Benefield: U.S. soccer boots Solo situation

Hope Solo has the best mitts in the business.

The superstar goalkeeper for the U.S. Women’s National team has recorded more shutouts than any keeper to play for the Stars and Stripes.

That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that while Solo was feted and congratulated - and made team captain - for her goalkeeping prowess and breaking the record earlier this month, she was awaiting trial on domestic violence charges. Still is.

She is accused of assaulting her sister and 17-year-old nephew in June after a night of drinking in the sister’s home. According to authorities, Solo’s sister and nephew both had visible injuries when Kirkland, Wash., police arrived.

Solo has called herself the victim in the situation and insists she will be exonerated, but investigators disagree.

But still, U.S. Soccer spokesman Neil Buethe defended the organization’s decision to not only play Solo in the match against Mexico on Sept. 13, but to celebrate her shutout record. Budweiser named her Woman of the Match. She was made team captain for the follow-up game Sept. 18.

“She has an opportunity to set a significant record that speaks to her hard work and dedication over the years with the national team,” he told USA Today. “While considering all factors involved, we believe that we should recognize that in the proper way.”

“All factors involved” must not have included those pesky criminal charges. He called Solo’s troubles “a personal situation.”

The Kirkland police call it a crime.

So, too, do the local prosecutors who charged Solo with two counts of domestic violence.

Her trial is scheduled for November.

This all comes at a time when domestic violence and professional athletes are making headlines in the worst way.

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was suspended indefinitely after a video surfaced showing him knocking his now-wife out cold. Minnesota Vikings superstar Adrian Peterson has been benched with pay while authorities investigate accusations he beat his 4-year-old son with a switch and the Carolina Panthers’ Greg Hardy is appealing a July conviction for assaulting his ex-girlfriend. And the Arizona Cardinals? Well, they have a trio of players or recently-made-ex players facing domestic violence allegations.

Our local squad is not without tarnish on the matter. The San Francisco 49ers’ Ray McDonald is being investigated in connection with accusations of domestic violence. Police continue their inquiry and no charges have been filed, so McDonald continues to suit up and play for the 49ers, who have said their defensive end deserves “due process.”

The NFL has scrambled to look like an operation that values justice and women but that really only started to happen when we all saw what Rice did to his then-girlfriend, not before.

Solo’s case lands amid this maelstrom of violence and headlines. But the national team game against Mexico marked the first time Solo suited up for the squad since her arrest. It was an opportunity for U.S. Soccer to make a statement.

It did. It threw Solo a party.

The Seattle Reign should have taken a stand long before their season ended last month, but Solo was a leader and a star on a squad in a fledgling league that made it to the championship game. Was that the rationale? Is that good enough?

And what’s a good enough rationale for the national team? Apparently that it’s a personal matter. Or it could be that they are in the throes of qualifying for the 2015 World Cup. Maybe that’s it.

There ought to be a higher threshold of professionalism needed to play for one’s country. And to wear the captain’s arm band? My word, someone made a bad call on that.

What message does Solo’s being allowed to play send a victim of domestic violence - that an alleged perpetrator can go on with her life in an adoring spotlight despite facing serious charges of assault? U.S. Soccer has another chance to address that question Oct. 15 in a game against Trinidad - the next time the team takes the field.

Solo likely has a unique and complicated perspective on domestic violence. In 2012, her then boyfriend (and former NFL player) Jerramy Stevens was arrested and suspected of assaulting her. The pair married the next day and the charges were eventually dropped.

Solo has been described as a phenomenal athlete, but a troubled, tempestuous person.

She’s also an outright star.

Last year, Solo, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner, was the second most Googled female athlete on the planet behind only Serena Williams. She’s got star power that the U.S. program has turned to time and again to promote not only women’s soccer but the game in general.

U.S. Soccer has for decades touted its women’s team - unparalleled in their success on the field - as role models not only for young girls and athletes but everyone. That same organization is not remaining silent on Solo’s woes; they are enthusiastically celebrating her athletic achievements while calling her personal life a separate matter - one that shouldn’t mar the good name of the national program.

That’s nuts.

It’s not a personal situation. When Solo wears the U.S. jersey, it’s a national one.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com and on Twitter @benefield