Megan Rapinoe enjoys whirlwind, focuses on soccer pay fight

Megan Rapinoe is enjoying the whirlwind of a two-time World Cup winner.

She picked up the FIFA Player of the Year award in Milan rocking a deeper shade of lavender hair, sent off retiring U.S. coach Jill Ellis with an undefeated victory tour and kept up the fight for pay equity against the U.S. Soccer Federation.

"It's very surreal to say the least," Rapinoe said. "Downtime? When I sleep, that's my only rest time. It's mostly good stuff, so hard to complain."
Rapinoe and her teammates were feted with a ticker-tape parade in New York after their World Cup victory. She shared the same float with U.S. Soccer Federation President Carlos Cordeiro, basking in the chants of "USA" and "Equal Pay."
At the post-parade celebration at City Hall, Cordeiro said, "We believe at U.S. Soccer that all female athletes deserve fair and equitable pay."
"I think it's really counterintuitive, you have two really amazing products in both the men's and women's teams that are both very successful by a lot of different metrics. It's a huge growing business. Soccer in general is growing exponentially in the country, so why not be able to leverage your best assets instead of fighting them all the time?"
"I think it would probably be in everyone's best interests not to drag this thing out or drag it through court, but that's really up to them," she said. "We deserve what is fair and right under the law."
"It's the right thing to do, right side of history." On Sunday, Rapinoe will be aiming for another title when her club team, Reign FC, faces defending champion North Carolina in a