CLAY: So the U.S. last night, the men, beat Mexico to win the Gold Cup in Las Vegas, 1-0, late goal, 117th minute. And there was a lot of excitement ’cause that’s the second straight time we’ve beaten Mexico. It’s like two ships passing in the night. The U.S. men are becoming, I really think — under Berhalter — an elite-level soccer team. All right. But — so that’s a positive. You want to take your victory lap and tell Mexico how much they suck?
BUCK: I was very excited last night as America came out and won, and it also makes it even sweeter when there were fans who were clearly Mexico fans who were throwing bottles at the Americans.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: Somehow that’s never a problem.
CLAY: Oh, no.
BUCK: Somehow when the Mexican fans are throwing batteries and bricks and yelling slurs at the Americans — yelling really nasty stuff — that’s not a news story.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: So it makes it all the sweeter that that’s right, Mexico! We beat you in soccer.
CLAY: If you lose to America in back-to-back games in soccer, which is Mexico’s national sport — and it’s what, the fourth most important sport in America right now? I think that’s a probably accurate behind football, basketball, baseball. So when we’re dominating Mexico in their thing, that is enjoyable. Now, that’s a positive soccer story. The Olympics are continuing to go on.
I want to have a discussion here, because my argument is the woke virus destroys everything that it touches. We’re talking about covid. Most people will recover from covid without issue. I went, Buck, with my family in 2015 to watch the U.S. women win the World Cup in Canada, Vancouver. Awesome trip.
I’m not sure there was any team in America that was more beloved that be the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team in 2015 when they won the Women’s World Cup. You could not hear more positivity surrounding them. I want to open up phone lines ’cause I’m actually curious to hear from our listeners. But, Buck, you said it, and I think there are a lot of people who agree with you.
This team has become so unlikable as they embrace left-wing politics, as they denigrated our country, refused to visit the White House, that there were a lot of people out there that in the space of basically six years had gone from loving the U.S. women’s soccer team to being either totally ambivalent to them at best, or excited when they lose at worse. You are in the position of, you said Sweden won three nothing; you enjoyed it. Now we lost to Canada, and I bet when you woke up this morning and you saw the result, Buck Sexton, there was a small smile that immediately crept across your face when you saw this news.
BUCK: I wouldn’t even say small!
CLAY: (laughing)
BUCK: I’ve got a women’s Sweden jersey that I gotta get on the way to my apartment and women’s Canada soccer jersey and I celebrate their victories ’cause here’s the thing. The U.S. team, a lot of them went with the kneeling thing, a lot of them want to be woke, they want to do all this. What they’ve done to their brand is somewhat similar what happened to the Ghostbusters brand with the all-female reboot, which may be the worst movie visual atrocity ever filmed.
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CLAY: So the U.S. women lost in soccer, and the immediate reaction, I think, by a huge experience of American sports fans — and also just kind of casual American Olympic fans — was to be happy about that. How does that happen? How does a team go from in 2015 being the most popular maybe in America to being detested by a large percentage of the American population? The answer is the woke virus.
What’s so frustrating to me about this, Buck, is the U.S. women had an incredible opportunity. They can have stood on the global stage and said, “This is what human rights can do for women. Yes, we’re good at soccer, but the reason we’re good at soccer is because we’re allowed to wear shorts and compete, and we get scholarships to college, and women’s sports are treated — under Title IX — as the equivalent of men’s sports.”
They could have uplifted America, used us as the shining city on the hill example, and pointed out that if you look at women’s soccer, all you have to know is what the basic human rights of a country is to pick the beginner. Instead, they refused to visit the White House. They insulted the president of the United States by name and cursed him, and they refused to stand for the national anthem while wearing U.S. gear! (chuckles) Buck, this is the woke virus. It destroys everything. The U.S. women are a perfect metaphor. Every business should be paying attention to them.
BUCK: But now does the woke virus, as you call it, extend to the brand value of the various players that are on the women’s team as a result of this?
CLAY: Oh, that’s a good point.
BUCK: This is where we look at this also and I think and should look at this as a business decision. Megan Rapinoe… Am I saying it right?
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: I’ve heard it a million different ways. Megan Rapinoe is a household name now because of they are wokeness. So while her team may lose, her brand value and staying true to her woke insanity — in my mind, but her wokeness — may actually mean she gets a bigger contract from Nike.
CLAY: That’s exactly right.
BUCK: This is a problem of the Kaepernick situation playing out all across the sports where, you know, it’s also they didn’t win, right? I feel like if you win if you’re the U.S. national team for any sport you go on the national stage you win a gold medal you go to the Olympics, okay. But you go out there and get your butts kicked by Sweden and then Canada? I think there’s some humble pie that has to be eaten along with maybe some, “Stop being so woke.”
CLAY: Yeah, I agree a hundred percent.