And the news report tomorrow will read something like: "Over 20,000 girls, aged 8-15 and sporting ponytails, picketed in front of Sports Illustrated's home office yesterday. The protesters carried signs with various pictures and slogans relating to soccer star Mia Hamm, while they marched and shrieked "MIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAA" at the top of thier lungs." I'm not actually anywhere close to being a Mia fanatic, but S.I. bites anyway. I cancelled my subscription a long time ago.
"They were joined by a lone 29 y.o. male from Idaho wearing a #9 Freedom jersey that was three sizes too small for his ice cream and pork rind fed body."
Winning a World Cup and Olympic silver isn't an accomplishment? Still, Mia and the USNWT/WUSA have gotten tons of free, drippy, blind positive press in the past and no one had a problem with it. Live by the sword, die by the sword...
I guess SI doesn't consider that worthy. For the love of God, somebody, anybody, find me an E-mail address so that I may write an angry letter?!!
Ha, I've been lurking and I registered just to respond to this. letters@si.timeinc.com , thats the address for the editor, just direct the nasty message to Mr. Jeff Pearlman. I wonder if I'll be taken seriously (no, my message wasn't "dude, ur soooo stupid - mia ROCKS") -Jen
I am not a big Mia fan, but that comment from SI is rather silly. Despite my "Mia Who?" sign at a Beat match last year when the Freedom were in town, she needs to be respected for the impressive accomplishments she has made to the game. In the WUSA, only Sun Wen has the same level of accomplishment that Mia has.
And a 17 year old wearing a #9 USWNT jersey, and irate from spending two hours on BART and VTA to see Mia at Spartan Stadium. And that guy who wrote that sounds like a Prozac-stoking pointyball lover. I'll leave to someone else to start some mail-hijacking, this jerk needs a taste of his own medicine.
My letter to the editor is below. I got a free eight week subscription when I bought Breakers' (Vancouver) tickets. Wow, women's soccer got mentioned in your magazine. I am surprised. Even if it was just a misguided slam. Didn't the USWNT win the WWC in 99, silver in the Olympics and have the balls to start a league of their own? Those aren't accomplishments? After receiving my eight free issues of SI, I cancelled the subscription. Why? While your magazine was gutsy enough to include the world cup its shameless bias towards baseball was a real turn off. Plus your coverage of women's sports was lacking.
I know I'm going to get slammed, but. . . . I thought it was funny and somewhat true! Yes, Mia is an amazing soccer player and has worked her butt off for the sport. BUT, she doesn't want to be a poster woman, never did. Her being "over" is a good thing as I hope they will attach to another player that will be more outspoken for the league. (not that Mia hasn't been, but she's just not as outgoing). I dont think that SI meant to slight her playing skills or her contribution to the game. I think they were slighting the 15,000 screaming little girls who only come to WUSA games to scream Mia in an incredibly high pitched, whiny voice. Maybe it was also a slight to the thousands of parents that call up the WUSA teams and complain that their daughter didn't get Mia's autograph after a game. Lets let Mia go and find new players to obsess over.
Re: I know I'm going to get slammed, but. . . . I don't think that's what Jeff meant - but I like it anyway! Well said!
I don't see anything wrong with the bit. Her performance since '99 is nowhere near what one might expect given the huge amounts of publicity and notoriety that she generates. Sports and entertainment business is predicated on the "what have you done for me, lately?" principle, and Mia hasn't done anything. As far as the Silver Medal: in the US, 2nd place means 1st loser, and Mia was definitely not a force in the Olympics. Since it is obvious that nothing short of injury or pregnancy is going to keep her off of the WC2003 squad, I certainly hope that the last couple weeks aren't just a brief glimpse of what Mia was, but instead a sign that she's finally returning to the world beating form she exhibited in the mid to late 90s. Anybody who got "mad" at Sports Illustrated over this needs an attitude adjustment. Mia is one of the greatest soccer players, male or female, ever. While still one of the better players around, she has not played at that level for several years. Sports is entertainment, and as such, magazines get to poke fun at public figures. If anything, the popular press has been very restrained in dealing with Mia and Nomar. I suspect it is because they both have spotless reputations. If you think this bit is bad, you have not seen anything, yet.