USWNT’s Alex Morgan is wrong about her tea-sipping critics

I feel by pointing this out that Alex Morgan will understand I’m only doing what she would expect me to do: treat her exactly as I would a man.

The U.S. Women’s national team plays the Netherlands on Sunday in the final step toward defending its Women’s World Cup championship. The team has been besieged by criticism, quite literally, from the first moment it walked on the pitch in France.

Some of it, to these ears, was silly: When the U.S. ran up a 13-0 win over Thailand in the first game, they were treated like a tee-ball team managed by Vic Morrow running up the score — silly given that this is a gathering of the world’s best teams, and also because goal differential is a standard for tiebreakers. Some, to these ears, was warranted: You can celebrate all 13 of those goals without going so over the top that it seems like you’re reacting as if The Rapture were at hand.

Some of it, to these ears, is the same important conversation about the proper time and place for expressing individual freedoms that we used to have about football. And no matter how you feel about Megan Rapinoe kneeling and criticizing the president, you are doing exactly the same thing. And your opinion on the issue matters every bit as much as hers does.

Lately, though, the issue that Morgan raised is — again, to these ears — a lazy one. When she scored a goal against England in the semifinals, she celebrated by mimicking drinking tea, replete with pinky raises. This wasn’t an accident, of course. This was trash-talk of the highest order, pointed directly at England. She heard about that. And this was her response:

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“I feel that there is some sort of double standard for females in sports, to feel like we have to be humble in our successes and have to celebrate, but not too much or in a limited fashion.”

“You see men celebrating all over the world in big tournaments, grabbing their sacks or whatever it is. And when I look at sipping a cup of tea, I am a little taken aback by the criticism.”

And, sorry, this is just wrong. Go back to the very first game involving the most balleyhooed national team of all, when the 1992 Dream Team clobbered Angola 116-48 and Charles Barkley made something of a spectacle of himself. You know what the big story coming out of Barcelona was that day? Barkley the buffoon. He was rightly ripped by everyone. You know why? Because he was representing America. And we are allowed, as Americans, to believe the men and women who wear our colors represent us as we’d wish to be represented.

Later, even the sainted Michael Jordan — then, as now, a man — took a wave of heat after the gold-medal ceremony for using the American flag as camouflage to obscure the Reebok logo on his warmup jacket. Jordan, as we all know, is a Nike guy.

Does making fun of high tea make you a bunch of guttersnipes? No. But you know what? Given the choice I’d rather Morgan have acted like she’d been there before. And I would say exactly the same thing about any man wearing red, white and blue, too. It isn’t a gender thing. It’s a behavior thing.

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And that’s what carries the day.

Look, Mike Eruzione has made a living for close to 40 years thanks to the 1980 U.S. hockey team. And, yes, a good chunk of that is because he scored the game-winning goal in the 4-3 win over the USSR that will forever be one of the great moments in sports history. But it goes beyond that.

As much as the goal, the lasting image of Eruzione at Lake Placid is him singing the national anthem on the medal stand at the top of his lungs. You know what Eruzione and his mates didn’t do? They didn’t mock the fallen Russians. They didn’t exploit a national moment to make a stand about other issues. You know what would have happened if they had?

They’d have gotten killed for it, just as Barkley did in 1992, just as Jordan did. Just as Alex Morgan did. Just as any man would, if he acted stupidly while wearing an American uniform. You didn’t get ripped because you’re a woman, Alex. You got ripped because it was a juvenile thing to do on the world stage wearing red, white and blue.

Vac’s Whacks

We live in a golden age of broadcasting in our town, and Michael Kay and John Sterling are two foundation pieces of that. The airways aren’t the same without them, so they must return, both of them, as good as ever.

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Russell Westbrook to the Knicks wouldnt work right now

LAS VEGAS — If on-the-block Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook…

Lots of basketball fans think stockpiling draft picks is almost as much fun as watching the games. Let’s see if Oklahoma City fans, who have had an almost solid decade of seeing actual high-level basketball, feel the same way by this January. Or next January. Or January 2022. Or …

Speaking of which, if Knicks brass are suddenly feeling their oats and wonder if Russell Westbrook might be a good idea … no. No. A thousand times: no.

Even if it didn’t have a few appearances by my mother’s favorite TV guy, I would tell you to watch “62,000:1,” SNY’s fun look-back at the 1969 sports season in New York. Check the listings for the next time it airs.

Whack Back at Vac

Jerry Vogel: The heck with the 1914 Braves. Just look to this year’s St. Louis Blues. Have the coach throw out the first pitch at a Mets game and rally around him. If he throws a strike, let him be the closer.
Vac: “Gloria! I think they got your number! I think they have the alias! That you’ve been living under!”

Earl St. Claire: Brodie Van Wagenen was right when he said his Mets were the team to beat. They’ve been beaten regularly ever since.
Vac: The GM can wander into as many fan sections as he likes, he has no idea how much real capital he’d gain with those same people if he just owned up to a lousy first year in the job and promised to do better. But he’s like Fonzarelli, forever unable to say “I was wrong.”

@Yoplin: Do you m still think David Fizdale is the right guy for the Knicks? Honest question.
@MikeVacc: I want to give him 40 games with a roster not designed to tank before I can say for sure. I honestly don’t know how to judge him off last year.

Larry Graber: In spite of all the screaming and yelling, I think the Knicks did the right thing by staying away from the prime free agents out there. Good money after bad, players that are near 30 and for the most part getting past their prime. It’s going to be tough, but I feel they are at least trying to build a foundation of young athletic players. They will be better this year.
Vac: What’s the realistic goal that keeps everyone believing? Going from 17 wins to 30? Thirty-four?