Carli Lloyd – 2x Olympian, former U.S. Women’s National Team member, and current FOX Sports analyst, joined Kevin Hart’s Cold As Balls from Laugh Out Loud Network. The episode has already surpassed 2 million views. While in ice baths, the comedian asked the women’s soccer star about her time on and off the pitch.
Most of the conversation orbited around the game’s growth, exemplified by the record-breaking attendance at the Women’s World Cup 2023.
According to the BBC in August, “Almost two million fans attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand – up by more than 600,000 on the previous record.” Even more recently, Netflix released a four-part docuseries, Under Pressure: The U.S. Women’s World Cup Team, following the USWNT players during the competition. Lloyd is featured in the docuseries as a critical voice of the team.
While learning zany facts was fun, the best portions of Lloyd and Hart’s conversation were about Lloyd’s career shift into sports commentary. Unfortunately, Cold As Balls‘s edit and quick-fire questioning left little room for Lloyd to expound on the topic. Her anecdotes about 17 years on the USWNT and her navigation of turbulence on and off the field lent nicely to her gratitude for her position as “a leading example for young women in sports.”
Lloyd made those comments after the United States moved to the round of 16 through a draw with Portugal. Instead of being angry or distraught, the players expressed happiness with each other and gratitude to the fans. As FOX Soccer posted on X (formerly Twitter), Lloyd said, “I have never witnessed…I’m just seeing these images for the first time right now, at the desk. I have never witnessed something like that. There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing? To be smiling?… You’re lucky to not be going home right now.”
Echoed in Steph Yang’s piece for The Athletic, the USWNT showing joy in playing the game on the world’s stage isn’t a bad thing. Of course, there were things to critique about the team’s performance in that match. So, it was strange for Lloyd to lead with the team’s happiness as a wrong response to the draw. The nature of commentary like that left little room for constructive criticism – an unfortunately common trend that became all the more vitriolic among online discussions during the competition.
Sports Illustrated relayed a recent FIFA and FIFPRO report, revealing that “the USWNT team faced more than twice the amount of online abuse than any other nation” during the Women’s World Cup 2023.
Lloyd isn’t responsible for that online abuse by any means, but she should be accountable for how she comments on the game and its players. With her decorated history, Carli Lloyd’s space on a panel has the power to be invaluable.
“I get so much flack because I’m speaking truth and honesty and stuff that I’ve experienced and I’ve seen, which should be embraced,” Lloyd said on Laugh Out Loud Network’s Cold As Balls. While partly true, that statement ignored the source of the “flack.” Regarding the World Cup, the pushback stemmed from a frustration with Lloyd side-stepping constructive feedback of the game for low-blow digs at the players’ mentality.
Fittingly, Lloyd and Hart’s discussion on the topic ended with her saying, “For women’s sports and women’s soccer in general, we need to get to a place where we can critique, where we can offer more opinions.” Despite Lloyd’s often divisive commentary, it’s undeniable that as the women’s game grows in the United States and worldwide, more voices critically and thoughtfully engaging with the sport is a benefit. Hopefully, the space continues to evolve in a considerate way — from the pundit panels to social media.
Watch Carli Lloyd on Cold As Balls below:
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