Retired U.S. women’s national team star Megan Rapinoe criticized the backlash inspired by the events of her final game, saying those who celebrated the injury she sustained in the opening minutes of the 2023 NWSL Championship “are in a special place in hell.”
Rapinoe started for then-OL Reign and now Seattle Reign in last November’s match, which the team went on to lose 2-1 to NJ/NY Gotham FC, but came off after just six minutes because she tore her Achilles. The imperfect ending to her storied career was followed by a joke Rapinoe made in a post-match press conference, when she said, “If there was a God, this is proof that there isn’t.”
Her comment was met with criticism from a sizable number of religious people, as well as negative attention in some tabloids, but Rapinoe said she was surprised the quip got as much press as it did.
“I didn’t even realize it was that big of a thing because I don’t get into my comments like that,” Rapinoe said on an episode of the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, in which she was interviewed alongside retired WNBA star and her fiancée Sue Bird. “I don’t even use Twitter anymore but then I started hearing about it from lots of different people.”
Rapinoe acknowledged…
