Commentary: Seattle says goodbye to Megan Rapinoe, who says ‘this is just the beginning’

SEATTLE – A day earlier, anticipating the surge of emotion that was inevitable in her final professional regular-season home game, Megan Rapinoe joked, “I hope I can keep it together tomorrow, but you can run and cry at the same time.”

It didn’t take long for the waterworks to start on Friday at Lumen Field and test that theory. The pregame ceremony that featured video tributes from the likes of Billie Jean King, Abby Wambach, Mikaela Shiffrin, Magic Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. and, especially, her siblings and parents, had Rapinoe’s eyes brimming with tears before she had even started running.

But run she did, aggressively and effectively, for 90 minutes plus, until OL Reign and the Washington Spirit had played to an anticlimactic 0-0 tie. Rapinoe had three shots on goal, but there was to be no storybook ending to punctuate the day of Megan mania; all were corralled by the Spirit goalie.

Asked earlier what she was most excited to do in retirement, Rapinoe replied with a smile, “Stop running, to be honest. Stop high-speed running. Just take everything down, like, 20 notches.”

In retirement, Rapinoe leaves a lasting legacy. She’s also just getting started.

That might have to wait until the playoffs are over, with the Reign still alive for a postseason berth heading into their final regular-season match in Chicago on Oct. 15. But this game was the end of another chapter of her soccer life, hard on the heels of Rapinoe’s U.S. Women’s National Team farewell two weeks ago in Chicago.

When the night ended Friday, including a 30-minute postmatch ceremony in front of a league-record crowd, Rapinoe was overwhelmed by it all.

“The way that the city showed up to express that gratitude or love toward me is really special,” she said. “It’s really overwhelming. I know that I’m a well-liked figure and an important person in this game. I’m not trying to minimize that, or trying to play too humble. I do know my impact, but it’s one thing to know it, and then to really feel it and see it, see some of the signs and see pink wigs and just see what it means to people. … It’s hard to put this deep sense of gratitude and joy and thankfulness for being able to have a moment like this into words.”

What’s left now for Rapinoe is a continued recognition of her legacy, both as an elite player of the highest order and an advocate for social justice. The fact that a National Women’s Soccer League record crowd of 34,130 came out to Lumen Field was itself a heartwarming tribute to Rapinoe’s efforts to elevate the sport, though she said on Thursday, “I would like for it not to have to take a retirement.”

Still, it’s a far cry from Rapinoe’s early days with the Reign, dating to 2013, when in the words of longtime coach Laura Harvey, “We had nothing.”

Those paltry resources were unacceptable to Rapinoe and her generation, who have rarely relented in striving for equality in women’s soccer.

“We were always trying to fight for more, and I think we always knew that the most powerful voice in the room was Pinoe,” Harvey said. “The thing that I’ve always loved about her was she never shied away from that. She was always willing to put herself in front of all the bullets that everyone was willing to throw at her to try and better the club internally.”

The contrast from the early days of the Reign – which included the fabled “OGs,” Rapinoe, Jess Fishlock and Lu Barnes, teammates in Seattle since 2013 – was stark. They had just one win in 11 games when Rapinoe joined the team midseason. By the next year, the Reign had the best record in the league at 16-2 with six draws in 2014.

“When this amazing human showed up, she gave us a light at the end of the tunnel,” Harvey told the crowd after the match, before leading them in a rousing “Oh, Megan Rapinoe” singalong.

The nationally televised game against the Washington Spirit was a veritable lovefest to Rapinoe, from the pink-wigged fans who dotted the stands to the card-stunt before the start of the game that spelled out, “Thank You Megan.”

When the two teams walked out of the tunnel, Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” played on the P.A. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready raised a Reign flag as the crowd roared. Fellow U.S. Women’s National Team members Trinity Rodman and Ashley Sanchez ran over to hug Rapinoe just before the opening kick.

Rapinoe had called all the fuss “a little embarrassing,” before amending the adjective: “It’s a little shy-inducing.” She said she was particularly happy to share the moment with her family – including fiancée Sue Bird – and Reign teammates.

“I’m much more interested in the team aspect and celebrating together than shining the light on myself,” Rapinoe said, before adding with a wry smile: “Even though I do like it shined on myself. So it’s a dynamic I’m working on.”

Rapinoe and shyness are rarely linked. Harvey said that one of Rapinoe’s great attributes as a player is her willingness to not only take chances, but to throw out the game plan if and when she saw an opportunity that wasn’t scripted.

“That’s the piece that’s hard to coach,” Harvey said. “Just that visionary, wild moment of, ‘I’m going to shoot from 45 yards,’ or ‘We’ve got this attacking corner set up, but I’m going to score instead.’ And the ability to take on the wrath if it doesn’t work.”

Rapinoe, 38, noted how she’s walking away from the game at the precise moment professional women’s soccer is starting to thrive. In that regard, she feels the efforts of her and her generation have been “a raging success, because we’ve been able to do everything that we wanted to try to do on the field, but also couple that with, really, in a tangible way, seeing the world become a better place in a lot of ways around us.”

As for what comes next, Rapinoe said, “I’m going to be a part of this next phase of women’s sports, not just soccer, hopefully, but even beyond that. I feel like, not just me, but so many players in this generation have been such a huge part of building the foundation and the beginning stages of what is a really exciting time in women’s sports and definitely in the NWSL.”

At her Storm retirement ceremony, Bird gave a 90-minute speech. Rapinoe limited her speech to less than 5 minutes, just as she had promised.

“I have things to do after,” she joked.

Addressing the crowd, Rapinoe said the Seattle pitch, and Seattle in general, felt like home – “the safest place. This was a place I could always be myself, be safe and be protected, go out and try stuff. My little training ground for other stuff on different stages.

“I feel in many ways, this is just the beginning.”