Hamish Blair/AP
OutKick’s Clay Travis took issue with ESPN airing a tribute to U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe after the team suffered its earliest exit in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
On Sunday, the U.S. was eliminated in the round of 16 by Sweden after a heartbreaking penalty kick shootout. Rapinoe, 38, sent her penalty shot soaring over the net with a costly miss.
Because of this, Travis called the tribute “left wing propaganda.”
“Megan Rapinoe airmailed her penalty kick & the US women’s soccer team had their worst World Cup performance ever,” Travis tweeted. “Here’s how @espn covered Rapinoe and the US women’s choke job. This isn’t sports, it’s left wing propaganda.”
Rapinoe has become the outspoken face of the team over the last few years due to her willingness to openly talk about social issues. She’s knelt during the national anthem and has continually advocated for transgender women participating in women’s sports.
Prior to the start of this year’s World Cup, she announced she’d be retiring from soccer after the current season of the NWSL.
Travis believes the team has been trending downward since its 2015 World Cup win because of its politics.
“The descent of the US women’s soccer team from a 2015 World Cup champion that the entire country loved to a far left wing politics-laden team that barely made the top 16 eight years later is an unmitigated disaster,” he said. “Time to clean house and focus on soccer again. (Or let dudes pretending to be women take the women’s spots like Megan Rapinoe wants. Then we will really kick ass.)”
During that descent, the team won another World Cup final in 2019.