She Gave to World Shirt Off Her Back

Brandi Chastain opened the e-mail message from a close friend. It contained a news item about an Iranian soccer player who was fined $1,200 and suspended six months after scoring a goal, tearing off his shirt . . . and pulling down his shorts. “I don’t think you have to go this far,” the friend suggested in the note.

The teasing hasn’t stopped, but Chastain can take it. Why, she is the source of some of it; at a U.S. Olympic Committee dinner in Washington recently, she stood behind the microphone and revealed, with comic timing, that she would under no circumstances rip off her dress.

Chastain and her teammates never did understand the fuss created when Chastain yanked off her jersey after scoring the winning penalty kick in the United States’ overtime victory in the Women’s World Cup. The sports bra underneath, after all, is standard exercise equipment for many women. “It’s not,” teammate Tiffeny Milbrett said, “like she stripped down to her bare-naked self.

“No doubt it was a powerful, powerful image, but that was because she won the darn game for us.”

That victory concluded a tournament that brought an unprecedented level of attention to women’s team sports in the United States. It also helped the U.S. players negotiate a contract for equal pay with the men’s team. And it gave Chastain--who appeared on three national magazine covers after the final--more promotional opportunities than she ever imagined would come her way.

Yet the most fundamental part of Chastain’s life has hardly changed. She’s back on the field this summer, just another veteran player fighting to earn the respect and confidence of new coach April Heinrichs as the U.S. women’s national team prepares for its next challenge: the Olympics. The U.S. team is the defending Olympic champion, having won the first gold medal awarded in women’s soccer at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. “I love soccer more than I ever have in my life,” Chastain said. “And I feel a new sense of urgency in my training habits.”

That, perhaps, can be credited to the arrival of Heinrichs, who took over for longtime coach Tony DiCicco after he retired abruptly last fall. At first, veteran defender Kate Sobrero said, Heinrichs “scared the living dickens out of all of us” with her serious approach and stoic demeanor. Chastain said Heinrichs has a playful side--it’s just hidden a little. Chastain recalled playing in 1991 with Heinrichs, then a star player on the U.S. squad, and making a mistake on the field. “I’ve never been reprimanded so badly in my life,” Chastain said. “I was scared to death of her.”

Once Heinrichs made it clear that she wasn’t tearing up the roster and booting off the veteran members of the World Cup team, players began to relax--and to realize that the timing was right for a new coach. Chastain said Heinrichs brought a more wide-open, attack-oriented playing style. She also harbors a philosophy of days off before games, giving players a chance to rest sore legs. Before the final at the Algarve Cup in Portugal, where the U.S. team defeated Norway, Heinrichs used her final practice session to allow the U.S. players to enjoy a wacky game of soccer-golf.

“She’s a tough nut,” Chastain said, “but I truly enjoy playing for her.”

When not training or participating in tournaments such as the Gold Cup--which will take place through July 3 in Hershey, Pa., Foxboro, Mass., and Louisville--Chastain also has paused to enjoy her newfound fame. Before taking the penalty kick, Chastain, 31, was an assistant soccer coach at Santa Clara University and an anonymous defender on a team known mostly for one player: Mia Hamm. Immediately after, she was a bona fide celebrity. Chastain insists, though, that the shirt-tossing was an act of spontaneous joy, not calculated publicity-seeking. Nicknamed “Hollywood” by her teammates early in her nine-year career with the national team, Chastain has never shunned the spotlight, but her story is credible: She routinely pulled her shirt off in hot weather conditions throughout the tournament.

“I’m not unhappy I did it,” she said. “I think it was a liberating moment for myself and I hope it was a liberating experience for other people.”

Added Chastain: “I enjoy having the opportunity to talk about this great game of soccer. Before, I had to chain them to a chair so they would listen.”

When Chastain made those remarks at a recent media gathering sponsored by the USOC, she did not have to chain anybody to a chair. She was surrounded by a mob of about 30 leaning reporters, jockeying to get a prime front seat. Since the World Cup, Chastain has appeared on a variety of news programs and in magazine stories. She has been the featured speaker at several events and become the answer to trivia questions on national game shows. In fact, in response to a question at a junior Miss America pageant, a contestant said she disapproved of the shirt removal.

Chastain, though, had the last laugh.

Former U.S. teammate Tisha Venturini was among the judges at the pageant.

“She probably got marked down for it,” Chastain said with a smile. “It backfired on her.”

Chastain said she has heard mostly positive words from supporters. As she sat in a hotel lobby in Orlando earlier this spring, a group of teenage boys walked by and called out, “Nice kick!”