Brandi Chastain talks about LeBron dustup

Wednesday’s allDAY blog post on whether the Vogue cover featuring NBA star LeBron James and supermodel Gisele Bundchen perpetuates racial stereotypes generated some passionate comments — well over 200, in fact.

Among the commenters was Brandi Chastain, a former member of the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team. Chastain, who won two World Cup titles and two Olympic gold medals, knows a little something about controversial cover photos. At the 1999 World Cup, she scored the championship-clinching goal and tore off her jersey in celebration to reveal her sports bra — a moment that landed her on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Time and Newsweek.

The celebration touched off an array of discussions about feminism, propriety, the impact it had on young girls, and, more simply, whether Chastain took off her jersey spontaneously or as a stunt.

NBC producer Dan Fleschner spoke with Chastain on Wednesday night to get her perspective on the Vogue photo and on being the subject of a cover controversy.

Dan Fleschner: What struck you about the Vogue cover?

Brandi Chastain: I’m in Hawaii right now doing soccer camps for kids. This morning I turned on TODAY and there was the photo. My initial reaction was, “That’s an interesting choice of a photograph.” From my perspective, I saw more of Gisele in it than of LeBron. It caught my interest in an odd way, and I wasn’t sure why.

I was having breakfast and saw that there was a debate about it, so I turned up the volume and heard about the racism aspect. I couldn’t have been further away from that perspective. As I wrote in my comment, everyone sees something like that from their own perspective, so not everyone will see it from a race perspective or gender equity or whatever.

My overall reaction was that it wasn’t the first photo I would have chosen. I looked at the others, and so many were quite beautiful — not that this one wasn’t — but maybe others showed more of the character of the individuals.

But then again, the whole point of the photos — including the other models — was of their bodies, and those two are known for being in those positions a lot. I’ve never heard of anyone crying foul about LeBron making that face on the basketball court or people saying anything bad about Gisele except some envious people like myself about her beauty.

But I think it was putting the two of them together in those poses that caused the controversy.

DF: Why did you decide to weigh in on the subject with a blog comment?

Chastain: It struck me because everybody is going to have their opinion about it. I learned that in ’99. No matter what I said, I could never convince everyone why I [took off my jersey]. People always say, “You meant to do it, it was a setup.”

I will never convince everyone that it was just exuberance, enjoyment, excitement. There will always be someone out there to make a counter opinion.

A father said to me one time, “Why did you do that? I can’t let my daughter walk around in jog bra.” I said, “Do you take daughter to beach?” He said yes. I asked if he let her wear a bathing suit, and he said yes. So I said, “Yet you have a problem with it here?”

I’m never going to argue that we should all think alike. Things like this open the door to conversations that we wouldn’t have had if the picture had not come out. And that’s a good thing. Pretending something doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

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