Bill Simmons is supposed to be in the middle of a six-week break as he recharges his batteries ahead of football season, but a confluence of major events forced The Sports Guy to interrupt his hiatus to release a two-part podcast talking about an upcoming Ringer documentary, the 20th anniversary of The OC, New York Jets hype and a practice expansion draft for two NBA teams that do not yet exist. Simmons also took some time to go after Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe following the USWNT's early exit from the 2023 World Cup.
Simmons compared Morgan to the coach's daughter on an AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) team and compared Rapinoe to Udonis Haslem.
"If you take away that Thailand game, she has scored two goals in the last 17 World Cup games. This is the striker. This is the one whose supposed to be the most dangerous player on the field. Who is supposed to produce goals and she hasn't produced goals since the mid-2010's on the national level. And yet it's Alex Morgan. She's supposed to be the next one. We gotta keep proping her up, pretending she's a superstar. She's not a superstar. She's really, honestly never been a superstar."
"Then you have Rapinoe who is 37 years old who's just, unfortunately, great career, legendary, true legend, huge bigtime player, and when you hit your late-30's in soccer, it's a wrap. She looked like Udonis Rapinoe, not Megan Rapinoe, and comes out for the last 25 minutes of this game and can't do anything then misses the penalty kick."
The Rapinoe / Haslem comparison certainly fits here, but we'll need a ruling from the real soccer fans out there about whether or not Alex Morgan, who has been one of the faces of the USWNT for the last decade, was ever truly a superstar.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Bill Simmons Compared Alex Morgan to the Coach's Daughter: 'She's Not a Superstar'.