Footballers and Arrogance
The latest thing to upset snowflakes has been Megan Rapinoe and her supposed arrogance. Her wide armed celebration, outspokenness and the fact that she didn’t look deeply into a fan’s eyes as she signed a ball has managed to offend some of those with fainter hearts.
All this is, quite frankly, a bit ridiculous.
Has she behaved a arrogantly at times? Perhaps a little, but nowhere near enough to warrant this kind of reaction. Also, she’s just won the World Cup. Personally, I would have already floated way into the stratosphere, courtesy of my own inflated ego, had I just won footballs biggest prize.
Let’s take a look at her wide armed goal celebration. Compared to all the obnoxious post goal displays we have been treated to in football, this ranks pretty low.
Is it really more arrogant than the well frequented ‘shushing’ of opposition fans? Or the cringeworthy actions of Cristiano Ronaldo, be it his ‘muscle pose’ or his peculiar jump twirl.
Maybe it’s the weird dancing from the likes of Antoinne Griezmann and Jesse Lingard that really grind your gears?
Regardless of what winds you up more, it’s hardly fair to label her celebration as particularly arrogant. Goal celebrations, at there very core, are arrogant. Spreading your arms wide and looking a bit smug is pretty tame, all things considered.
And then there is her greatest crime, looking a bit dismissive when signing some memorabilia. The unflattering video that went round caught her failing to give much acknowledgement to a fan for whom she was signing a ball.
It may not have quite been exemplary behaviour, but it was nothing compared to the fuss it caused. Are most people seriously naive enough to believe that no celebrity has ever looked a little blasé when signing something?
Arrogance (confidence, if you want to put it kindly) is important when performing at the top level of anything. The belief that you can pull of the spectacular, that you will be able to hit a shot from 25 yards past a professional goalkeeper.
A certain level of swagger is needed to pull off a perfect Cruyff turn when evading defender. Or to have the confidence to stick your foot in and not be bemused by a winger’s step overs.
Arrogance and self confidence have seen mass followings build behind players. Take Zlatan Ibrahimovic. His act make may be wearing thin now, but for years he had a cult like backing to his ‘Zlatan’ brand, and all those painstaking references to himself being a Lion.
It would be unfair, however, to only slap Ibrahimovic with the arrogant label. Football is filled with such characters, who constantly manage to dazzle us with new levels of obnoxious behaviour.
Sometimes we lap it up, sometimes we don’t really like it. But at the end of the day, they’re at the top of their game and we generally respect them for that. Rapinoe’s antics have, however, caused somewhat unprecedented levels of outrage.
With social media, these things are increasingly under the microscope. But the whole thing does beg the question about the astonishing level of bad reaction she has received.
Is it because she’s a women?
The answer is probably, yes.
The reaction she has received in comparison to her actions is utterly bizarre. Scrolling through social media comments and media assessments is pretty astonishing.
It is crazy how much she has managed to get under the skin of so many people in such a way. If we view her actions in context with her male counterparts, they pale in comparison.
And the thing is with this kind of overreaction is that it kills any chance of a reasonable judgement. It’s pick a side: Rapinoe is my hero in the blue corner, Rapinoe is a nasty piece of work in the red corner.
Maybe her displays were a little arrogant, but the reaction has been utterly disproportionate. As mentioned before, she’d just won the World Cup. The. World. Cup. Maybe, just this once, we could find it in our pure and true hearts to forgive her.