Sports Aug 24, 2016 at 5:07 pm

Comments

1
playing OT for the tie and the shootout isn't particularly brave, though, is it? it's smart, but cautious.

hope solo let her emotions speak. 6 months is overkill.
2
@1

Has she apologized?

She probably should be banned from at least one Olympics for poor sportsmanship.

And in baseball, isn't there an adage that in a close game, if you're the visitor you play for the win, and if you're the home team, you play for the tie? Would you say that any baseball team that adopts this strategy at home is cowardly?
3
So when an athlete speaks his/her mind, they're vilified by the media (see: Hope Solo, Josh Norman, Bryce Harper, Cam Newton).

But when an athlete toes the company line and says virtually nothing but cliche's at every press conference (see: Russell Wilson, virtually every other professional athlete), they're vilified by the media for being uninteresting and bland.

I couldn't care less about Hope Solo or the sport of soccer in general, but that seems like a crazy punishment for speaking your mind.
4
Love Hope Solo, hate Ansel Herz.
5
@3 She was representing the USA in the fucking OLYMPICS, with the whole world watching, and she embarrassed our country with her bad manners and poor sportsmanship. She shouldn't be in the Olympics AT ALL ever again! We have GRADE SCHOOL AND MIDDLE SCHOOL kids who exhibit more grace and manner in losing a competition than she did!
6
I'm right with you on this, Ansel. The suspension is just, but the termination is a bit much.

(I wonder if Lochte's fibs are contributing in any way to the severity of her punishment? It's plausible that officials might want to crack down on misbehavior by American athletes to hopefully deter such in the future. Probably not, but still something that occurred to me.)
7
Her comment was super unclassy but it's hard for me to imagine a male athlete getting a six-month suspension for what amounts basically just to garden-variety trash talking -- not racist, not sexist, not violent, just your basic run-of-the-mill sour grapes. Her comment hurt no one but herself.
8
Maybe they terminated her contract because she's not that competitive anymore. At least that's what several papers have been saying.

I'm really amazed at how some of the athletes behaved at the Olympics this year. Admittedly I haven't played competitive team sports for some years, but whatever happened to good sportsmanship? We totes would have expected to be suspended and penalized if we acted that way.
10
@2: There are no ties in baseball.
11
venomlash, Lochte's "fibs"? FIBS? He f*cking lied, and let his teammates take the heat for him.
13
@11: You seem mildly annoyed.
14
@10

I believe there are ties in little league, is that correct?

But what I meant but stated poorly was that the home team is supposed to play for a tie at the end of nine innings and then go for the win in extra innings, whereas the visiting team should seek to take the lead before the bottom of the ninth in order to avoid extra innings. And maybe what I was thinking about was football,not baseball, and whether a team should try to win in regulation or go for overtime.
15
@13

Annoyance would be more than reasonable.
16
"We also question whether this action would ever have been taken against a male player or coach."

Actually, it seems that Hope Solo has been accorded the special treatment so often given to male athletes. Most significantly, when she became intoxicated showed up at her sister's home and then got into a physical altercation with her sister and nephew. But that wasn't Solo's first issues with the law or problems with alcohol, and with each issue, Solo was more or less able to skate by because the USWNT needed her for big international competition, making it convenient for U.S. Soccer officials to look the other way. Just like the pro leagues have long done for men.

And to what does this action amount? Two games between now and February 2017, which sounds like just the slap on the wrist given to male athletes.
17
This is a case of "don't hate the player, hate the game." Has Hope Solo never watched soccer? Laying back on defense is how the game is played. It's why Americans hate it, too, so I guess I sympathize. But we're just stupid Americans who are so shallow we need things in our sports like competition. We don't understand the subtle beauty of eleven defenders clogging the penalty area for seventy blessed minutes of scoring-free play. Play that revolves largely around relentlessly flopping in hopes of drawing a penalty kick. In fact, they should just replace soccer in the Olympics with Olympic Penalty Kicking. In the end, that's the skill that matters most since that's how most of the big soccer matches I've seen come to a close anyway.
18
Enough already. The Swedish team played smart but they are cowards. Accept victory graciously and humbling and not punish the opposition afterwards who was just expressing their frustration. I can guarantee you that all future matches will be grudge matches and they will lose big time
19
@7 has it right. a guy totally would not have gotten nearly as bad a punishment. sexist bull$hit.
20
There is a prez candidate from a MAJOR US political party shouting ignorant, untruthful, hateful, racial, sexist epitaphs at every non-Caucasian non-male human on earth on a very public level, but a female soccer player who says "cowards" is ruining the US' profile around the world? Really? This is your America?
21
I JUST APPOINTED A NEW HEAD OF HOPE SOLO PR.
22
"There's no tying in baseball!"
24
She's also textbook ratchet.
25
One of the odd things for female athletes is that their professional salaries are basically non-sequitors; the 6-month suspension equals a loss of salary of about $36,000. her net worth is reported as north of $2 million, and her husband earned something around $15 million during his NFL career.

Of course, Solo herself acknowledges that $36,000 is nothing to her.

Imagine if she weren't so pretty!
26
It takes a lot more than this to earn 'garbage person'.

You don't have to be some kind of lexicographer or linguist to figure out that 'garbage' means 'no redeeming qualities at all.' Hence 'garbage': something you throw away. Can't even put it in the recycle or compost bin. Nobody thinks she's a Sarah Palin or a Donald Trump. Even Ansel doesn't think that; he thinks a suspension is a enough, but ending her contract goes too far.

Ansel, you should run this stuff past one of those people who writes for a living before posting. They know so much about words.
27
Ansel, you are the worst. Hope Solo is a local treasure - she's strong, doesn't take any shit from anyone and speaks her mind. The Stranger want's it both ways on so many issues. I could give two shits about soccer but Solo got railroaded here by the Olympic team. Turns a blind eye when she got a DUI because they needed her on the team, now that she's old enough to be replaced by a younger teammate the terminate her contract early? No way they do that to a male player of her caliber. You seriously need to get off your soap box, how the hell would you react after a gut wrenching loss when reporters are in your face?
28
Fuck hope solo. The Sweeds weren't cowards, they played a defensive scheme and won. They flat out outsmarted and outplayed them. If the U.S. had done the same and won they'd be celebrating and proclaiming the no. 1 status.

And solo sucks as a goalie!!! She let a ball literally go through her legs after hitting both her hands. She should be cut regardless of her comments.

Anyone who's an apologist for solo is likely a 13 year old girl.
29
And the USWNT pretty much has the next six months off anyway. It's more like an enforced vacation. At 35, though, they should be looking to bring up a new starting keeper anyway; this is a good opportunity to do what they needed to.

Her comments were stupid. The Swedish team were cowards because they didn't play in the way that the US team could crush, see: you have to play OUR WAY or else you're a coward. What an idiotic comment. The Swedish team took a page from the Oakland Raiders: just win, baby.
30
Also, as far as the double-standard questions, I find this ridiculous:

" it's hard for me to imagine a male athlete getting a six-month suspension for what amounts basically just to garden-variety trash talking -- not racist, not sexist, not violent, just your basic run-of-the-mill sour grapes."

You're missing the big picture if you think she was punished for her comments. She played TERRIBLE.

Also, there's definitely a double standard. Look up Ray Rice and how he was banned from the NFL for domestic violence. Right around that time Solo beat up her family, but no repercussions.
31
@4 Yes on so many levels. As a born and raised native I got nothing but love for Hope. The Stranger is all about the party but hates the party girl. I'm completely losing touch with the Stranger, which is sad as I was going to HS on the hill in 95 when the stranger first dropped. Guess it makes sense now though I'm everything the stranger is against, 40 year old white dude that lives in the suburbs (shoreline) and drives to work (on the eastside no less).
32
@22: omfg

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