Let’s get it back to athlete vs. media beefs.

In a recent Zoom session, Delran native Carli Lloyd decided that she was going to chide the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald. A snarky pot shot here:

The background is that the United States is going to be naming a squad for the coming Olympics. Lloyd is a legend and has a trophy case that’s larger than Mike Francesa’s ego, but she’s 38 years old and a lot of people have been fairly wondering if her time is up. Lloyd, understandably, uses that as motivation.

Tannenwald thinks that Lloyd is on the roster bubble. He also said that Alex Morgan should start over Lloyd at the 2019 World Cup, which is exactly what ended up happening. Morgan started and scored six goals and Lloyd scored three goals off the bench as our women went on to just obliterate everything in their path. They slapped the competition silly. It wasn’t even close.

But the point is that there’s always been a lingering minor beef between these two. Jon beats the women’s soccer drum harder than anyone and provides a lot of needed media coverage for the sport. The Women’s national team and WOSO community should be very appreciative of that. And Lloyd is a local legend who has earned the right to say whatever she wants, because she’s a boss.

However, it’s not the reporter’s job to “support” her as the hometown dude, it’s his job to call it how he sees it. He doesn’t owe shit to Carli just because she’s local, and she’s smart enough to realize that.

I think what we need to do is find a resolution to this conflict. I have proposed four options:

(Not for nothing, but Carli Lloyd takes some flak in women’s soccer circles because of comments deemed “tone deaf” based on the current social justice climate. It’s a somewhat fascinating niche topic that will make you want to pull your hair out after some reading.)