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JESSICA McDONALD: [inhales]
Can I say what it stands for?
SAMANTHA MEWIS: Can I, like, yell?
KELLEY O'HARA: Please don't put that on there.
My mother will kill me. [laughs]
MEWIS: I won't yell that loud.
McDONALD: LFG stands for...
MEGAN RAPINOE: Let's fucking go.
MEWIS: Let's fucking go!
O'HARA: LFG. Let's fucking go. [laughs]
MEWIS: It's like an inspiring and, like, all encompassing...
O'HARA: ...rallying cry.
McDONALD: It stands for our team, that's for sure.
MEWIS: Like, let's fucking go, let's do it.
O'HARA: Yeah, and then, you know, the LFG
you obviously can put out there in the world
and not, not upset Mom. [laughs]
MEWIS: LFG!
McDONALD: LFG!
BECKY SAUERBRUNN: Let's fucking go.
RAPINOE: Let's fucking go.
Let's get it, let's get weird.
♪ We take it for what goes near it ♪
McDONALD: It took true blood, sweat, and tears
to obviously get to where I am today.
There were times I wanted to give up.
I mean, here I am, three-time pro champion,
two-time NCAA champion, I've achieved my dream.
I wanted to make the USA team, and I did.
♪
But even though all these accolades
sound absolutely incredible, we don't get paid very much.
I mean, I was scraping pennies
for the past seven years in my career,
just trying to get by, literally living paycheck to paycheck.
I had friends who were waitresses
who were making three times as much as me in a year,
and me being a professional athlete,
I still, to this day, I still think it's unacceptable.
And then it was like, oh, my gosh, holy crap!
♪ Eh, eh, eh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Eh, eh, eh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪
Megan raised her hand and was like,
"Hey, team, we're going to have a meeting,"
and we're like, okay, cool.
What's she about to say? You know.
She was just like, so we have this lawsuit.
And I was like, "Oh, pump the brakes. What?"
O'HARA: We're suing our employer that gives us a job,
and this is the job that we all want
and that we all strived our entire lives for.
SAUERBRUNN: And it's frightening,
and some people have different levels of understanding
of what a lawsuit actually contains
and what you're going to have to do.
MEWIS: We knew that we were coming upon
the biggest couple months of our lives and careers
with the World Cup coming up in June.
RAPINOE: It's scary to go against your federation
or, you know, go against your employer in that way
because like, the alternative is, you know,
not being able to make a living doing it.
CHRISTEN PRESS: Okay, we're going to do
this really scary thing together that's really important
and can impact the world
at the same time that we, like, put our entire life and career
on the line for each other.
McDONALD: And we're like, "Yeah, let's do it.
We're all in this together. Let's fight the good fight."
O'HARA: We've been asking for a long time, and, um,
we finally got to a point where we decided to take it,
take matters into our own hands.
♪ Ah ♪
♪ Ah, boom bang ♪
♪ boom bang ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ boom boom ♪
♪ crash bang ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ bang crash ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ bang ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ bang crash bang ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ crash ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ crash crash ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ♪
♪ boom ♪
JEFFREY KESSLER: So, the women on the U.S. Soccer team
are suing the United States Soccer Federation for equal pay.
They have been discriminated against by their employer,
who pays more money to the men's team than the women's team,
even though the women's team are the world champions
and the men are not.
So, merely for showing up and playing a game,
the men get more per game than the women.
For each game they win, the men get a higher bonus
than the women would get for winning that game.
For qualifying for the World Cup...
♪ Uh-huh ♪
...the men make more money than the women make.
For advancing in the World Cup
and for winning the World Cup,
the men make more money
than the women would make.
So at every single point in time,
there is a difference.
That's just a starting place in money.
Then we have to add to that
all the other discrimination that's taken place,
the fact that that the men will go to five-star hotels
and the women go, like, to Motel 6.
That's a little bit of an exaggeration,
but you get the point.
The men will travel in charters.
The women almost never travel in charters.
I think the last one they did
was after they won the World Cup.
The men will get more training resources,
more marketing resources, better fields.
♪
And the only reason for this discrimination
is because they are not men.
And that's wrong,
it violates the law as we understand it,
and that's what this case is about.
[cheering]
COMMENTATOR: The Women's World Cup kicks off in France.
But in a stunning move on International Women's Day,
all 28 members of the team
filed a gender discrimination lawsuit
against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
COMMENTATOR: ...Morgan, Carli Lloyd,
Megan Rapinoe, 28 players.
COMMENTATOR: These players are arguably
among the most famous athletes on the planet.
COMMENTATOR: And had much more success on the pitch
than their male counterparts,
winning three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals.
MAN 1: Four championships.
MAN 2: Four championships, that's why I'm here.
MAN 3: We ain't going home without a trophy, baby!
SEBASTIAN SALAZAR: Whenever you talk about this team,
you really have to talk about the equal pay lawsuit.
JULIE FOUDY: Having lived through a lot
of contract negotiations...
My first reaction was, "Wow. That was bold."
To throw a lawsuit down
against your employer
who you're going to the World Cup with
in three months' time, and have that sitting there
was a big one because I knew this, this gets contentious.
It gets ugly.
I wonder if we would have had the courage.
I don't think we would've done that.
CARDELLE SPANGLER: It has never been done before
that female athletes have sued their employer in the U.S.
to be treated equally with male athletes.
It just hasn't happened before.
If we are victorious in the case,
this will be one of those landmark decisions
that will be talked about for decades.
SAUERBRUNN: To do the things that we did
and, you know, speak the way that we speak,
like we're inviting criticism.
We make this target on our back bigger and bigger.
MEWIS: I was just surprised by the sheer, like, number
of people who were just like, "Oh, fuck them,"
like, "They don't deserve that,"
like, "They should be in the kitchen."
For someone to say I don't deserve to get paid
when a male soccer player
who does the same exact work that I do
make, I mean, makes so much.
And it's not just in America, it's all over the world.
How do we see the world so differently?
COMMENTATOR: Controversial comments
from Atlanta United manager.
COMMENTATOR: Frank de Boer called the idea
of equal pay in sports ridiculous.
SAUERBRUNN: We're not just fighting for soccer glory.
We're also representing what women can be
when given a certain platform.
And anything less than winning is a failure.
[cheering and singing]
CROWD: USA! USA! USA!
[cheering]
SAUERBRUNN: We work as a group in this fight,
and there are a lot of components to that secret sauce.
We have such a cast of characters that bring
so many different things to the equation.
Start with Megan Rapinoe.
She would be the confidence, the swagger, and the bravado,
and she's able to back it up.
RAPINOE: Alex, she's the most popular player,
but she's also, like, incredibly plugged in, intelligent,
and a good speaker and, you know,
is, like, powerful using her voice.
Press is extremely, like, thoughtful and cautious
and wants to think everything through,
and I'm like, "Let's just do it!"
and, you know, then we kind of come to a happy medium.
Obviously, Carli being one of the biggest long-standing names
on the team uses her voice a lot.
MEWIS: Becky is, like,
kind of like the moral compass of the team.
I trust her values because I know
that she's thought deeply about them.
When she says something,
everybody really, really listens.
SAUERBRUNN: And then you have a player like Kelley O'Hara,
who, I say this in the most respectful way,
like you always need a little crazy in your, in your team,
and she brings the crazy.
Jess plays with so much heart and so much courage,
and she's so selfless, she'll do whatever you ask of her.
And you've got younger players like Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis
and Lindsey Horan, and those types of players equate success.
PRESS: I think we always know that the best thing
that we could do for soccer, for the lawsuit,
for everything that we're fighting for,
equality, is to win.
[cheering]
COMMENTATOR: The 2015 winners, the United States,
begin their defense of the trophy against Thailand,
an evening they've been waiting for for quite some time.
[chanting]
COMMENTATOR: It's a sea of red, white, and blue
in this sold-out stadium of just over 20,000.
Carlos Cordeiro, president of U.S. Soccer,
in attendance tonight.
McDONALD: This is ours.
If we win this World Cup,
they will have no choice but to be on our side.
COMMENTATOR: And we all wait.
RAPINOE: This just has to happen.
COMMENTATOR: Let the crowd count it down.
Here we go!
Rapinoe, end line, wants to cut it back.
SAUERBRUNN: Entering that field, it was,
"You're going to make a statement that is going
to carry us the rest of the tournament."
COMMENTATOR: Alex Morgan, goal!
[cheering]
And there's one for the U.S.
It's 3-nothing. Horan. The rout is on.
Mewis with the shot, deflected, goal!
Cross, Lavelle! Goal!
Rapinoe with a goal!
9-nothing, U.S.
♪
Come on!
Five for Morgan.
13-nothing, U.S.
McDONALD: That was just the start of it all,
and everyone's just like, wow, 13-0,
and it's like, "Oh, we're not done yet, okay?"
COMMENTATOR: Driven across, headed down, goal!
Carli Lloyd's got two, U.S. has three.
♪
COMMENTATOR: President Trump is taking
a new interest in soccer.
He refused to say whether they deserve equal pay.
ANDERSON COOPER: Co-captain Megan Rapinoe
is in another match with President Trump.
RAPINOE: It was quite laughable
to find out that the president had tweeted what he had tweeted.
And immediately I was like,
uh, I feel like I've done something,
like something happened, you know?
I stand by the comments that I made
about not wanting to go to the White House,
with the exception of the expletive.
My mom will be very upset about that.
The platform that, you know, we've worked so hard to build,
why would we lend that to someone who's literally
against, like, everything that we're for?
It was just like kind of, it's just, like, laughable.
Like, this is crazy.
And then it was like, hold my beer.
[muffled announcement]
COMMENTATOR: The long-awaited free kick.
[whistle blows]
Rapinoe sends it in low.
Goal, U.S.!
[cheering]
RAPINOE: That pose was like, you're not gonna steal our joy.
Are you not entertained? What more do you want?
[cheering]
You probably just fueled the fire,
and, like, this team is just uncrackable,
and if anything, like, motivated and inspired
by more pressure.
♪
COMMENTATOR: Header! Goal!
Happy Birthday, Alex Morgan!
[cheering]
Huge numbers of U.S. fans have made their way
to the unofficial capital of France's Champagne region.
Most viewed, most challenging World Cup is now down
to just two nations.
What's it like game day
of a World Cup championship match in that tunnel?
RAPINOE: We're like, we have to fucking win
for reasons that we know. [laughs] You know?
[cheering]
Everybody knows what that means.
COMMENTATOR: Rapinoe two for two in this tournament.
[whistle blows]
[cheering]
Goal! U.S. leads!
[cheering]
Cutting, shooting,
goal!
Lavelle, 2-nothing, U.S.!
MEWIS: There was just a couple of minutes left,
and so, like, I kind of started to be like...
and be like, is this really about to happen?
COMMENTATOR: That's it, U.S. wins their fourth World Cup.
[cheering]
MEWIS: The whistle finally blows,
and I was just like, oh, my god.
I was so proud of myself for making it there.
I was so proud of the team
for overcoming everything that we'd overcome.
SAUERBRUNN: So many great emotions, you know.
The feeling like, "Oh, my god, I can't believe we did it again."
And for me, like the sense of relief like,
"Oh, good, I didn't screw it up for the team."
RAPINOE: I mean, we did it in spectacular fashion
and like got, you know,
essentially the entire world on our side,
so what more do you need?
[cheering]
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
McDONALD: We heard people chanting.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay!
McDONALD: Oh, my gosh, that's when I felt the movement.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
McDONALD: All right, it's not just us,
but it looks as if the world is on our side.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay!
[cheering]
RAPINOE: You know, Macron's there.
COMMENTATOR: French President Macron there.
RAPINOE: All of the sort of bigwigs in FIFA
and just generally.
Obviously, Carlos is there.
COMMENTATOR: Carlos Cordeiro, president of U.S. Soccer.
RAPINOE: So, yeah, it's kinda like, "We told you guys.
Everyone's, like, ready for this, you know?
It's the time, so like [snaps] get with it."
[cheering]
[fireworks exploding]
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
KESSLER: This case is not about FIFA.
It's not about the fact that FIFA discriminates
massively against women.
It does, but that's not this case.
FIFA doesn't pay any money to these players.
They pay money to federations like the U.S. Soccer Federation,
and it determines how to divide up its money
between the men and the women.
They refused to pay the women equally
because they thought they could get away with it.
You cannot treat women like this in the workplace
and get away with it.
If I didn't think we were going to win,
I never would have taken this case.
PRESS: You know, I think at some point
between the final whistle and us landing in the U.S.,
like every single player on the team
probably thought about the lawsuit.
You know, we were thinking like, it's still here.
You know, we still got to go back and figure out
what we're doing and figure out what this means.
NEWS REPORTER: Now that the World Cup is over,
another battle begins.
The women's team will start mediation.
COMMENTATOR: Mediation will be taking place
between the two sides.
That in itself is a very big step.
♪
[cheering]
♪
ROBIN ROBERTS: The U.S. Soccer Federation President,
Carlos Cordeiro, has some words he'd like to share. Carlos.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
RAPINOE: Being a part of the moment,
I was very hopeful, probably naively, um,
because I was just thinking like,
"Surely you're not gonna mess this up.
Like, it's laid out for you."
CARLOS CORDEIRO: To our Women's
National Team and the millions
who support them,
in recent months,
you have raised your voices for equality.
Today on behalf of all of us at U.S. Soccer,
I want to say we hear you, we believe in you,
and we're committed to doing right by you.
And that is why, over the years, U.S. Soccer has invested more
in women's soccer than any country in the world.
[crowd jeering]
RAPINOE: I was like,
"Not exactly what we want to hear, is it?"
[crowd jeering]
CORDEIRO: And we will, and we will continue to invest.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
RAPINOE: You deserve the boos, and so I was enjoying that.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
CORDEIRO: We believe at U.S. Soccer
that all female athletes deserve fair and equitable pay.
One nation, one team, go, USA!
[applause and cheering]
RAPINOE: I wish that he would have,
and the federation, frankly,
would have understood better the moment and the potential
that they had to kind of flip the script going forward
because I think they could have come out
looking like heroes as well,
to be able to stand on the steps of City Hall and being like,
"We're going to do this with our team."
Obviously, they weren't prepared to do that,
and they didn't do that.
To the federation, Carlos, everybody gets booed.
Everybody in the position of power gets booed.
I'm going to stick my neck out there a little bit.
I'm going to endorse Carlos. I think he's with us.
I think he's on the right side of things.
I think he's going to make things right.
Thank you.
[applause and cheering]
We look forward to holding those feet to the fire.
With our fight with the federation,
I'm sorry for some of the things I said, not all of the things.
But it's time to come together.
It's our responsibility to make this world a better place.
I think this team does an incredible job
of taking that on our shoulders
and understanding the position that we have
and the platform that we have within this world.
Yes, we play sports. Yes, we play soccer.
Yes, we're female athletes, but we're so much more than that.
You're so much more than that.
We have to collaborate, it takes everybody.
Please, I ask you.
[applause and cheering]
New York City, you're the motherfucking best!
♪
My life personally I think has changed forever.
In the same sense, it's totally the same.
You know, I'm still just me
and still just doing the exact same thing
that I was doing before,
just sort of at a much more heightened sense.
I am who I am all the time. It's not like some act.
I mean, I don't even know if I want to make this comparison,
but in the same ways that people liked that Trump
just said some wild-ass shit,
but, like, I'm like that, but for good, you know?
And, like, we need more of that.
Everyone right now is at a pool party,
and I'm going on Anderson Cooper
and Rachel Maddow.
So, these ones are a little bit more
just 'cause they're not really in the soccer realm
and a little bit, I wouldn't say out of my comfort zone,
but I'm just less practiced and don't want to fuck up, so.
[cheering and whistling]
JASMINE: Hi, I'm Jasmine. I'm with Rachel Maddow.
Nice to meet you. This is Juliette.
RAPINOE: Are you walking me in?
JULIETTE: Yes, please.
RAPINOE: Oh, my god!
INTERVIEWER: There's been so much energy from this tournament
that is almost unprecedented.
What do you think makes this moment in 2019 so different?
RAPINOE: I mean, I think female athletes in general
are really always at the forefront of every protest
because we're unfortunately constantly being oppressed
in some sort of way, so I feel like coming together,
whether its for equal pay or gender equality or LGBTQ rights,
whatever it is, it seems like
we're kind of all in this fight together.
[laughs]
This is standard post-tournament "Rachel Maddow Show."
RACHEL MADDOW: Hi, how are you? Are you the trophy wrangler?
AARON HEIFETZ: I'm the press officer, trophy wrangler.
MADDOW: Is that a special cloth?
HEIFETZ: It is a special cloth provided by FIFA.
MADDOW: They give the women a smaller cloth.
RAPINOE: It's synthetic.
I feel like I'm just like a super engaged citizen.
Everybody should be this engaged.
Everybody should care this much.
We have been very outspoken.
The federation has put a lot of resources
and money and support behind the team,
and I think that they do deserve credit for that
when we talk about all the other federations in the world,
but just because you're better than someone who's bad
doesn't mean necessarily that you're good.
MADDOW: It's great to have you here, congratulations.
RAPINOE: I think the way I am off the field
is exactly the way I am on the field.
♪ What you see is what you get ♪
♪ Better take a sip, sip ♪
♪ On my purple lips, jagged licks ♪
♪ Out my hips, bitch ♪
COMMENTATOR: Rapinoe, goal!
♪
♪ What you see is what you get ♪
♪ Better take a sip, sip ♪
♪ On my purple lips, jagged licks ♪
♪ Out my hips, hips ♪
♪ I'm a skunky black witch with no devil, six six ♪
♪ Read the ink under my fingernails ♪
♪ Zero...kind of bitch ♪
RAPINOE: I love it. I love the game.
♪
♪ Zero...kind of bitch ♪
♪
I feel like I have like a deep connect--
like emotional connection with soccer.
♪ Anarchists, post up on your front porch ♪
♪ What you see is what you get ♪
Of course, you have to, like, work at it and all of that.
But I don't know, I just, I don't like that,
like, narrative with athletes of, like,
all athletes are always talking
about how hard they work all the time.
So does everybody else.
I think we were definitely raised that way.
Just pretty standard blue-collar,
um, working, working-class family.
My dad's a construction supervisor,
and my mom's a waitress.
She grew up super poor.
I think that I'm a perfect snapshot of America.
You know, I'm not from, like, crazy, like left-wing,
you know, coastal elite family or anything.
I'm just really just normal, you know,
regular, small-town sort of family.
You could look at me and say like,
oh, I'm the American dream.
And then like, you know, look at my brother and be like,
oh, this is the American reality in a lot of ways.
I think we were like 10 or something
when he like, got arrested for the first time.
Really probably just needed like drug treatment, you know?
We had this crazy opioid epidemic
that was just left totally unfettered
and actually encouraged,
and, you know, sort of, here we are.
I think it's actually like the perfect example
of having like this, you know,
exceptional, like, world-beating athlete be,
you know, the, you know, in essence,
the very same person as this,
like, person who got swept up in all this shit,
so it's like a true American story, basically.
[cheering]
I mean, I think it's all connected.
GIRLS: Megan! Megan! Megan!
RAPINOE: Me Too or Black Lives Matter or anything,
it's sort of-- to me, it's all the same fight.
GIRL: Hi, Megan!
RAPINOE: Hi! How are you?
GIRL: I watch you on TV.
RAPINOE: You do?
Like probably every woman we're getting go, go, go from,
you know, every woman, I think, is watching this.
WOMAN: One, two, three!
WOMAN: This book, my students wrote it.
RAPINOE: Amazing!
To see, like, it go through all generations
is kind of incredible.
You can, you know, and to see the different emotion
in all the different ages of eyes is really cool.
You know, older woman being like,
"I know I'm never going to see it,
but, like, I hope you guys get it, you know?"
And then little kids saying it to me.
WOMAN: So, Megan, we really want equal pay for her.
RAPINOE: I know, right.
I probably won't get it, but you might!
WOMAN: Thank you!
RAPINOE: Yeah, maybe I'll get it
like one or two years in my career hopefully,
but, you know, really it's going to be, like,
for all these little kids that are coming up now.
McDONALD: That's exactly what we're fighting for.
We're fighting for that change,
and literally, like, people have stopped me in my tracks
just to say thank you, and that's because of this fight.
I mean, it's 2020, and at this point,
we need equity, and we need equality.
The beginning of my career with the NWSL,
I got traded six times in like four or five years.
I was only making about 15 grand each year.
Ahh, let's do this.
Off-season, I had a full-time job.
I was packing boxes at Amazon for 12 bucks an hour.
Aim for the corners, corners, good finish!
Childcare was more than my paychecks,
and so there were a lot of training sessions
where my infant toddler would be sitting at training
on his own in his stroller.
Did those days suck?
Yeah, there were times my kid would crap his pants
and I would have to stop in the middle of training
and go change him.
SAUERBRUNN: A large majority of my teammates in NWSL
do not make a livable wage.
So many women have had to make the decision,
like do I live my dream,
or do I, like, have to start that other part of my life,
that other career where I can start making money,
I can start putting money away?
And Jess made that tough decision
that she wanted to live her dream,
and she got to do it.
McDONALD: Much better.
You gotta prep yourself for success, man!
There you go.
Now, even though I'm on the USA team, I still work.
I have to coach just to make ends meet.
Huh!
Wow, I'm right here!
[laughter]
I need to just work my tail off in order to make it.
Going to training,
doing things that we need to do to recover,
and then leaving work,
and going home to my other job, and that's being a mom.
JEREMIAH: Green and yellow.
McDONALD: [laughs] Like, uh, they're not moving.
How do I tell my coach how I got injured?
Oh, my goodness.
Kid, you're breaking my back, you're so heavy.
I couldn't imagine my life not being a mom,
obviously in this career,
because I come home to my child,
and he's just such a happy kid.
[laughter]
I have Jeremiah's name,
and it's a Bible verse, Jeremiah 1:5.
"Before I formed you in the womb,
I knew you before you were born.
I set you apart.
I set you as a prophet to the nations."
My little guy.
We want to get paid fairly,
and we want more moms out there
because it's a badass thing for--can I say that?
Okay, cool. Okay.
Well, it's a badass thing when you can juggle being a parent
and getting paid well for what you're doing.
I have a family here in North Carolina
who have been my rock,
and I have no idea what I would do without them
because I don't have blood relatives here.
They are my help. They are my family here.
I was just looking for somewhere cheaper to live,
and then they just offered their home.
It's like, well, technically you don't have a home,
so you can just move in with us.
This is just like that break
I've been waiting for my entire career.
It's like I just need solid support
and being able to juggle my career at the same time,
and I got that.
I believe the person that I am today
and the things that I achieved, the reason for it is
I didn't want to end up like my parents.
Inside my house, there was just a lot of fighting,
and my way of decompressing and relieve stress
was playing sports.
And that's sort of carried over into my life today.
♪
When the U.S. Women's National soccer team
has a full stadium coming to support them, that's beautiful.
When people are on our side as female athletes,
that's beautiful.
It brings people together.
It's absolutely changed my life.
[cheering]
All these things helped shape me
into the human being that I am today.
♪
Get it away, get it away, kick it out, kick it out, good.
Good, all, you have time.
Good, good finish.
Now as a mother,
I'm trying to be the best mother that I possibly can be.
[laughs]
I don't know if I'm always doing things right,
but I feel like every parent feels that way.
I, I feel like that's sort of a common denominator
for all parents, but, uh, you know,
I'm just trying to raise a good human being because, I mean,
I love that little boy so much from the bottom of my heart.
[laughs]
Go, go, go, go.
He's seven years old.
He's at an age right now where he's going to remember
celebrating the World Cup with his mother, with Megan Rapinoe,
with Christen Press, with all these incredible females.
He doesn't know it yet, but it's going to hit him hard.
It's going to hit him hard one day
once he is able to understand how big this is.
Hopefully he can be inspired by that with whatever it is
that he wants to do with his life.
Are you saying that I'm slower than my grandmother?
JEREMIAH: Yes.
McDONALD: I'm slower than Grandma?
JEREMIAH: Yeah.
McDONALD: [gasps]
At the end of the day, I'm here to set a good example for my son
that if you want to chase a dream or if you have a goal,
you don't stop until you get there.
Uh! Can you pick me up? Here, let me get on your back.
JEREMIAH: No!
McDONALD: Why?
JEREMIAH: I can't, I can't hold you!
McDONALD: But you're like the strongest kid in the world.
JEREMIAH: No, I'm not!
McDONALD: Oh, well, I think you are. Okay, okay.
Not too much.
KESSLER: So, USSF makes a number of counter-arguments
against our case.
I don't think even one of them has the slightest bit of merit.
So, one of the arguments
is that if you look over the last five years,
there are some women on the team who actually got
more compensation than some of the men did.
How could that be discrimination?
Well, it's very simple.
The women played more games than the men,
they were more successful than the men,
and they made the World Cup,
and the men didn't make the World Cup.
So, even with discriminatory agreements, yes, it's true.
Some of the women made a total compensation in dollars
more than some of the men.
Does that make it equal?
No, because equality is about the opportunity.
The USSF does argue also
that the men generate more revenues for U.S. Soccer.
Well, that sounds good, right? Well, that should be a basis.
The problem is, it's not true.
Since 2015, we have their
audited financial statements.
All the revenue they assigned to the women's team
and the revenue they assigned to the men's team,
if you add that all up,
the women have made more than the men's team for USSF.
The highest TV ratings in this country for any soccer game
has been the championship game in the World Cup
of this women's team,
not a game of the men's team.
And then they say,
well, the woman agreed to the agreement they have,
they agreed to their compensation,
so why should they complain, they accepted it.
The problem with that
is they were never presented the men's deal.
They agreed to the best agreement
presented to them at that time.
Had they been paid under the men's agreement
at the same rates,
these women together would have made far more money.
We believe the number is in excess of $60 million more
for the last four years.
So this is not a question of apples and oranges.
This is a question of women doing the same job as the men
for the same employer
on the same-size field under the same rules,
except they do it better and get paid less.
♪
RAPINOE: Really? This is what we're going to do?
You're going to come out and say that you paid us more!
SAUERBRUNN: [sighs] The argument was we actually
outearned our male counterparts, but what is not discussed
is that we had to be wildly successful
in order to outearn our male counterparts.
We had to win World Cups.
We had to win, you know, SheBelieves,
Four Nations, all our friendlies,
in order to make more than the men.
Like, we have to do all of these things
in order to make a little bit more than the men?
It's not fair.
RAPINOE: I thought we were going to be
in a better place, and, like, it just feels
like we're going to be far away.
It feels like we're going to be far away in this mediation.
[sighs]
This is really irritating.
It's really frustrating.
Honestly, I'm just so fucking sick of...
like, debating my own worth with the federation.
MOLLY LEVINSON: The only way to force change
is to make U.S. Soccer have the conversation
in the sunlight, in the open,
so that everybody can see the decisions that they're making.
As soon as we have a finalized statement,
Angela, you want to do The Times,
and, Kylie, you want to do Journal, Post,
and all the networks?
I hope AP goes first, I think they will,
and then we should just be ready to respond
because I think we're gonna get a lot of calls.
That's a little bit of what's happened with you,
that because you're not political,
you've been allowed to sort of say and be who you want to be,
and everyone's listening.
It's not that some people have their ears shut off.
Like, everyone's listening to what you're all saying.
RAPINOE: How are you guys? You good?
Hi, sweetie.
[people chatting]
GIRL: Thank you!
RAPINOE: Exciting, right?
LEVINSON: [gasps] Where's my ad?
[muffled voices]
Do you know where the ad is, like, in the physical paper?
Have you seen it?
Oh, of course.
RAPINOE: Give it to me, Molls.
LEVINSON: "Women just made history.
But they have always deserved equal pay.
23 is the number of players on one champion team,
women's or men's, 23 pairs of chromosomes
make up one winning athlete, female or male.
23 is a prime whole number. It can never be divided.
23 is the number of strength."
Totally makes me cry.
"But...
...we know strength..."
When Secret put this outstanding advertisement
in The New York Times, it, it, it's a sign,
it's a public sign that U.S. Soccer is going
to literally get dragged into equal pay.
"But after all the toasts, cheers, parades,
and awards subside, the issue remains.
Inequality is about more than pay and players;
it's about values.
Let's take this moment of celebration
to propel women's sports forward
and help close the gender pay gap.
Equal work, equal sweat, equal pay."
RAPINOE: That's so good. Shout-out, Secret!
LEVINSON: This is the shattering of a whole structure
that's been in place for a long time.
It's pretty fucking amazing.
Oh, Governor Inslee is here.
JAY INSLEE: Every day when I meet
the most inspirational Washingtonian of the day,
I make them the Washingtonian of the Day.
RAPINOE: Okay.
INSLEE: When I do that, I take out this little pin
and I pin it on them.
Not quite as famous as the World Cup,
but it has some charm.
RAPINOE: It could be if I wear it. [laughs]
♪ The feelin' that you get, that's emotion ♪
♪ Press junkie got a bag on the docket ♪
♪ Sun shining on the god like the day comin' ♪
♪ I know you gotta spend money just to make money ♪
WOMAN: We are so excited. Look at the girls.
I was like, let's go.
I love you so much. You are so dope.
You are the bomb!
CHUCK TODD: What are you going to do next?
Would you at all entertain
running for office or something else?
RAPINOE: I'm not sure I'm qualified for office.
I'm going to fight for equal pay every day
for every single person out there,
as the great Serena Williams said, "Until I am in my grave."
[cheering and applause]
♪
My girlfriend Sue is a basketball player.
She's affectionately known as the Point God.
Sue's a little bit more successful than me,
but it's fine.
SUE BIRD: That you're proving that you make money.
They already know it. [laughs]
RAPINOE: Activism for us just is life.
I mean, we're female athletes, we're gay female athletes.
We just genuinely want things to be better.
And we're both in positions where we can be
really influential in making that happen.
♪
BIRD: You look very comfortable.
♪
WOMAN: There. That's a winner right there.
♪
We get it, we obviously, like, know who we are
and realize that that's, you know, an important thing
in breaking down barriers in the LGBT community,
and just both fighting for equality in our sports.
SANDRA BULLOCK: A great team builds culture and connection
well beyond its run.
And the winner is...
All those in favor of equal pay say aye,
the Women's National Team.
[cheering and applause]
♪
LEVINSON: What's happened over the past months
is that the players have gotten to be so much bigger
than this conversation over a lawsuit with their employer.
I mean, Megan Rapinoe is a global icon for equality.
I don't think Carlos Cordeiro can compete with this.
I don't think the entire U.S. Soccer Federation
can compete with this.
[crowd chanting]
GIRL: U.S. Soccer's arguments against paying women
the same as men are just excuses
for holding onto beliefs that are outdated and wrong.
ANNOUNCER: The Burlington High School
girls varsity soccer team is not playing around
when it comes to wage inequality.
♪
GIRL: We just wanted jerseys for our team,
and then we had to just open it up to the community.
♪
OPRAH WINFREY: Go, USA!
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Hey! RAPINOE: Hey!
JOE BIDEN: You have to get the same pay that men get.
ELIZABETH WARREN: Equal pay and equal working conditions,
period.
BILLIE JEAN KING: You are on the right side of history,
and you cannot let up now or ever.
STEPHEN CURRY: You've inspired so many young girls and boys
to use their voice, to speak on what they believe.
SNOOP DOGG: Man, pay them ladies, man!
Pay them girls what they worth! Snoop Dogg says so.
♪ What you see is what you get ♪
[Marta speaking Portuguese]
GIRLS: Equal pay!
LEVINSON: U.S. Soccer has used every tool at their disposal
to get rid of this conversation and to ignore this problem.
They just use everything available to them
not to take responsibility.
RAPINOE: Like, this is a new all-time low.
Like, really are the governing body of, you know,
in a nonprofit organization for soccer in this country,
and you're lobbying against equal pay?
Like, that's wild.
O'HARA: When you find out that they're hiring lobbyists
to go around DC to peddle their narrative to Congress,
it's like you're spending more money to...
...tell, try to tell, to paint your picture.
That's just not, it's not true.
And so for me, that's just, it's another example
of wanting to run your head into the wall.
It's like, really? That's what you're doing?
♪
SPANGLER: Jessica, can you hear us?
I just had a few items on our agenda today.
When you file a lawsuit,
it's actually not the lawyer's lawsuit.
It's the individuals' lawsuit, and the individuals
have to direct the lawyers on the direction
that they want to see the lawsuit go in.
Do they want to try to settle the lawsuit?
What is the strategy?
McDONALD: Yeah, because I really didn't know the difference...
SPANGLER: All of that information has to come
directly from the plaintiffs.
They really have to be 100 percent engaged in this.
PRESS: A lawsuit is something that no professional athlete
would ever want to have.
It's so much work.
It takes you away from your sport.
Um, it's very stressful.
RAPINOE: This is the same sentiment
that's been happening for, you know, years and years,
decades and decades,
through many different negotiations.
SAUERBRUNN: Something needs to just completely collapse
and crumble, and we need just to build it up.
O'HARA: We are in camp a lot, but then there's times
when we're in completely different time zones, states.
SAUERBRUNN: That's great, guys.
Thank you very much for doing this.
O'HARA: There's a lot of phone calls,
um, a lot of text messages, a lot of emails.
RAPINOE: Strategizing and keeping everyone
on the same page and...
Carlos was the only one that had his eyes on that.
Discriminated peoples do not have the luxury
of fucking around, frankly.
So, it's our players
that are having to form what the lawsuit is,
you know, figuring out all of the inequalities over the year,
trying to go through our contract,
going through the other contracts,
so it's hours and hours and hours and hours and hours
and hours and hours of our time.
[ringing]
[laughs] What is that?
All the moons?
PRESS: All the moons for all my moods.
Try to suffer a little less.
RAPINOE: Isn't the point, to, like, suffer through it?
PRESS: No, the point is to alleviate suffering,
live in bliss, transcend society,
cessation of all pain, love, and kindness.
[Rapinoe laughs]
And I'm getting on a call in like an hour
with Gloria Steinem.
RAPINOE: LOL, that's amazing.
You know who I talked to today? Chance the Rapper.
PRESS: [gasps] Tobin will be so jealous.
Lyrical rap is her jam.
RAPINOE: I know.
PRESS: What did he say?
RAPINOE: Well, he was reaching out
because his manager, I think, is like a huge fan,
and it was her birthday, but he was really cool, though.
PRESS: Okay, we have to have a real talk really quick.
You need to slow down, I think.
RAPINOE: Oh, yeah, how?
PRESS: How? Start saying no.
RAPINOE: I know. I can't.
PRESS: You need to. You're going to lose yourself.
RAPINOE: I am saying no to games. [laughs]
PRESS: No, no, no.
RAPINOE: I know. It's crazy.
I have to stop, obviously.
PRESS: You are not going to stop.
RAPINOE: I know, it's a lot.
PRESS: This is too much, this is too much.
I literally work all day.
I get home, I go on my laptop,
and I work from 2 PM until midnight every single day,
and I never run out of things to do.
Tobin calls me, and she goes,
"Get up. Leave your devices. Go on a walk."
RAPINOE: Move your legs.
PRESS: [laughs] Don't lose yourself.
RAPINOE: I'm not going to. [laughs]
Okay, well, listen, we'll talk tomorrow.
PRESS: Okay.
RAPINOE: Okay, love you.
PRESS: Love you.
LEVINSON: A lot of the times
when we're doing work on the lawsuit, it's happening,
you know, late at night, after games, on weekends,
when these players, you know, have been spending
100 percent of their energy succeeding on the field.
We knew that we needed to get the attention
of the board of U.S. Soccer, and so we wrote a letter.
We finished the letter really late at night.
It was 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning,
and it needed to be sent,
it needed to be sent by the next day.
There were three players who, at 2:00 in the morning,
got on the phone to all 28 of their teammates
and called them and woke them up wherever they were
and got them to take photos of their signature
and send it to us in a PDF.
It's just the tiniest thing, it's just one hour of a night,
but it shows what has to be done in an effort like this
on a day-to-day basis.
SAUERBRUNN: Dear U.S. Soccer, We would like to believe
that we collectively share the same goal.
McDONALD: That women's soccer in the U.S. continues to be
the leading program of its kind in the world.
O'HARA: And yet, while we acknowledge your investment
and applaud USSF for taking action
to fulfill its own mission, the women's program is not equal
to what our male counterparts receive from USSF.
SAUERBRUNN: What happened during the 2019 World Cup
tournament was remarkable.
McDONALD: We witnessed higher revenue numbers,
higher ratings...
MEWIS: ...more fans...
O'HARA: ...more enthusiasm.
RAPINOE: And we were hopeful once again
when your representatives agreed...
O'HARA: ...under significant pressure from fans,
sponsors, and lawmakers...
MEWIS: ...to meet with us and submit a proposal for equal pay.
O'HARA: It is time.
McDONALD: It is time.
RAPINOE: It is time.
SAUERBRUNN: Our collective fans, sponsors,
colleagues, and peers are waiting and watching
for us to emerge...
MEWIS: ...triumphant together.
One nation, one team.
O'HARA: One nation, one team.
McDONALD: One nation, one team.
Sincerely, Jessica McDonald.
MEWIS: Sincerely, Samantha Mewis.
O'HARA: Sincerely, Kelley O'Hara.
RAPINOE: Sincerely, Megan Rapinoe.
SAUERBRUNN: Sincerely, Becky Sauerbrunn.
RAPINOE: It's hot today.
SAUERBRUNN: Feel good? Got your opening statement ready?
RAPINOE: Yeah, it's a perfect day to kick ass, Becky.
LEVINSON: So, the idea behind mediation is that
in the midst of hard-fought litigation,
that we would sit down and find common ground
and hammer out a solution.
Everybody cleared their schedules for three days,
and we were promised that
at the very beginning of the conversation,
U.S. Soccer would give us a proposal for equal pay.
RAPINOE: It's straight.
I mean, at any point, we can settle
throughout the entire thing.
I don't think anyone wants this to continue
any longer than it has to, but I would like, um, yeah,
I would like there to be a fair settlement that, like, you know,
provides equal pay and provides us the appropriate back pay
for the discrimination that we face
and addresses the inequities going forward
and sets the contracts up that we don't have to then,
the next day, sue for, you know,
contracts still being unequal.
♪
COMMENTATOR: More revelations emerge today
about the two guards tasked with monitoring
accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell
the night he died by apparent suicide.
The first day was frustrating.
It's like Whac-A-Mole.
It's like Whac-A-Sexist, basically.
Like, every time you sort of get one,
like something else pops up.
And then just trying to think and strategize
how you create a deal.
How do you create a contract?
How do you force someone or an institution
who's operated a certain way.
You know, it's kind of like you have to prove
that they did it and then call them out on it
and then continue to, like, police them.
And that's the exhausting part,
I think, is just like the continual policing
and explaining why that's not acceptable behavior
and like how we can move forward.
LEVINSON: What's so concerning is the players just feel
this absolute lack of respect
for who they are and what they do.
And it doesn't just apply to the federation.
It's, it's just everyone around them in the ecosystem,
you know, lawyers and executives.
I mean, the sad thing is a lot of these people are men,
and it's not that men are incapable
of showing respect or acknowledgement,
but a lot of these men are.
I think there's just this moment
of wanting to punch someone in the face.
MEWIS: I had to go back to my club team the next day,
so I missed the second day,
which I think was when most of the action happened,
but we had a group text going.
♪
There was kind of some updates coming in.
I think eventually the whole team was, like, alerted
to what happened.
Ultimately both sides walked away
without an agreement.
SAUERBRUNN: We had to do so much to set this moment up.
And for them just to kind of like,
shit the bed, basically.
We were kind of blown away,
and even though we probably shouldn't have been,
'cause par for the course,
but people were very frustrated and very angry,
and Kelley O'Hara probably would toss a table if she could.
O'HARA: Yeah. It's like all the things.
It's like we came here prepared and you didn't,
and we flew here.
We're in the middle of our season,
and we flew here to mediate and to come to an agreement,
and you didn't.
There was no--we quickly--
I think, I mean, I at least was like,
this, they don't, there's no intention
of coming to a settlement here.
I feel like we've given them so many opportunities
to compromise, to come together,
to, to make the right choice,
and they just never do.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Overnight, mediation talks
with the U.S. Soccer Federation broke down.
COMMENTATOR: A spokesperson for the players said
it is clear the federation, quote, "fully intend to continue
to compensate women players less than men.
They will not succeed."
COMMENTATOR: A USSF spokesman responded, saying,
"Unfortunately, instead of allowing mediation to proceed
in a considerate manner,
plaintiffs' counsel took an aggressive
and ultimately unproductive approach
that follows months of presenting
misleading information..."
LEVINSON: After the conversation failed,
they couldn't go attack their own players,
who were world champions,
so instead they attacked the person
who, who's saying the words on their behalf.
The federation accused me and us
of being misleading and inflammatory.
Think of the basic, totally sexist...
brain you have to have to say
that somebody is being inflammatory
for asking to be paid equally,
that a woman is being inflammatory
by asking to be paid equally to men.
RAPINOE: Oh!
♪
This discrimination is what so many women deal with
all of the time, you know,
and now imagine you can't go on GMA the next morning.
Now imagine you don't get to do the morning show hits.
This is our responsibility to tell people what happened.
♪
GUTHRIE: Was there something in particular
that's holding up this, this negotiation?
PRESS: I think unfortunately,
it was just the concept of paying us equally.
We never even got past that.
WOMAN: It's so nice to see you.
RAPINOE: Thank you.
WOMAN: Yeah! Woo!
RAPINOE: One down, two to go.
MAN: Co-captain Megan Rapinoe and Christen Press...
♪
AMY ROBACH: You're in the middle of a World Cup victory tour
right now with your gender discrimination lawsuit.
What if you lose? Do you have a plan?
That trial, when you go to trial?
PRESS: There is no social equality for women
without financial equality,
and so if that means that we're gonna go to trial,
we're gonna do that.
RAPINOE: We won't accept anything less than equal pay.
ROBACH: Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press,
thank you for joining us.
I got chills even just thinking about it.
RAPINOE: Exactly. Thank you, appreciate that.
[camera shutters clicking]
WRITER: So, let's just talk about the elephant in the room.
I was quite surprised
during your victory speech at the parade
when you kind of gave this nice shout-out to Carlos,
and it seemed like everyone was on the same team
and there was some genuine respect happening
between both of you there.
Obviously a lot has happened since then--
the open letter, the lobbyists,
and, you know, obviously the mediation breaking down--
so how are you feeling
in light of that sort of switch in tone?
RAPINOE: I mean, I think that we can say we're, you know,
we're disappointed.
We deserve this.
We, I as a person, we as a team, we as women,
just in general, like, why don't we deserve this?
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Eh, eh, eh ♪
♪ La la la la ♪
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La la la la ♪
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La la ♪
♪ La la la la la la ♪
♪ La la la la ♪
♪ La la la la la la la ♪
SAUERBRUNN: I think for so long, women have been brainwashed
into just feeling gratitude for what they have.
It's something that will be very difficult to break,
you know, universally,
but I think having mentors and other women
who kind of open up this kind of new world of viewing things
and kind of guiding them along,
I think will help change that mindset.
♪
♪ La ♪
Even myself early on in my career
with playing on the National Team,
I was just so happy to be there
and willing to take whatever scraps they gave me.
And it was really the older players to help me change that
and to see, like, I'm in charge of my own destiny.
And if no one else is going to fight for it,
like, I'm never going to get it,
like, I have to fight for myself.
♪
COMMENTATOR: Today is the day soccer fans around the country
have been waiting for, the World Cup finals
between the American women's team and China.
COMMENTATOR: The Women's World Cup final
at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
MEWIS: When I think back on watching the World Cup in 1999
and seeing Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy
and my heroes of that time,
I mean, my sister and I watched those tapes back,
we had them on VHS,
and we would just rewind and play them over.
I had, we had the commentary, like, memorized.
And I think it was like the magic of the patriotism
and seeing people with their faces painted as a flag
and the realization that these women
were representing our country, they're the best in the country,
really just drew me in.
SAUERBRUNN: I was at home in St. Louis.
I was watching the game with my dad.
He's in his rocking chair. I'm just, like, on the floor
with my head in my hands just watching,
and that was the moment for me where I was like,
"Whatever it takes, whatever it takes,
I need to know what that feels like."
COMMENTATOR: A lot more people watching
from all over the world, not just in the United States.
O'HARA: The fight for equal pay
has been going on for a long time,
and it's, it's been going on
since probably this team started.
SAUERBRUNN: And I shudder to think where we would be
without those types of players and those types of leaders.
And we tried to really just continue on the fight
that the Abbys and the Christies, and even before that,
the Julie Foudys and the Michelle Akerses,
that they were fighting.
It was always a battle.
COMMENTATOR: 52nd minute,
still scoreless in the title game of the Women's World Cup.
Julie Foudy, longtime member of this team.
FOUDY: A lot of the mindset back then was,
"You should just be grateful, darling,
that you have a place to play," right?
"You're wearing the red, white, and blue,
and stop asking for more things."
COMMENTATOR: A record crowd for not just women's soccer
but a women's sporting event.
FOUDY: And mind you, we were getting $10 a day, that's it.
You had players, really good players,
who were retiring at, you know, 23, 24
just because they couldn't afford to continue on.
There's just so many things,
like, they would give us these uniforms,
the shorts would be hanging down to your knee,
the sleeves would be like here.
We would be on a ten-hour flight,
we would have no seat assignment,
they would put you in the middle,
literally sitting in smoking, and we would say,
"Can you just assign us seats? Is that too much to ask?"
You know, you'd be in your room in the hotel,
the roaches would, like, scurry to take cover,
and I was like, "Oh, my god, I did not need to see this."
[cheering]
ANNOUNCER: Fawcett goes long.
FOUDY: It was just one thing after another,
and so the little things become big things, and you get angry.
ANNOUNCER: China's the only team that's beaten the USA in '99.
FOUDY: We knew that World Cup
was this incredibly important milestone for the women's game.
COMMENTATOR: The winner of the 1999 Women's World Cup
will be decided on penalty kicks.
FOUDY: We went into penalty kicks,
which you never want to do in a World Cup final.
COMMENTATOR: Ying will go next,
the first starter for China to take a penalty kick.
FOUDY: Billie Jean King would say, "Pressure is a privilege."
Let's go. Let's show the world what we got.
COMMENTATOR: The shot. Save, Scurry!
[cheering]
FOUDY: And, of course, the rest is history.
COMMENTATOR: The USA could win the World Cup
on this next kick.
Chastain will take it.
She missed a penalty kick against China
in the Algarve Cup, and they lost that game.
[cheering]
Goal!
[cheering]
♪
FOUDY: People don't know that was a, you know,
common soccer celebration that men did.
You didn't see women do it often.
[cheering]
We thought, okay, you know, winning the 1999 World Cup
will be the catalyst for people's light bulbs to go off,
and everyone will have this epiphany.
Our lawyer, I can't believe I'm telling you this. [laughs]
We actually got him a hat that said GFY.
When we finally won the World Cup
and we had a little leverage, we'd do GFY,
and that meant go fuck yourself,
if that was a no to their proposal.
[laughs]
We'd be like, "Johnny, Johnny,
you know what we're going to say, Johnny."
And he'd be like, "Oh, come on."
I'd be like, "That's right, Johnny,
you go tell them, GFY. GFY."
[laughs]
COMMENTATOR: Michelle Akers will join President Clinton
as he announces a plan to improve federal laws
requiring equal pay for women and men.
BILL CLINTON: We want to make sure that everyone
will have the chance to make the most of their abilities.
MICHELLE AKERS: We're still being discriminated against.
we still are not paid equally
for the equal amount of work that we do.
FOUDY: Nothing was happening, and we'd keep asking.
Nothing was happening.
The fact that it's been ongoing for, you know, 20 years now
is a little discouraging, honestly.
I don't think things change historically
until people get angry enough and motivated enough
to rise up and say, "Uh-uh, no more.
This isn't right, and this isn't fair."
♪
SPANGLER: The moment that the mediation failed,
the very next thought was now we get ready for trial.
KESSLER: The next phase is depositions.
Depositions is like testimony like you would see at a trial,
but it's before the trial.
And we get to take these depositions,
they're sworn under oath, just like a trial,
and ask questions of their witnesses.
And they will also, by the way, then take the depositions
of many of the players,
and these depositions, by the way, they're no fun.
But you know what I found?
I tell this to all of my witnesses.
It's easy to tell the truth.
To lie, that's hard.
PRESS: Right now we have kind of a long process
of getting through all the depositions as, as a team,
and I think it feels just like very foreign
and like, almost like not a real part of my life.
SPANGLER: So, okay, so what I want to do at the beginning
is just really talk about what it's going to be like
giving a deposition.
You've never done that before, right?
PRESS: No.
SPANGLER: Okay, all right.
One thing that the lawyer will try to do
is to make it seem like it's really informal,
it's really conversational,
we're just here having a nice little chat,
and that's to sort of get you off your guard.
It's not informal. Depositions are never informal.
It's as if you're testifying at trial.
SAUERBRUNN: The whole deposition process
was extremely frightening.
O'HARA: Your whole phone gets copied.
That's uncomfortable, that feels
like an invasion of privacy for a lot of people.
SPANGLER: The person across the table from you
is not your friend, all right?
Their whole goal is to get information from you
that will hurt your case and help their case.
That's the goal.
♪
RAPINOE: Hi! How are you?
LEVINSON: They ask a question,
and Megan doesn't know the answer,
and she looks to you.
SPANGLER: She can't look to me.
The only time you can look to me or look to Elizabeth
is if you're concerned
that something might impede upon the privilege.
That would be legitimate, because at the end of the day...
LEVINSON: I think there's so much riding on this,
it's become so, so much bigger
than this group of players in this moment.
And I think...
I think it feels like there's a lot to lose.
There's just a lot to lose if we don't succeed.
♪
JEANIFER PARSIGIAN: So, just to update you,
ask him what the new women's coach's salary is?
KESSLER: Yes, we will make sure we cover that.
♪
We are almost at the end of fact discovery.
Carlos Cordeiro ran for president in 2018.
CORDEIRO: For our national teams,
I've talked a lot
about equality,
you know, and equal resources.
KESSLER: During his campaign,
he stated that he believed
the women were being discriminated against
and being treated unfairly.
CORDEIRO: My campaign was all about being
more collaborative, inclusive, and working on teams,
and I think you'll see
a very different leadership going forward.
KESSLER: Well, he won the election on that basis,
and after he became president,
complete turnaround.
♪
One of the things we got
from the past president of U.S. Soccer, Sunil Gulati,
is that when the women asked for equal pay
in collective bargaining through their union in 2016,
they admitted, and this was testimony
from a variety of officials,
they admitted that they refused to provide such equal pay,
and that's very important.
They never offered the women the same deal as the men.
We thought this was very powerful evidence.
Most of this has now been put into the record
before the court.
We think we've shown there really should be
no dispute about it, but if there is,
that's the kind of issue that will go to trial.
♪
O'HARA: Throughout my entirety with this team
when we do come together as a collective
and we...decide
we're doing this with one voice
and we're all making the same decision,
that's when we've gained the most progress.
This team has such a rich history,
culture, a winning résumé.
And I'm on this team for a finite amount of time,
I want to leave this team better than I found it,
and for me, that was winning championships,
that was winning as many gold medals
and as many World Cups as I could for the U.S.
And through my career and my time with this team,
I've realized that I want to leave this team
better than I found it on the field
but also off the field,
and this is a huge component of that.
Let's see how this goes. Bye, guys. [laughs]
Thank you!
♪
[ding]
[typing]
[distant siren]
♪
RAPINOE: [sighs] Okay.
Um, so fucking long.
They kept me there all day.
Oh, my god, where are they going with this?
We have to do this.
This is like our work right now, we have to do it.
I have to fight all of my natural instincts
to be wild and emotional.
Now I gotta go take a nap. [laughs]
McDONALD: I just got notice
about the Olympic qualifying team for 2020,
and I made the roster.
I am completely just overwhelmed with joy
and very emotional about it.
You know, I have to prep Jeremiah,
like, "Hey, buddy, Mommy has to go away for soccer again.
This is how long I'll be gone.
You're going to be with the family,
but just know that the reason why I play soccer
is obviously something that I love doing,
but also I take care of you through soccer.
That's how, you know, I earn my money."
It's very helpful to prep him for what's about to come.
Bye, sister.
JEREMIAH: I'm going to draw black.
McDONALD: Since I know that my kid is well taken care of...
Thank you for everything.
...that's a worry and that's stress
that I'm able to just leave out.
Thank you, buddy, I love it.
I'm going to take it with me, okay?
There are millions of people out there
who would kill to be in my shoes,
and so I need to look at it that way.
[kissing]
I just remind myself every day just to be grateful
and the fact that I even have that opportunity,
I mean, it's a one-in-a-million chance,
so I have to grasp it and hold on to it.
Thank you.
♪
I'm going to pick you up, one, two, three.
♪
I want you to be a good listener, okay?
JEREMIAH: Okay.
McDONALD: You be a good boy. No think sheets.
And do your best in school, okay?
I'll FaceTime you tonight before you go to bed, okay?
JEREMIAH: Okay.
McDONALD: I love you, okay?
♪
[kiss]
Go ahead.
[softly] Oh, my god.
[sniffles]
♪
SAUERBRUNN: After all these performances
that we've given you,
the product that we've put on the field
consistently day in and day out,
this is the argument you're going to come at us with?
O'HARA: This is a terrible legal argument.
When you're the defendant in a gender discrimination case,
you're basing your legal defense on gender?
McDONALD: It was a like a slap in the face.
We're, we're not in the, you know, 1950s anymore.
RAPINOE: U.S. Soccer's main legal strategy
was that the women don't deserve to be paid fairly
because we have less responsibility on us
as a player for the U.S. National Team
because we're biologically inferior.
Yeah.
[cheering and whistling]
SPANGLER: USSF is the national governing body
for the entire sport of soccer in the United States,
and for that national governing body,
which has no problem taking all kinds of money from young women,
from girls, from their families, to look them in the eye and say,
"Yeah, we'll take your money, but at the end of the day,
we don't view you as equal" is outrageous.
FOUDY: How, if you're with the federation,
and who, if you're with the federation,
allows the lawyers to come to you and say,
"Hey, let's make this our legal argument.
Isn't this a great idea?
To not just argue that women are inherently different
but they're inherently inferior."
RAPINOE: You don't get to say that publicly.
You don't get to have that stance
and not have the team say something.
I mean, we can't, we can't not say something.
We have to do something very strong.
You know, the Clippers team popped into my mind.
Their owner, Donald Sterling, was caught on tape saying
just egregiously racist things,
so they switched their shirts inside out to just say, like,
you know, we're not playing for you, we're playing for us.
COMMENTATOR: A unified statement from the Clipper players
wearing their warm-up shirts inside out
so the word "Clippers"...
RAPINOE: That really resonated for us.
SAUERBRUNN: So, the women's crest has the U.S. Soccer badge,
which is just the emblem of the federation,
and then for our team, for the women's team,
we have the four stars on top of the badge,
which represents our four World Cup wins.
To wear that shirt inside out,
it's like, "U.S. Soccer, you don't respect us,
and so we are not going to respect you in this badge."
O'HARA: Man, I am pissed about this.
I am, I am mad. This isn't okay.
I want, I want people to know how we feel.
WOMAN: Let's fucking go!
[cheering and clapping]
♪
SALAZAR: Just before the match,
we noticed something a little bit different
about the U.S. warm-up.
The U.S. women wearing their warm-up uniforms inside out.
♪
RAPINOE: For us, the field is always a sacred place
where we can just go out and be excellent.
This just felt different.
It just felt like words weren't gonna be enough.
How more effectively can you say what we've been saying?
This speaks for itself,
like this, these four stars embroidered above our patch,
like, that's why we deserve what we're asking for.
[cheering]
SAUERBRUNN: We weren't going to smile
because we were pissed off.
Like, why are you going to smile for a picture
when you're pissed off?
♪
FOUDY: I am so proud of them.
They brought the entire group, and again it goes back to this,
this is a sisterhood, this is a family, we're in this together.
We are united in our statement
that disapproves of what you just said in this lawsuit.
SALAZAR: 84 degrees here at kickoff
with the 2020 SheBelieves Cup title on the line.
SAUERBRUNN: We were so ready to show the world
what real talent, what real energy,
what real competitive drive is.
Like, all those things that they argued against us,
we were going to prove them wrong.
SALAZAR: Meanwhile the Americans can open the scoring here
in the seventh minute.
[whistle blows] Rapinoe and Mewis over the ball.
Rapinoe, goal!
FOUDY: That is what happens.
Megan Rapinoe striking that beautifully.
RAPINOE: It's not easy to constantly
have to demand your worth or tell people how good you are
or tell people you deserve to be like a full human,
and so to be able to just go out
and do the thing that we're best at.
Free kicks are really difficult.
They don't get scored very often.
Press chipped the goalkeeper from like 18 yards out.
It was ridiculous.
SALAZAR: Press turns, the chip, goal, goal, goal!
[cheering]
RAPINOE: It was just like...
here we are.
♪
SALAZAR: 90th minute, U.S. clinging,
that might be generous, holding a 3-1 lead.
FOUDY: As we're doing the game live,
my play-by-play announcer, Sebastian Salazar,
he gets a piece of paper handed to him in the booth,
and he turns to me, and he goes,
meaning give me a second.
And I have no idea what the piece of paper is.
SALAZAR: Julie, I have just been handed a statement
from USSF President Carlos Cordeiro.
FOUDY: And he reads the statement.
SALAZAR: I'm reading it for the first time
as I'm reading it to you.
"On behalf of U.S. Soccer, I sincerely apologize
for the offense and pain
caused by language in this week's court filing,
which did not reflect the values of our federation
or our tremendous admiration of our Women's National Team.
I have asked the firm of Latham & Watkins
to join and guide our legal strategy going forward."
FOUDY: I literally had that same emotion
I used to have as a player
that would hear U.S. Soccer give a bullshit argument,
and you would have to call their bullshit.
You're like, no.
How is this ever allowed to happen, Sebastian?
What I don't get is how you get to this position
where you're okay with letting your legal team
run all these depositions in that manner.
You know this is happening.
SAUERBRUNN: What do you mean, you didn't know
about what was being filed?
Like, you're the president of U.S. Soccer,
like, your eyeballs didn't see this
before it, before it went out?
FOUDY: Clearly U.S. Soccer had to know,
so to then, at that stage, simply because sponsors had,
I felt, been very vocally against U.S. Soccer's position,
to stand up and say, "Oh, my bad."
I was like, uh-uh, no, not today,
not 20 years ago when we played, not going forward, no more.
What are you telling a young girl?
This inherently inferior argument was soul crushing.
They've, of course, walked that back, but it's too late.
SALAZAR: As they always have, the U.S. Women's National Team
prove their worth on the field.
For the third time
in the five-year history of this tournament,
they are SheBelieves Cup champions.
RAPINOE: To see that as the argument,
as sort of blatant misogyny and sexism
as the argument against us, is really disappointing.
But I just want to say it's all false.
To every girl out there,
to every boy out there who watches this team,
who wants to be on this team
or just wants to live their dream out,
you are not lesser just because you are a girl,
you are not better just because you're a boy.
We are all created equal
and should all have an equal opportunity
to go out and pursue our dreams.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay!
MEWIS: The girls need to know they're just as good,
and the boys need to know the girls are just as good.
I feel like it's so dangerous to teach young boys
that girls aren't as good as them.
It's like leading us all down this bad path
to just, like, perpetuate sexism that's been around forever.
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
Equal pay! Equal pay!
COMMENTATOR: It's hard to think of an organization
that's had a worse three or four years
than the U.S. Soccer Federation.
An appalling misstep,
Carlos Cordeiro, U.S. Soccer president,
enduring a firestorm and in fact resigning just late last night.
KESSLER: Yeah, the world is reacting,
and it's caused them to retreat.
Carlos Cordeiro was forced to resign.
Their lawyers for the case were removed.
They were fired and replaced with another law firm.
Uh, they withdrew that defense,
uh, before the judge on the summary judgment motions.
What it really should cause them to do
is to settle and agree to equal pay going forward.
Well, it hasn't caused them to do that yet.
♪
COMMENTATOR: This is CNN special live coverage
of the coronavirus.
COMMENTATOR: This morning,
virtually the entire sports scene at a standstill.
COMMENTATOR: The NBA, MLS, the NHL,
they are all suspending games, effective immediately.
COMMENTATOR: The Summer Olympics in Tokyo
may not happen as planned.
O'HARA: Boom.
MEWIS: Today is Friday, March something.
RAPINOE: What's going on?
This is, uh,
I don't know, quarantine day,
I think we're on like three weeks or something.
Came back here right after SheBelieves,
and I'm in Connecticut.
SAUERBRUNN: I'm staying in my house.
The only time I really venture out is to a field
to get some training in when I can.
O'HARA: It's definitely weird.
Our NWSL season has been pushed back.
National Team games have been cancelled.
♪
McDONALD: Next sentence.
JEREMIAH: "Other reasons..."
McDONALD: Will they start school next semester,
and are they going to make kids wear masks now?
Five, six.
Uh! Oh, my goodness!
RAPINOE: We think it's bad now.
It's probably going to get a lot worse unfortunately.
SAUERBRUNN: So, I was sitting,
taking some time to myself playing a video game,
and I get a text message
that is our executive committee group chat.
And it's from Sam saying,
"So, what? Does this mean we fucking lost?"
O'HARA: So, I just finished working out
and looked at my phone and saw a text from Sam,
and it didn't look good or sound good.
SAUERBRUNN: And I'm thinking she maybe meant that text
for somebody else,
um, and so I kind of write back and inquire like, what?
Like, what are you talking about?
LEVINSON: Read it slowly.
Yeah, read it slowly. I'll be back to you.
Got it.
O'HARA: We're about to get on a call, um,
with our legal team and the legal committee
and just figure out what this all means
'cause I think a lot of us are confused,
and we're, um, just trying to wrap our heads around this.
But I definitely have a pit
in the bottom of my stomach right now.
♪
KESSLER ON PHONE: Okay, it's Jeffrey.
I just got on.
I'll just start out by saying what I told Molly when I...
♪
LEVINSON: I'm sorry for interrupting you.
We just, we're going to have to go
because we're losing right now in the press
because everyone's going with this story without our comment.
♪
It's Molly coming back. Um...
[sniffles] Sorry.
This isn't the end.
Like, you have to fight this.
Everybody's looking to you
to fight it.
Just keep going.
[crying]
♪
KESSLER: We were completely shocked
to get a decision from the judge
which granted summary judgment
against the players' equal pay claims.
It ruled that only the working condition claims
could go to trial, but not the fundamental equal pay claim.
SAUERBRUNN: Initial response is just shocked.
Just, it's crushing, and you don't understand,
and I need a deep dive into that summary judgment.
SPANGLER: We never expected that the judge
could reach the kind of conclusions that he reached,
particularly that on the central issue of pay discrimination.
You can't look at total compensation,
you have to look at rate of pay.
It just doesn't fundamentally make sense in my mind
from a legal perspective.
RAPINOE: Yeah, I mean, it's just,
it's just so disappointing.
Like, I don't understand it at all.
SPANGLER: There's a dispute,
there's a dispute into those facts.
A jury should decide that dispute,
and so I think it's most likely that the Ninth Circuit would say
there are disputes as to a number of the facts
that the judge decided were undisputed
and that those facts should be tried to a jury.
RAPINOE: So, yeah, we'll go to the Ninth Circuit
and do, yeah, our appeal there.
MEWIS: Yes, it's a setback, and, yes, it's a disappointment,
but we did this for a reason,
and it's going to take a lot more than this
to stop us in our tracks.
SAUERBRUNN: I always thought at,
from the very beginning of this that even if we came out of this
and we went to trial and we lost jury decision,
that there was so much significance in the fight
and so much importance, and so...
that's what we're going to do.
We're going to continue to fight.
KESSLER: There are a lot of young women and girls
who are looking up to the team,
looking up to all of us in this case.
No one wants to let them down,
so we're not going to let them down.
We're going to keep fighting.
SAUERBRUNN: It's not over,
and I know I'm convicted in my heart that it's not over.
And that's a good feeling.
Shitty day, but a good feeling.
RAPINOE: So, what the judge said was that first of all,
we agreed to the deal
and it turned out to be not as good,
and so you can't just agree to something
and then it doesn't turn out the way you like it
or the way you want it, and so then you go back on it.
Obviously, the point that the judge, I feel like, missed
was that we never had the opportunity
to agree to the same deal,
so the men got to, you know,
do their negotiating on the top floor,
and we started in the parking lot.
And then also what Judge Klausner said
was over the course of, you know, X amount of years,
we actually made more money than the men,
and which, dollar for dollar, that is true,
which is actually a testament to how successful we have been.
Say we made $100 in that year,
we had to win nine games to make $100,
and the men made $90, but they had to win three games,
so we still, yes, made more money,
but we worked twice as hard.
SPANGLER: If the fundamental notion is that,
in order for us to be paid equally going forward,
we have to win more and we have to win at the highest levels,
the kind of pressure that that puts on them is, um,
quite frankly, I don't think it's remotely lawful,
but we will see if the Ninth Circuit agrees with that.
♪ La la la la la ♪
RAPINOE: I think the story's the same everywhere.
Whether you're an executive,
whether you're a domestic worker,
whether you're a soccer player,
women get paid less to do the same job.
♪ La la la la la la ♪
SAUERBRUNN: This is not the way we wanted it to go,
but in no way is this fight over.
We have our next steps, we have our marching orders,
like, let's go, this is not done.
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La la la la ♪
MEWIS: Think about how we got our country,
think about racial inequality
and when women didn't have the right to vote.
You have to take risks, and it doesn't come easy.
If you want the world to look a certain way,
you have to fight to get there.
♪ La la la ♪
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La la la la la la ♪
SAUERBRUNN: I want the U.S. Women's National Team
to be remembered as a group of women that came together
and were on the right side of history.
O'HARA: The team that did the right thing,
that chose to speak up and to finally do something.
♪ La la la ♪
McDONALD: I would want to be able to tell my kid one day,
you can fight the good fight, you can break barriers,
and that's exactly what we did.
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La ♪
RAPINOE: Ultimately, it's not like us against them,
and it's not this, like, petty thing.
It's like if they win, no one wins.
If we win, everyone wins.
♪ La la la la la la ♪
♪ La la la la la ♪
♪ La la la la la la la ♪
♪
♪ Yeah ♪
Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
♪ Let's go, I ain't known to back down ♪
♪ Never known to give up ♪
♪ And, yeah, I've been knocked down ♪
♪ But you know I'ma get up ♪
♪ Yeah, I always get up ♪
♪ Better watch out ♪
♪ 'Cuz I'm coming your way ♪
♪ and if you ain't ready for me ♪
♪ then don't come out to play ♪
♪ No, no, don't show up ♪
♪ No, you can't hold me no more ♪
♪ I'ma speed it up like lightning ♪
♪ I don't move in no slow mo' ♪
♪ Well, you don't go toe to toe with the foes that I'm facing ♪
♪ While I'm arguing with you, I don't care what you sayin' ♪
♪ I don't care what you sayin' ♪
♪ Can't touch, I'm too fierce ♪
♪ Matter fact, you new here ♪
♪ Matter fact, get this clear ♪
♪ Matter fact, just get wit' it ♪
♪ I'm crazy cuz I feel ♪
♪ You think I'm crazy cuz I feel ♪
♪ But I deserve all this ♪
♪ We run the world ♪
♪ Say it loud, say it proud ♪
♪ LFG LF--woo ♪
♪ LFG, let's go ♪
♪ LFG ♪
♪ Let's go, let's go ♪
♪ LFG, stop playin' ♪
♪ LFG ♪
♪ Keep it goin, man ♪
♪ Don't stop ♪
♪ Turn it on and let's go off ♪
♪ Thinkin' you better than me? ♪
♪ Sick of being quiet ♪
♪ So I use my voice on loud ♪
♪ Knock, knock, knock ♪
♪ I'm at your door ♪
♪ I know that you can hear me now ♪
♪ Come through, don't play with me ♪
♪ Real strong when I'm with the team ♪
♪ Squad up, no make believe ♪
♪ Ten plus one two three four ♪
♪ Oohh, got goals to keep ♪
♪ Let's break it down ♪
♪ On the team, off the team ♪
♪ Fighting for a change ♪
♪ Ain't never gon' quit ♪
♪ Never gon' quit, hands high ♪
♪ Are you not entertained? ♪
♪ LFG, let's go ♪
♪ LFG ♪
♪ Yeah, I know, I know ♪
♪ LFG ♪
♪ Are you not entertained? ♪
♪
It's a perfect day to kick ass, Becky.