'I get to walk away smiling': Megan Rapinoe calls time on peerless career

"I guess I just rode it until the wheels came right off," Rapinoe laughed. "You don't always get perfect endings, but I've also had so many perfect endings."

Rapinoe's humor in the face of defeat is nothing new. She's been remarkably level-headed and easygoing about many of her career hurdles, from this Achilles injury to missing a penalty in this summer's World Cup. 

For Rapinoe, it seems that moving on from the lows comes easily when the highs are as high as hers have been.

She's led the U. S. Women's National Team to unprecedented highs, including back-to-back World Cups in 2015 and 2019, and has brought the OL Reign to the NWSL championships game on three separate occasions.

"I always tried to play the game the right way," she told The Athletic. "Always tried to enjoy it. At the end of the day, I feel like we are in the entertainment business, and especially in a growing sport and a growing league, I feel like that's really important — always try to make things better."

While Rapinoe never took home an NWSL trophy, she is undoubtedly one of the league's true champions — someone who steadied the competition in its rocky early years, drew eyeballs and press inches during its growth periods and launched it into the success it is today.

Her celebrity and influence helped grow the league from a shaky replacement league for the dying Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) competition to a commercial behemoth.

Just 11 seasons on, the NWSL averages nearly 20,000 fans per match across the country and recently sold its television rights for a reported $240M. 

"I'm a proud, gay aunt, looking down on the league like, 'damn, we did good,'" Rapinoe said. "But they're going to be able to take it so much further.

"I feel like I get to walk away smiling no matter what."