Rapinoe and her obnoxious teammates engaged in political activism that angered at least half the country. Finding a women’s soccer fan in rural America (or outside the United States) is almost impossible. Republicans did not inject politics into the apolitical conduct of professional athletics; they’ve merely criticized those doing the injecting.

This is the “Republicans pounce” effect. It is a vapid style of journalism that seeks to redirect a reader’s attention away from an event that Democrats find discomfiting by solely highlighting the Republican reaction to the event. Then the naïve public believes the GOP’s response to controversy is more newsworthy than the controversy itself.

People can root for and watch whatever sports they choose. But if many right-leaning Americans are pleased the U.S. women’s team choked, that reaction is the culmination of years of efforts on the team’s part to cultivate this response. The divisive women’s soccer team made their sport political. If the disingenuous sports media, the failed team, and its dwindling supporters are irked by the prevailing sentiment among conservatives, they should stop bloviating and playing the victim. They should blame themselves.