Abby Wambach supports USWNT players in wage dispute

WASHINGTON — Despite her drunk driving arrest last weekend, former U.S. national team soccer player Abby Wambach has not slowed down.

The 35-year-old World Cup champion took the stage at a women’s leadership conference at Georgetown University on Saturday, speaking about her arrest, her support for U.S. women’s national team players in a wage discrimination dispute and her desire to tackle “true equality.” Wambach has been speaking at various universities around the country this week about leadership and equal opportunity.

“It’s not me that’s going to change the world,” Wambach said. “I can come up with the idea and it could last for 15 years or whatnot, but really what impacts and changes the world is the next generation.”

Wambach immediately addressed her arrest at the OWN IT Summit while being interviewed by Norah O’Donnell, co-anchor of CBS This Morning, expressing her regret and embarrassment, before shifting the focus to soccer and leadership.

She applauded what she called “a courageous step” by several members of the women’s national team, who recently filed a wage discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the U.S. Soccer Federation, calling for an investigation into the organization’s payment structure and seeking wage equality with their male counterparts.

Abby Wambach says she's 'embarrassed, ashamed' after arrest

On behalf of their entire team, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn and Hope Solo argue they are paid 40 percent of what the U.S. men’s national team players make, despite being more successful and well-known, according to their attorney, Jeffrey Kessler.

Although some high-profile players make extra money on the side, Wambach described how many players aren’t making much money — “it’s not like the women on the national team are making millions and millions of dollars” — even if they were members of the World Cup team.

“That’s why this fight is so important,” she said. “It’s not for even the highest paid player or the best players on the team. It’s for the other players who, in a lot of ways, make the success of the national team possible.”

After retiring in December, Wambach said she started feeling angry, wishing she pushed the envelope more as a player on issues important to her, including gay rights and women’s issues.

So to have an impact, she started speaking to students to encourage them to push for change so the next generation doesn’t have to work as hard for success.

“In every room you walk into, there’s somebody that’s a minority, there’s somebody that’s being treated less than or equal to,” Wambach said. “It costs zero dollars to give somebody love, kindness, compassion and respect. Zero dollars.”