Megan Rapinoe on Jill Ellis' reaction to her kneeling: 'So dysfunctional, so dishonest, such utter, evasive (expletive)
Megan Rapinoe shreds Jill Ellis in her new book, describing exactly when and why the relationship between the two went sour.
Rapinoe has always been the outspoken leader of the U.S. women’s national soccer team. It’s too bad she didn’t always have the support of her coach, at least according to her memoir “One Life.”
Rapinoe accused Ellis of not supporting her when she took a knee during the playing of the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and in protest of police brutality.
“The critics yell really loud and I had a federation who clearly didn’t support me and, I felt, a coach who really didn’t support me,” Rapinoe wrote in her book, which was excerpted by BBC, “but I had so many people around me who always stuck by me and were with me the whole time.”
Rapinoe started kneeling during the national anthem on Sept. 4. 2016 during a NWSL match between Rapinoe’s Seattle Reign and the Chicago Red Stars. She continued that protest to a USWNT match again Thailand less than two weeks later. Ellis had, before the match, said publicly she expected all her players to stand during the anthem.
The silent protest was met with almost swift punishment from U.S. Soccer and Ellis. U.S. Soccer released a statement condemning the action without directly naming Rapinoe. Ellis removed Rapinoe from the next starting lineup, told her not to even dress for the two games following that and then removed her entirely for the She Believes Cup, Rapinoe said.
“It was so dysfunctional, so dishonest, such utter, evasive bulls---, that my interactions with Jill became strained,” Rapinoe wrote in a section shared by Insider.
“After opening the NWSL season on fire, I slipped back into (national team) training as if nothing had happened, and I can’t tell you how crazy that made me,” Rapinoe wrote recalling the following year. “I knew what she’d done, and she knew I knew what she’d done, and while in conversation with her I might have been superficially cordial, my vibe said something else: essentially, f--- you.”
The WNT’s veteran players told then-U.S. Soccer boss Sunil Gulati they were concerned about the lack of communication between Ellis and the players, as well as, the direction the team had gone under her direction, according to Sports Illustrated. The team called for Ellis’ firing and a replacement coach, if those concerns were not addressed, but Gulati told them Ellis would be the one leading them through the next World Cup in 2019.
With kneeling banned by U.S. Soccer, during the 2019 World Cup games Rapinoe stood in disdain, hands at her sides and lips pursed as her teammates mouthed the lyrics to the “Star Spangled Banner” with hands on their hearts.
We all know how the rest went: The WNT won the World Cup, Ellis retired and Rapinoe congratulated her on the win.
“Winning makes people generous,” Rapinoe wrote. “While it was safe to say we weren’t going to miss each other, the parting speeches were civil.”
Under the leadership of former player Cindy Parlow-Cone, U.S. Soccer has since apologized to Rapinoe and walked back the kneeling ban.
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