Smith: My missed opportunity to play in the NFL

Megan Rapinoe, center, is joined by her teammates on the U.S. women's national soccer team during a celebratory rally at City Hall following a ticker-tape parade in New York on July 10, 2019. (Calla Kessler/The New York Times)
Megan Rapinoe, center, is joined by her teammates on the U.S. women's national soccer team during a celebratory rally at City Hall following a ticker-tape parade in New York on July 10, 2019. (Calla Kessler/The New York Times)

I love sports, especially football, but at 150 pounds I had no chance after high school. I played my heart out though, and laughed that although I was small, I made up for it by being slow. It didn't seem fair that I had the desire to compete but not the physical size and ability.

But that begs the question: what is fair? That question is at the root of every social discourse in our country today, and it was never more starkly illustrated than during the recent women's soccer World Cup. The American women proved their mettle by winning their fourth World Cup, but they make far less than their male counterparts. At least, it appears that way on the surface.

For instance, the U.S. women players are paid $3,600 per game in World Cup play, while their male counterparts earn $5,000. In World Cup competition, the women receive a $15,000 bonus, while the men get $55,000. The worst slam came when the U.S. men lost in the 16th round of competition in the 2014 World Cup but received $5.4 million from the U.S. Soccer Federation for their efforts; meanwhile, the women won the World Cup the following year but only received $1.7 million from the same federation.

photo Roger Smith

However, the picture becomes clearer when the layers are peeled back. Yes, the U.S. women are number one in the world, but in women's soccer, a vastly different competition from men's soccer. Their path to the World Cup includes far fewer games before far fewer fans. While female soccer players are highlighted every four years, men's elite teams are cash cows the entire time. The overall revenue differences in men's and women's soccer is incredible, but the women are actually awarded a larger percentage of those revenues than men in World Cup play.

In 2015, the women's World Cup brought in about $73 million, and the players received 13%, the same percentage they received in this year's take of $131 million. By comparison, in 2010 in South Africa, the men's World Cup generated $4 billion, but the players received 9%. The men received the same 9% from the World Cup in Russia in 2018 on proceeds of $6 billion. So, although the revenues were less for the women, they received a larger percentage than their male counterparts.

Why do men's teams generate so much more revenue? To true soccer fans, the difference in the abilities of men's and women's teams is remarkable. For instance, women's national teams in the United States, Sweden and Australia in recent years have lost to 15-and-under boys' teams. After the ages of 14 to 15, males overtake women in physical ability.

Field Zhukov, writing in The Atlantic in 2015, highlighted these differences,"Women's sports that are identical to men's sports, soccer and basketball, will never be popular because men are stronger, faster and more athletic. On the other hand, sports that highlight the different strengths of female athletes, tennis, gymnastics and ice skating, are popular."

Serena Williams, with 23 Grand Slam titles, seems to agree. She pointed out during a conversation with David Letterman that men's and women's tennis are two totally different levels of competition. If she were to play Andy Murray, the greatest male player at the time, she would lose "6-0, 6-0, in five to six minutes - maybe 10."

Despite these facts, 28 women from the U.S. national team filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation in March over unequal pay. The champions reduced themselves to "victims" who complain of an unjust nation in the most just society history has ever known.

Our Constitution only guarantees an opportunity, not an outcome; otherwise, I would have played in the NFL.

Roger Smith, a local author, is a frequent contributor to the Times Free Press.

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