Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Have More Battles to Fight (and Win)

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are unbothered. There are a number of things the couple could be fazed by throughout our hour-long Zoom call on this dreary, damp evening in early March—like the hours they just spent running around town in the torrential downpour that I now see and hear through the large windows of their Manhattan apartment, or any of the infamous moments from their respective careers that we talk about later—but they seem entirely unrattled. By everything.

Maybe it’s their pro-athlete backgrounds that have instilled such coolness. After all, when you’re a retired WNBA superstar like Bird and former elite soccer pro like Rapinoe, with six Olympic gold medals between you, how could you be shaken by something as trivial as the weather—or, in Rapinoe’s case, Donald Trump posting that “the USA is going to Hell!!!” because you missed a penalty kick back in the 2023 World Cup?

Actually, Rapinoe might be more bothered by the storm clouds than she ever was about the other thing. “That says everything about the person he is,” she says with a shrug. “But I think it also says a lot about who I am, the fact that he was trying to go after me.” Rapinoe’s public protests of Trump date back to 2019, and the LGBTQ+ advocate has drawn his ire many times on social media in the years since. His attack, she says, gave her a certain confidence. “I’m doing the right thing,” she says of what it revealed to her then.

During our conversation, it becomes obvious that the right thing, for Bird and Rapinoe, means challenging the status quo in their industries. It’s work that began during their playing days. Before their retirements, in 2022 (for Bird) and 2023 (for Rapinoe), the pair infused activism into their careers. You may remember Rapinoe as being the first white athlete to kneel during the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick in 2016. Or, if you’re a real WNBA fan, you may know that as a vice president of the players union Bird ushered in an era in which players were allowed to participate in social-justice movements on the court.

Speaking up is not without its risks—when Rapinoe took a knee, the backlash from sponsors and critics was swift—but both women are adamant they don’t see it that way. “These are the things I believe in and care about,” says Rapinoe. “If I feel like an injustice is happening, or if there’s somewhere where we can lend our voice to grow women’s sports, that’s who we are and how we live, and the things that we really want to spend our time doing.”

Bird adds: “A lot of the things that we talk about are because of some form of firsthand experience. And so, to Megan’s point, yeah, it doesn’t feel like risk-reward. You feel like you’re just speaking your truth.”

The couple met at the 2016 Rio Olympics and have been engaged for five years. Like any good team, their individual strengths complement the whole. Bird, forty-four, is quick to fill lulls in conversation that Rapinoe, thirty-nine, seems content to sit in, and Bird always has something to add to what her fiancée shares. When asked what people would be surprised to know about them, Bird guesses it’s how “boring” and “low-key” they really are; Rapinoe bluntly declares that “whatever it is, they’re not knowing it.”

This back-and-forth is familiar if you’ve listened to their podcast, A Touch More. What started during the pandemic on Instagram Live has evolved into a full-fledged media business. Their mission: to promote and empower women’s sports, showing the “vibrant, dynamic, beautiful world” that it is. “It’s about putting the nuance around women’s sports that traditionally has not been there, that ultimately perpetuates detrimental stereotypes to women, to queer people, to Black women who play sports,” says Rapinoe.

On Rapinoe, left: Jacket and skirt by Bottega Veneta; Shoes by Camper; Socks by Comme Si; necklace by Alexis Bittar; ear cuff and earring by Chrishabana; ring by Jeblanc; Cartier bracelet, Rapinoe’s own. On Bird: Sweatshirt by Officine Générale; trousers by Bottega Veneta; skirt (worn as belt) by Jane Wade; Shoes by Camper; Necklace by Mateo; Ring by Chrishabana.

It’s serious stuff, but Rapinoe and Bird—through conversations with each other and fellow athletes—make it digestible. Episodes are light, fresh, and often funny. (The podcast’s Bicker of the Week series might be the healthiest way to air petty grievances against your partner that I’ve ever witnessed.)

It’s this same desire to uplift and provide nuance to women’s sports that brought the pair to their first gigs as television producers. Last year, they announced the forthcoming TV show Playing the Field, a scripted adaptation of queer romance novelist Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute, which follows a love story between two teammates on a women’s soccer team.

For Rapinoe, the appeal was in the softness of the narrative. “It’s gonna be a great way to fictionally view women’s sports in a way that isn’t like, ‘Oh, this is how this is so hard, and this is why this is so hard,’” she says. “You’re gonna get their full lives. It’s a pro team. They live in New Orleans. They’re going out. They have friendships. They are hooking up. There’s life happening.”

If it sounds like the couple is stretched between many projects, it’s all in service of one goal—to leave behind a different legacy in women’s sports. One that isn’t just about the record books. And while they’ll spend the rest of their lives focused on it, Rapinoe and Bird are both adamant that they’re championing for a change they want to see being made now. In fact, Bird says, it’s already creeping in.

A half-decade or so ago, Bird says she fielded the question about where she hoped women’s basketball would be in fifteen years. “And my answer,” she recalls, “was something to the effect of, ‘I hope the older players come across real disgruntled that they didn’t make the same money that the current athletes are making.’ I was like, ‘I hope I’m fifty-five and mad that I never had a million-dollar contract in the WNBA,’ because that means what we’re doing worked.” They got there ahead of schedule. As she quips: “I’m only forty-four and it’s already happening, and I’m not disgruntled about it, which is great.”

If disgruntlement isn’t their thing, regret certainly isn’t, either. Not even when taking stands has made them public targets for anti-woke backlash. Instead, they have the kind of peace of mind that comes from doing things you believe in—at least, that’s the case when it comes to their work on and off the court and pitch. Bird admits she’s still haunted by one jean-skirt fashion faux pas she made during a tunnel walk in the early aughts.

Rapinoe makes a noble attempt to spin Bird’s lingering embarrassment into an optimistic life lesson. “Put yourself out there, try stuff,” she says. It’s the kind of silver-lining-finding sportsmanship you’d want from a teammate—the kind you’re even luckier to find in a partner.

Adds Rapinoe: “That’s how you learn to be in the world, and that’s how the world can start to make sense to you. And I feel like sports did that for us in so many different ways.” If you don’t like it, well, they can’t be bothered.

Opening image: On Rapinoe, left: Jacket and skirt by Bottega Veneta; necklace by Alexis Bittar; ear cuff and earring by Chrishabana; ring by Jeblanc; Cartier bracelet, Rapinoe’s own. On Bird: Sweatshirt by Officine Générale; trousers by Bottega Veneta; skirt (worn as belt) by Jane Wade; ring by Chrishabana.

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