with them on big issues surrounding them. 

Regarding equal pay:  Simply put, I believe the USWNT received bad legal advice and made the mistake of pursuing it. I don't believe this in uncommon in entertainment industries be it music, movies, sports, theatre. Imagine the onslaught of agents, publicists, financial advisors, lawyers - like vultures around athletes in the lime light. To get their business they need to sell them on an idea, and the idea (albeit false) that these lawyers planted in the USWNT was that they were being robbed of money owed to them.

Not having better counsel they took the bait, pursued legal action and got this summary judgement"

Judge R. Gary Klausner on Friday ruled for U.S. Soccer's motion for summary judgment with regard to the Equal Pay Act, stating in his decision that the players "have not demonstrated a triable issue that WNT players are paid less than MNT players."

Klausner's ruling was informed by the federation's contention that women's players were paid more in total and on a per-game basis than their male counterparts were during the period in question. Friday's ruling cited as undisputed fact that from 2015 to 2019, the women's national team averaged $220,747 per game in total payments (for a total of $24.5 million), while the men's national team averaged $212,639 per game in total payments (for a total of $18.5 million).

This should be an embarrasment to all the attorneys advising this team. They were either too dumb to actually have a case, or they lied to their clients for over a year knowing they had little chance to make it to trial. You can't be both dumb and smart on the same thing - its one or the other in this case.

Still, being cheered on with public support including the support of President Biden, the players were happy to continue the fight. 

Overall, on the equal pay question, I don't believe the players are as arrogant and greedy as the are misled and misinformed on what constitutes equal pay. They are not the only ones who have been played by agents, lawyers, publicists in the entertainment business, they won't be the last. I'm not saying they are victims that deserve your sympathy I'm just saying their lawyers sucked, probably intentionally misled them - so I'm not angry with the team on this. 

Regading kneeling for the national anthem: Politics, or hotly contested social issues are best left out of sports and entertainment. See Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson as an example of why this is true. I'm not going to tell big time athletes its wrong to have a political opinion, but it goes without saying they should tred carefully, or they risk ostrasizing a huge portion of their potential market. I don't feel bad for the USWNT that they incurred the wrath of a bunch CBers over this ;). They made a decision, face the music.

But...how long have we been seeing kneeling at the national anthem? Point taken, we still have a lot of work to do in our society with regards to racism, but kneeling is cliche now. The same message is conveyed every time a player kneels. We've seen it 100 times, we got the message. Biden won the election, take that racism!

Its like these players have to kneel now or the woke mob that applauds them will all the sudden turn on them the moment they respect the flag. I don't believe kneeling carries as much heft as it did when Kap did it. Its cliche now, its expected by the wokists. I personally would stand, but given that kneeling is fairly benign now, I'm not upset about it. 

Conclusion: a big reason why I have cheered for them is because my older sister was an exceptional soccer player who loved the 99ers. She got me cheering for the 99ers as a teenager, I knew a ton of their backstories, so I have just naturally cheered for our country's women's soccer team since then. Current team members have made unwise decisions, but these decisions have less to do with their personal character and more about not having better advisement from publicists and lawyers.