Why is Megyn Kelly slamming Megan Rapinoe? Host blasts USWNT star, claims she has 'poisoned' the entire team
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The list of celebrities slamming the United States National Women’s Team (USNWT) is slowly growing. After Fox Sports studio analyst Carli Lloyd slammed the team after their spectacle against Portugal, the host of the eponymous show ‘The Megyn Kelly Show’, Megyn Kelly, is lambasting the USNWT players.
Kelly declared that Megan Rapinoe was behind it, and that she has “poisoned” the whole squad. She also declared, quite heartbreakingly, that she no longer supports the USNWT in the FIFA Tournament that kicked off in Australia and New Zealand last week.
Why is Megyn Kelly slamming Megan Rapinoe?
Megyn Kelly blasted the US women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe for allegedly ‘poisoning’ the women’s squad subsequently resulting in their purported lack of patriotism. In the Tuesday episode of her SiriusXM program, ‘The Megyn Kelly Show’, the former Fox News host said, “Megan Rapinoe, she’s the leader of all this,” referring to many of the starters standing stoically during the national anthem.
Rapinoe, 38, helped the team clinch the title of World Champion in the last World Cup. However, she has been assigned a diminished role this year and usually comes on as a substitute player instead of starting the game. However, Kelly remarked that despite her somewhat diminished role in the field, she holds considerable command over the younger generation. Kelly reasoned, “She’s not a starter. So that’s why she’s not on camera when they’re doing the national anthem, but she’s behind a lot of this.”
In her rant, Kelly further added, “She’s poisoned the entire team against the country for which they play.” Because of the alleged lack of patriotism, Kelly is not even supporting the team anymore, saying, “I don’t know about you, but I’m not rooting for them. I’m not with them. I hope they lose … It’s shameful.” She further added, “They clearly don’t want to be doing it. I mean, they look like they don’t even want to be there," before continuing, “It’s like some sort of inconvenience to be representing the USA.”
Rapinoe has previously been embroiled in several controversies including making statements regarding Black Lives Matter. She has also shown solidarity with former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and supported the demand of transgenders demand to compete alongside people having the same biological sex, per the New York Post.
'They see the arrogance in the US'
Megyn Kelly is not the only one to castigate the USNWT for their behavior. Carli Lloyd, who played for the USNWT for 17 years from 2005 to 2021 and has been part of the two World Cup-winning squads, has made her opinions known. Lloyd, who is now gracing the role of Fox Sports studio analyst, said after the US barely made it to the next round following their game against Portugal, “I have never witnessed something like that. There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family,” before adding, “But to be dancing, to be smiling. I mean, the player of the match was that post. You were lucky to not be going home right now.”
She told Fox Sports digital reporter Martin Rogers, “I spoke up in that room, and I told them that you can’t take anything for granted — you have to work for everything that you get,” commenting that the team had become arrogant. She continued, “I just talked about what the mentality of this team has been about and passed down from generation to generation. But the problem is when you win, and you get things, winning has taken on a different meaning.”
“It is no longer we want to win because we want to win. No, we want everything that comes with winning, and we think we can just roll out and win games. And that’s not the case, and teams see that. They see the arrogance in the US and see that they’re not this unstoppable team. They see that they’re able to be broken down and beaten,” added Lloyd, per New York Times.