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Soccer and spontaneous shirt removals
By Tim Wood
Why has there been such a fuss raised over U.S. Women's Soccer team member Brandi Chastain's decision to take off her shirt after her team won the World Cup?
Photographs of Chastain's spontaneous celebration have appeared all over newspapers, television and magazines. It was not a shocking act, as she did not indecently expose herself. In fact, most bikinis reveal more than the black sports bra she was wearing underneath her shirt. She revealed far more when she posed for a magazine last month wearing nothing but a soccer ball and cleats. (I have not seen that picture nor do I intend to look it up - I'm relying on reports of those who did look at it.)
Chastain has said her gesture was done on the spur of the moment, but it may pay off for her. Nike, maker of her sport bra, is trying to capitalize on the publicity. I can hear the cash registers ringing now.
The removal of the shirt is a tradition in soccer - at least for men. Some professional indoor soccer players routinely take off their jersey after scoring a goal and throw it into the stands.
There are other reasons for removing a shirt on a soccer field. As a former youth soccer coach and referee, I have wanted to remove my shirt many times to cool off. The traditional black referee shirts hold the heat well. Whereas professional soccer players can get away with taking off their shirts, out-of-shape, middle-aged males don't need to go there.
But Chastain went there. Perhaps she was unconsciously saying that if male soccer players can take their shirts off to celebrate, so can females; and that females can do anything males can do. The U.S.A. women did something the U.S.A. men haven't done - win the World Cup.
Chastain's shirt removal became a symbol of the U.S.A. team's incredible championship. While looking at a magazine rack recently, I saw two national news magazines side by side. Both featured the women's team victory as the cover story. Chastain was on one cover, shirt in hand; the other cover showed a group of players celebrating. The cover with Chastain was more striking, and I'm saying that as an experienced news media professional, not as a middle-aged male.
One writer described it as a symbol of the power and essence of the modern female athlete.
There were other symbols. Goalie Briana Scurry's brilliant save of a Chinese penalty kick shot certainly qualified as powerful image. Time Magazine ran a two-page photo of the block.
She celebrated more conservatively. However, she did run naked through the streets of Athens, Ga., after helping win the Olympic Gold Medal in 1996. A reporter had awakened her before the Olympics and asked her what she would do if the team won the gold medal. She said "run naked" and went back to sleep. She described the stunt as "temporary insanity, " according to a Scripps Howard News Service story.
Of course, all of this talk could be paralysis by analysis. After all, having played an intense, 120-minute marathon of a soccer game, Chastain just might have wanted to cool off.
Published 7-18-99 in the Columbia Daily Herald.
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