Megan Rapinoe kneels for national anthem prior to #USWNT's game vs. Netherlands. (Photo: @Patti_ScrFan) pic.twitter.com/zRNA6NPwHS
— The Equalizer (@EqualizerSoccer) September 18, 2025
Sunday night, the US Women’s National Soccer Team won a match against Netherlands. The result, however, is of little consequence, and the conversation that has followed the match is all about Megan Rapinoe’s protest. The midfielder, in solidarity with San Francisco Forty-Niners Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, kneeled during the singing of the National Anthem.
Rapinoe is lesbian, and has spoken of the active injsutice that exists in the US towards the LGBT community and people of color.
This isn’t the first time that Rapinoe took a knee during the National Anthem. She protested during the USWNT’s friendly match against against Thailand last Thursday, and has done the same for her professional league matches, with Seattle Reign FC. After her first protest, Rapinoe gave a postgame interview stating her solidarity to Kaepernick, and making a powerful personal statement about injustice in the US: “I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it.”
Rapinoe is one of numerous athletes to follow Kaepernick’s example and take a knee during the National Anthem. But Rapinoe is so far the only player outside the NFL, and the only white athlete, to do so. Like her fellow pros int he NFL, Rapinoe has taken criticism for her actions from the public and those within professional sports.
Rapinoe’s protests with Seattle Reign have garnered attention, but protesting the National Anthem while wearing the National Team Kit is a different matter, it seems. The USWNT was playing Thailand in an international friendly match in Columbus when Rapinoe took her knee.
The US Soccer Federation wasn’t pleased with Rapinoe’s protest. They issued a statement today stating their expectation that “players and coaches will stand and honor our flag while the National Anthem is played.” Such expectations are the right of any employer, but they’re criticism of Rapinoe misses the mark entirely when it comes to acts of protest.
“In front of national and often global audiences,” USSF says, “the playing of our national anthem is an opportunity for our Men’s and Women’s National Team players and coaches to reflect upon the liberties and freedom we all appreciate in this country.”
Acts of protest are, by their very nature, acts of reflection. Using a call for reflection as a rebuke against a protest only belies the necessity of the disruption.
Protesting before the American Flag and during the National Anthem inherently embodies the “liberties and freedom we all appreciate in this country.” Rebuking an American for embodying these principles only makes the point that Kaepernick, Rapinoe and all the athletes protesting are standing for: too many Americans lack reflection when we sing our national song, when we wave our national flag. The motions are made, but how the meaning might vary between White, Black, straight or LGBT Americans, is frequently ignored.
During the singing of the National Anthem, US Soccer is asking its employees to reflect upon this nation’s liberty and freedom. The only player we know for certain is participating in that call is Megan Rapinoe.
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