Hope Solo was not happy earlier this month to find out she had her U.S. Soccer contract terminated, just after she had been suspended for six months for call the Swedish Olympic team “cowards.”
Well it turns out that while the former star goalkeeper found out her National Team days were over, the cameras were rolling for a documentary she is participating in called “Keeping Score.” The camera crew captured Solo, with her husband, former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens, reacting to the news of her dismissal.
Yeah, she wasn’t happy about it.
“Seventeen f***ing years and it’s over!” is a pretty apt description of the situation, though it’s not like this happened all of a sudden. Solo has been embroiled in controversy pretty much perpetually during her U.S. career, with offenses ranging from foot-in-mouth comments to an arrest on assault charges after an altercation with her half-sister and nephew.
Solo’s decision to call the Swedish team that defeated the U.S. “cowards” due to their conservative tactics seemed to be the last straw, with the soccer world pretty much uniting against her in anger. But although the comment was pretty obnoxious, it probably wouldn’t have warranted such an iron-fisted punishment if not for the goalkeeper’s history.
Solo leaves a complicated legacy. She was one of the pillars of a golden age in U.S. Soccer, but she just couldn’t stay away from controversy. Maybe it’s appropriate that she’s going out in a blaze of curse words.
