Hints of purple are coloring the Seattle area this weekend for the Reign to honor soccer icon Megan Rapinoe. The club will retire her No. 15 jersey Sunday during a pregame ceremony at Lumen Field.
Rapinoe, whose clothing and hairstyle choices are imaginative like her talent with the ball, joined the Reign as an allocated U.S. women’s national team player during Seattle’s inaugural season in 2013.
She retired from the sport last fall as the club’s all-time leader in goals scored (54) with 28 assists, including the postseason. The two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup winner helped the Reign win three NWSL Shields, an award for the top-finishing team after the regular season. The California native returned to her Seattle home Wednesday and took time to talk with The Seattle Times regarding her latest business adventures, the state of the Reign, tattoos and what it means to have her jersey retired.
Here are excerpts of the conversation, which is edited for clarity and brevity. Jayda Evans : It hasn’t been a year since your retirement in November, are you ready to see your number commemorated? Megan Rapinoe : It’s a beautiful thing to be recognized and honored in this way. The sooner the better.
What’s the point in waiting? It kind of feels right, especially with the ownership change and the club moving in a new direction. It feels like the right time to have this maybe be a bridge between the past and where the club is moving in the future. Q: Was their any significance to wearing No.
15? In soccer, star attacking players like yourself typically wear No. 9 or 7. A: It was given to me when I first started playing with the national team after I got past the 25, 26 cap [game appearances] numbers.
I wore No. 3 in college [University of Portland]. I love No.
7, but that was always taken. Boxxy [retired USWNT midfielder Shannon Boxx] wore No. 7 before me and Christie Rampone wore No.
3 before me so, I was like OK, No. 15. I could’ve had a different number when I got here and those other numbers opened up at different times on the national team, but I had started to make it mine.
And I loved [retired USWNT midfielder] Tisha Venturini, she’s the OG No. 15 and [retired USWNT defender] Kate Markgraf wore 15 for a longtime before me. Even with other sports, I see it and think that’s my number.
Q: The last time we saw you in a Reign uniform was in the NWSL championship match where you tore your Achilles . How was the rehab process? A: I consider myself completely healed because I’m not trying to do anything super physically active. It turns out rehabbing when you’re not trying to get back to playing an elite sport is a lot easier than vice versa.
The first two months were tough because you’re non-weight bearing and can’t really do anything. After that it was pretty smooth and I’m back to normal with almost the same sized calves. The right one is always going to be a little bit smaller, but that’s a good scar story.
It was great to not have to have all of that pressure and motivation where you’re constantly doing 20 things at once. It was like ‘Oh, I can show up for rehab three times a week and it’s just going to heal?’ OK, this is easy. I can do this.
Q: A lot has changed with the Reign since November from branding , the departure of key players, including Bethany Balcer being traded this week, to the Sounders ownership joining the Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm, to purchase the Reign . What do you think about the changes? A: It was so sad to see Boats go. I texted her right away.
She was such an iconic character in the club for so many years. I loved playing with her. Everybody knows here in Seattle how good Adrian and his team are at operating and running and being successful commercially and on the field.
That’s huge. Bringing in Carlyle Group and the necessary investment fund that you’re going to need — you’re going to have to spend a lot of money to get the club into a competitive place where the NWSL is growing. Everything I’ve seen and heard and have spoken to [Sounders majority owner] Adrian [Hanauer] a lot about is so exciting and exactly what the club needs and deserves.
Q: Are you surprised the team is 13 th in the 14-team league with a 2-9-5 record? A: What has been asked of the players the last three, four years has been a huge burden — perform under the previous ownership group who was unwilling to invest much, if anything, into anything players, facilities and otherwise. Then a limbo where you’re not really able to retain or recruit talent in players because you can’t even really tell them what the project is. We haven’t been able to go out and just play for a long time.
So, I’m not surprised in a lot of ways. Q: The former owners, France-based OL Groupe, didn’t fulfill their promises? A: They were in big financial trouble during the pandemic like a lot of European clubs. But the support wasn’t there at all.
They hired a coach who had a history of abusing players and then came here and immediately abused the players. That wasn’t good. Our way of looking at the world and how to invest in the club were very different.
And they were literally so far away. Because we had such a strong sense of who we are, we were able to keep it together. But as other clubs started to spend so much more money and facilities got better and player recruitment and retention were rising in all the different ways, we didn’t have that.
In the end, they were selling the team. You’re not going to invest a ton into something you’re looking to sell. Q: You’re making lots of investments, why get involved in Unrivaled Basketball League ? A: I love players taking [expletive] into their own hands.
The WNBA season is obviously pretty short, there’s not a lot of players going overseas and there is way more money in America now than there ever has been. It gives players a place to play and express themselves. Q: There’s also “A Touch More” podcast with your fiancée Sue Bird? A: The only real drawback of retirement is not being able to be in a press conference every week and have a microphone in your face but having just as much to say.
Sue and I were like, ‘Oh, man we gotta get a microphone back in our face.’ Also, there’s so much going on in women’s sports. Early in the year, particularly around the women’s Final Four and Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, that void was filled with men who, maybe not for ill-intention, didn’t know what they were talking about.
[They] mismanaged and fumbled and fueled really bad narratives that aren’t true in women’s sports. Me being in soccer for so many years and Sue being in basketball for so many years gives us this unique perspective to speak. Q: And share fun stories.
Storm forward Gabby Williams is a tattoo artist? A: Gabby gave me a tattoo on my upper thigh. It’s the number seven written out. It kind of looks a little creepy like the movie “Seven” graphic because I wrote it upside down.
It’s my brother Brian’s favorite number. It’s actually my favorite number, too. I hope to get many more tattoos by Gabby in the future.
She’s so great..
