By Rebecca Horvath

The scenario was perfect: a sports team representing the United States would play for a world championship during the week of July 4. They even beat the British team in the semifinals. There was plenty of hype stateside and 1 billion people around the world watched the women’s World Cup final; we won. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the biggest part of the story.

The Entitlement Disease spread around the women’s soccer team, infecting a number of players with a nasty attitude, a big mouth, a great disrespect for our country and perhaps even fever and chills. One star player particularly tried to stand out by protesting the national anthem; even after the team began requiring players to stand, she refused to put her hand over her heart or sing the lyrics.

And she’s allowed to do that.

But it makes her look like an entitled brat.

In front of the world.

She-who-shall-not-be-named-lest-it-give-her-more-attention (note that acronym for later) flaunted her anti-American and anti-President Trump attitude to anyone who would listen. Some of her teammates piled on and garnered more attention for it than for their world-class soccer skills.

So, to summarize: these women get to play a game for a living and represent the United States all around the world. In doing so, they can be role models to young girls everywhere, setting an example of sportsmanship, class and hard work. They should be known for their skills on the field and, ideally, their attitude on and off the field – and maybe even charity work or other good deeds their position allows.

Instead, some of them showed us what not to do: they chose to spew hate, drag Old Glory on the ground and step on it while celebrating their victory, curse vulgarly on national television and use their notoriety to tarnish the reputation of the United States. That’s why people don’t like us, folks: that’s what they see of Americans. It’s hard for us to like this team and we know they aren’t representative of all Americans; imagine how the world sees it.

SWSNBNLIGHMA even arrogantly declared, “I deserve this.” No, sweetie: you don’t deserve anything. You earn it, along with your team. And it’s not about you: it’s about your team and your country…something bigger than self. Oh, and by the way, you’ve got a little something on your shoulder. Oh, I see…it’s a chip the size of a Great Lake; you might want to see a doctor about that.

In many other parts of the world, women are not allowed to play sports at all, much less on a world stage. In fact, in some places, women can’t even leave their homes without being covered from head to toe; American women are free to parade around in their soccer uniforms and pink hair without a second thought. The extraordinary ungratefulness they display is not only sickening, it’s a slap in the face to every man and woman who ever fought for these rights. One writer aptly described the bitter attitude as “biting the hand that feeds you.”

What could’ve been a victory that unites us just further illustrates our division. It’s hard to root for a team with unlikable stars, period. (Think of how many people dislike the New England Patriots because they don’t like Tom Brady; compared to certain soccer players, he’s as lovable as frolicking puppy and certainly as harmless as one.) In their desire to make a political statement out of a sporting event, they succeeded only in pushing people away from their “side” and directly toward the opposite side – toward you-know-who in DC, incidentally. Talk about backfiring.

Unfortunately, the offending players are not anomalies. There are many Americans with the same attitude these days and it’s sad to witness. Many of them are similarly entitled brats of the Hollywood-star variety – people who think we should care about their opinions because they were in a movie. But curiously, the folks who complain most never attempt to leave and, in fact, want to bring in as many illegal aliens as possible; why would they want them to come to such an awful place? But that is neither here nor there.

Apparently, many of these folks failed to learn the classic mom-advice: if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Expressing contempt and hatred for your country with the world watching doesn’t change anything; SWSNBN and her ilk are national embarrassments.

Hopefully, future incarnations of teams representing the U.S. will do a better job of respecting the land of opportunity and exuding gratitude for the extraordinary privilege of being born an American. And if they can’t, they certainly don’t deserve any attention for winning a game.

In other words: shut up and do your job, ladies.

Copyright 2019 Rebecca Horvath