Megan Rapinoe has always been an intrinsic part of Seattle Reign FC. She spent her entire NWSL career with the club, from their inaugural season in 2013 until her retirement in 2023, and has the most goals in team history. But this Sunday, when her number 15 will be retired at a pre-game ceremony, she officially becomes a permanent fixture of the Reign forevermore.
Since playing her final game last November, Rapinoe has stayed busy by starting a podcast with her fiance Sue Bird and has remained in the US Women’s National Team’s orbit. During Team USA’s various gold-medal romps through Paris, Rapinoe and Bird were perched on the sideline at both soccer and basketball games, often alongside Lauren Holiday, who is the only other player in history to have their jersey retired by an NWSL team. At 39, Rapinoe is nearly 20 years older than some current members of the USWNT, but tells GQ she found some youthful energy now that she’s free from early-morning training sessions.
Before flying back to the Pacific Northwest for the jersey retirement, Rapinoe took us on a stroll down memory lane, went in-depth about her status as a women’s sports pioneer, and revealed her favorite kit from a decade of Seattle soccer.
GQ: When you were playing with the Reign, did jersey retirement ever cross your mind? It’s already a pretty uncommon practice in soccer, and there’s only been one other jersey retirement in NWSL history.
Rapinoe: No, not at all. I wasn’t thinking about it, honestly, up until the moment where [manager] Laura [Harvey] told me last year. I think just because the league is so nascent and the growth of women’s sports is at such a place—I feel like I’m in the second generation of the first generation. We have Ninety-Niners and that World Cup and that whole sort of era. Then I feel like I’m kind of in the next [wave] where it’s like, okay, we’re doing a whole new thing. The NWSL is 12 years old now, so it doesn’t always feel like we get to have that sort of historic balance that even the WNBA and more long-standing men’s leagues have.
So, this is really special! Obviously spending so much time with one club—and not just actual time, but the period in my life that I spent with the Reign—was just the most influential, the most change, the most ups and downs [of my life]. It was the hardest and the best and sort of all of the in-between.
In situations like this, does your brain do the thing where it kind of starts playing montages of your best moments?
Yeah, but they’re not really on the field. Even when they’re on field, it’s sort of about something else. Just having spent so much time with the same core of players, especially Jess [Fishlock], Lu [Barnes], and Laura, it’s hard to even believe that I’m kind of not out there. It just feels weird to be watching them. I can still feel myself out there. We had some good times. There’s a lot in the bank to go back to.
Yeah, I think I have in a lot of ways. I know it’s not just me, and a lot of it has to do with the success of soccer in general and the growth of it. It’s hilarious, honestly, to think of all the places we’ve been and traveled and played. Our stint down in Tacoma—no shade on Tacoma, but I think everybody’s really happy to get back to Seattle where we started and where our roots were. I’m excited mostly for the next five or 10 years. I kind of always had the sense, in my career in Seattle, that I was never really going to reap all of the benefits of the growth that was happening, just because of my age. I understand how long it takes to build a stadium. But even now to see where they are with their practice facility, and being able to move into a better space, and the change in ownership, it’s huge.
I just think the previous ownership really sort of lacked the investment that the club needed at that time and saw us fall behind in all those categories. I’m so excited about being part of building a club that is worth paying 58 million dollars for, and is worth that investment. I take a lot of pride knowing that it was one of the best clubs for a very long time and we have such a rich history. I feel like the next iteration will be really what this club has deserved from the very beginning.
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