After World Cup win — and local controversy — Megan Rapinoe still praises 'hometown love'
Alayna ShulmanShasta County residents might be divided over homegrown soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe's outspoken political beliefs, but the 34-year-old still considers local support "the best kind of love" after leading her country to World Cup victory over the Netherlands Sunday.
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In an energetic Instagram story Rapinoe posted celebrating the win, one shot shows the Record Searchlight's Monday cover page that featured a full-page picture of her after the historic win. Rapinoe captioned the picture of the newspaper "Hometown love is the best kind of love," followed by four affectionate-looking emojis surrounded by hearts.
It's an especially significant statement considering the scorn some locals have heaped upon Rapinoe for her refusal to visit President Donald Trump and her kneeling in protest of police brutality during the national anthem. Rapinoe — now famously — said last month she wouldn't be "going to the (expletive) White House" if invited. Rapinoe apologized for her language but stood by her statement, and Trump took to Twitter to blast her.
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Those types of comments have put the outspoken athlete, in some ways, at odds with her conservative home county, where even some who knew Rapinoe growing up have distanced themselves as her star continues to rise throughout the rest of the world.
The Record Searchlight has even gotten letters to the editor decrying Rapinoe's perceived lack of patriotism.
Responding to her critics, Rapinoe last week said to reporters, “I think that I’m particularly and uniquely and very deeply American.
“If we want to talk about the ideals that we stand for, the song and the anthem, and what we were founded on, I think I’m extremely American," she said.
And while Rapinoe doesn't reflect the political beliefs of most of her home county, about 300 of its residents still gathered in Redding Sunday for a watch party of Rapinoe's final game in this year's Women's World Cup. That comes after — when she helped lead the team to victory in 2015 — the city even named a street in her honor and held "Megan Rapinoe Day."
Rapinoe's father, Jim Rapinoe, told the Mercury News recently that he's a veteran who voted for Trump, but he's still "really proud of the political thing with her."
"She's got her stances, and she is willing to fight for them and she is willing to sacrifice it all. When she did the kneeling thing, that could have been the end of her career," he told the newspaper.
Despite those political clashes within a community that's largely conservative, Rapinoe touched on her loyalty to Redding in an ESPN interview last year.
“I feel like Redding is kind of this underdog, hard-working, blue-collar, is-what-it-is kind of town, and I try to take that with me,” Rapinoe told ESPN. “I never want to just say, ‘Oh, I’m from California.’ I’m not from California. I’m from Redding. For me, that means something.”
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Alayna Shulman covers a little bit of everything for the Record Searchlight. In particular, she loves writing about the issues of this community through long-form storytelling. Her work often centers on local crime, features and politics, and has won awards for best writing, best business coverage and best investigative reporting in the California News Publishers Association's Better Newspapers Contest. Follow her on Twitter (@ashulman_RS), call her at 530-225-8372 and, to support her work, please subscribe.