismically shifting soccer in this country for women.”

With or without Megan goggles, Rapinoe will be forever remembered in the soccer world as someone who never shied away from a battle, and was a key tectonic plate in that seismic shift. And while she may be going incogPinoe as far as soccer visibility is concerned once she hangs up her cleats, I suspect Rapinoe will remain front and center in the realm of social justice.