Remembering the night Rapinoe's protest got 'hijacked'

“I don’t know exactly the right things to say, but I want to learn.”

This evening, Megan Rapinoe will play in her last ever competitive soccer game, which will fittingly take place in the NWSL final as her OL Reign face Gotham FC in San Diego, California.

There have been a slew of poignant reflections written over the last couple of months encapsulating the significance of Rapinoe, on and off the pitch, and most of those have been written by journalists who spent a lot more time covering her directly than I ever did. But, as I personally think about her legacy and what she has meant to me as a human being and reporter, I keep coming back to September 7, 2016, when I was lucky enough to be one of only a handful of reporters present for one of the most dramatic nights of her career. She taught me so much that night, so I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and revisit it together.

It was – extremely literally – a dark and stormy Wednesday night in the nation’s capital. About two weeks prior, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had remained seated during the national anthem at a preseason NFL game, and said he did so in order to protest the mistreatment of Black people in the country, particularly by law enforcement. The following week he modified his protest from remaining seated to taking a knee during the national anthem, as a form of respect. The story instantly became front-page news that reached far beyond the sports section.

Rapinoe was one of the first athletes – and by far the most prominent white athlete – to join him. She first took a knee on Sunday, September 4, before a game between her Seattle Reign and the Chicago Red Stars. That Wednesday she was scheduled to play the Washington Spirit on the road. At the time I was a sports reporter at ThinkProgress in Washington, D.C., covering the intersection of sports and politics. Kaepernick’s protest had quickly become the entirety of my beat, and so I knew I needed to get to the Spirit game and see if I could talk to Rapinoe.

I had no idea what I was in for.

I drove up after work with my editor, Kiley Kroh, and colleague/friend Ev Crunden, both big women’s soccer fans. Long story short, we got stuck in awful D.C. traffic and were running pretty late. (The Spirit at the time were playing at the Soccerplex in Boyds, Maryland, an hour outside of the city on a good day.) Thunderstorms didn’t make the drive any easier, but they did delay the start of the game, which worked to our advantage, and we made it just about 15 minutes before kick-off – enough time to see what Rapinoe did during the anthem, I thought. Usually, the teams all come out of the locker room and the starters line up in the middle of the field for the national anthem. But this evening, I was caught off guard when the anthem was played before any players were in sight. As the Star Spangled Banner played to an empty field, a jolt of tension cut through the humidity — this wasn’t the proper order of events before a soccer game, and everyone knew it. The next few minutes were a blur as I talked with other media members and friends about what happened. Had it been an accident by a lower-level club employee? Did the anthem simply get rushed because of the lightning delay? Or could this possibly be an intentional act by Spirit ownership?

Well, we didn’t have to spend a long time waiting for an answer. Just minutes after the actual game began, Spirit communications sent out a letter from the club that made it clear exactly how intentional this decision was. I’ve included the letter in full below because it truly is one of the most bizarre forms of communication I’ve ever seen from a professional sports club, which is really saying something. I mean, it’s datelined, for heaven’s sake! Emphasis is mine.

Statement Regarding Washington Spirit Ownership Decision to Play the National Anthem Ahead of Schedule Tonight

BOYDS, MD (Sept 7, 2016) - In light of Seattle Reign and U.S. Women’s National Team member Megan Rapinoe’s public declaration that she intended to “take a knee” during the United States’ National Anthem tonight, we decided to play the anthem in our stadium ahead of schedule rather than subject our fans and friends to the disrespect we feel such an act would represent.

We understand this may be seen as an extraordinary step, but believe it was the best option to avoid taking focus away from the game on such an important night for our franchise.

While we respect every individual’s right to express themselves, and believe Ms. Rapinoe to be an amazing individual with a huge heart, we respectfully disagree with her method of hijacking our organization’s event to draw attention to what is ultimately a personal – albeit worthy – cause.

As a veteran owned team, the national anthem holds an exceptionally special meaning for this organization. Our owner Bill Lynch has lost personal friends during overseas conflicts and has other close friends who have also lost loved ones. Playing the national anthem prior to sports events became standard during World War II and was a way to express the team’s and fan’s patriotism and show support for the U.S. Military. The tradition of honoring our military and our patriotism before our games is very important to us. We strongly feel there are better ways to begin a conversation about a cause than tarnishing a tradition that is so important to so many.

To willingly allow anyone to hijack this tradition that means so much to millions of Americans and so many of our own fans for any cause would effectively be just as disrespectful as doing it ourselves. Professional athletes have incredible numbers of followers, to which we believe they have the ability to articulate a conversation with objectives and plans and begin a serious conversation directly, or through traditional media appearances, without insulting our military and fans. 

We do regret that this decision has denied the players who had no intention of taking a knee their own opportunity to honor our great country from the field. This is an issue we are communicating to and with them about personally.

That night on the field, Crystal Dunn scored a banger and the Spirit won 2-1 to secure the first postseason home game in Spirit franchise history. But I don’t remember a single second of what happened on the field. I spent the entire time tracking down fans and Spirit team officials to get reactions to what had happened. To a number, everyone was absolutely outraged and flabbergasted. That includes then-NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush who happened to be in attendance that night.

“No, I don’t support it,” a clearly flustered Plush told me. “I’m disappointed by it. I didn’t know about it. It’s an emotional topic and I’m trying to be open-minded. It’s all very fresh.”

But, of course, the biggest focus was on what would happen after the game. Would Rapinoe even talk to press? If so, would she even address what happened?

The answers, of course, were “yes” and “yes.” Sitting on a small set of bleachers in the Soccerplex’s fieldhouse, a clearly exhausted Rapinoe sat next to her head coach, Laura Harvey, and answered every question head on.

“It’s fucking unbelievable,” Rapinoe said. “I’m saddened by it. I think that it’s pretty clear what the message is that I’m trying to bring to light in Chicago and what I’ve continued to talk about these last few days and what I intend to talk about, and clearly with [Lynch’s] actions I think that’s a necessary conversation.”

She also addressed what she thought about his use of the word “hijacking” just days before the 15th anniversary of September 11th.

“I think it was incredibly distasteful to say that, four days before [the anniversary of] the worst tragedies in our country to say that I hijacked this event. I think that you saw by the fan support, and I talked to a few of the girls, and my team’s been incredibly supportive of the stance I’ve taken, that is not an opinion he shares with a lot of people. It’s really disappointing, and disrespectful. You want to talk about me disrespecting the flag, he didn’t even give both teams a chance to stand in front of it and show their respects. It’s unbelievable. Truly an unbelievable act.”

She didn’t mince words when asked discussing rumors that Lynch was homophobic, given the Spirit were at the time the only NWSL team to not hold a Pride night.

“I don’t know if it was directly at me because I’m gay and it’s a protest I was making as a gay woman, bit of a stretch, but I do think that Bill Lynch is homophobic,” she said.

I, of course, wrote about the evening for ThinkProgress, but was curious to go back and see what quotes were left on the cutting-room floor. I wasn’t able to find my recording of Rapinoe’s full interview from that evening, but I was able to find the google document where I transcribed all of her quotes.

What struck me when looking back at them was how long she spoke for, how passionately she spoke, how determined she was to re-center racism in a conversation that was already going off the rails. She was shellshocked by Lynch’s actions, still finding her voice as an advocate and ally, and wasn’t sure of the exact right things to say, but she was willing to try anyways.

“We need to have an open conversation about race relations in this country, and what that means to both sides. I think that conversation gets so mixed up, it’s like, what are we actually talking about? We’re talking about Americans that have to deal with oppression and racism and poverty and the intersectionality of all of that. Being a woman, we can talk about, obviously have this fight going, and obviously it’s 77 cents on a dollar, and that’s if you’re white. Not even talking about if you’re Black or if you’re Latina. I’d personally like to get back to that. And improving the relationship between the police community and communities of color is a huge thing and a hot button issue right now,” she said.

“I don’t know exactly the right things to say, but I want to learn, and I want to engage in that conversation. In part, I went into this knowing I didn’t have all the answers and sort of opened myself up and I’ve been a little bit exposed in that because I don’t know everything and there’s no way I can but I want to. And I think there’s a whole lot of people out there who want to and they don’t know how, and that’s a difficult thing if you live in a predominantly white community and you don’t have a lot of experience in that, but I think this can help open up the conversation a little bit more than it has.”

Looking back, what also stood out to me was Harvey sitting directly beside her player throughout the whole interview, offering her support and sharing in her outrage.

“To not be notified prior was disappointing .. and again disappointed that nobody from our club was notified of anything that was going to be going out public such as a statement or anything,” Harvey said.

When told that the league wasn’t notified of the Spirit’s actions that evening either, Harvey said, “That in itself is disrespectful tot he league in my opinion because we’re all trying to fight for the same thing.”

Remember, this interview took place after a loss in a lightning-delayed game that didn’t end until nearly midnight. Nobody would have blamed Rapnioe or Harvey for cutting press short that night, or even skipping it altogether. But they sat on those bleachers and stood up for themselves and for the right to protest. Rapinoe, in particular, used that evening to send a message that she wasn’t going to be silenced, that she was going to continue to stand with — or kneel with, as it may be — the Black community. She was inviting other white people to join her in the journey, to step out of their comfort zones, to listen and learn and fight.

Afterwards, on the long, early-morning drive back to DC, I recall knowing that I had just witnessed something special. Seven years later, I feel that it was truly one of the most significant nights in Rapinoe’s career, even though it had nothing to do with her talent as a soccer player.

I also think it’s fitting that as she takes the field for her final game, Harvey will be right there on the sidelines, serving as her head coach once again.