JR Sport Brief - Mia Hamm

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. We're talking about a legend. You probably know the name.

It's Mia Hamm. Mia, how are you? I'm doing great. It's great to be here. How are you?

I'm good. I'm glad that you took the time to come on and join us and talk about football, soccer, the world of sports, but then also a very important cause with BMT. We're going to talk about BMT and what it is, but I appreciate the time, Mia. Thank you.

Thank you. So let's start here first. We know that we're in a real interesting time in the sporting calendar. A lot of international competitions go down in the summertime. We just know that we have the conclusion of the Women's World Cup, and we know for the U.S. women's team, national team, there's been a lot of conversation about what they did, what they didn't do, some of the criticisms that they received.

What are your thoughts on what took place out on the other side of the globe? I mean, the players are going to tell you they exited the tournament sooner than they had planned, wanted to, anticipated, so I don't need to judge them on that. It's already been there. I just look at more so what they can do going forward. I think how they kind of resolve the coaching vacancy right now is really important, whether it's short term, because I don't want them to rush into anything if they feel the ideal candidate is out there and they need to wait a certain period of time, whatever that may be. But just getting that higher right, but providing some type of stability for the players and who's going to guide them in the next year, because to qualify for the Olympics is going to be their sole focus. And I think they're a proud group of players. They want to redeem that performance from the World Cup going forward, and I think you're going to see that with, I don't know what the call-ups are going to be like September, October, but just making sure to take every advantage when they are together to getting better. Soccer legend Mia Hamm is here with us, the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio.

Well, this is a lead up. What is occupying most of your time? We know about the legendary work you did on the pitch.

Maybe you can go coach them. What's occupying your time? Well, our kids occupy a lot of our time, and that's been a lot of fun. I love to play golf when I have free time.

I guess I love the pain of going out to the golf course and realizing that I'm not as good as I hope I am. But then a lot of my time is through my foundation and finding ways to kind of help people, and it's one of the reasons I'm so excited about this campaign to kind of partner with Insight to raise awareness for graft-versus-host disease, which is a potential complication after a bone marrow transplant, making sure that people that are on their bone marrow transplant journey understand that certain symptoms might arise that they can be proactive about by talking to their healthcare team, because everyone reacts to graft-versus-host differently. So through the website, gvhdnow.com slash fans, those patients and their families can find out more information and really take care of each other. And for me, with my foundation and the illness with my brother, I wasn't able to kind of help people on my own. I had teammates that really were important in my journey. And so to make sure that these patients know that we're cheering them on and we are here for them.

Mia Ham is here with us. The JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. Mia, go ahead and share that website and note for us one more time where people can find out more information, because as you mentioned, this is something near and dear to your heart because of your brother.

Yes, it's gvhdnow.com slash fans. And you're right. The Mia Ham Foundation's genesis was because of my relationship with my brother and seeing the struggles he had to go through both physically, emotionally, but trying to find, because he was adopted, a match for him in the National Bone Marrow Registry. The financial toll it took on my parents and using his memory to inspire me to help families going through similar circumstances. And the other part of the Mia Ham Foundation is empowering girls through sports, because that's what my brother did for me. You know, when it wasn't cool to really hang out with your sister, he did. He invited me onto the playing field and helped me, you know, gave me value when I was out there. And I think to have someone that I looked up to as much as I did him validate my love for sport, just helped me in my career.

It's the JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio. Soccer legend Mia Ham is joining us. Mia, I can certainly understand family. I'm also adopted. And so it's very important for me to really look into familiar past and history and BMT.

So kudos to you and everything that you've done. When you think about family and you think about the time spent with your kids, we see the explosion of the sport, not just from when you played, but even up until now here with with Messi in the United States of America, on this side of the globe, getting ready to host the World Cup in a few years. What are your thoughts on where the sport is going, where it's come from, where it continues to go?

Yeah, I mean, I think about when I was watching World Cups and predominantly on Spanish speaking networks. And now you can go to a host of US based, you know, companies that that either watch live or stream from leagues all over the world, both men's and women's. You know, we have a thriving women's league here in the States. And MLS has been around for 20 plus years, 25 plus years.

I think so much positivity is happening through our game. You see household names playing both in our domestic leagues and some of the top leagues around the world and making a difference. And bringing that experience and making our national teams better.

You have domestic coaches coaching foreign national teams and in international leagues, you know, gaining more and more credibility every single day. The sport has grown so much. And when you talk about Messi being here, and the excitement that comes around watching a game, you know, we're, we're part owners of LAFC and Angel City and we've all been called saying, hey, are you going to use your tickets when Miami comes in town?

And I was like, of course we are. We'll be at the game. We'll be cheering for LAFC but to watch a special player like Messi and it's really, it's really hard to describe until you watch him play, because you're sitting there going.

He's five seven, maybe on a good day, you know, with, with his longer studs in and his balance in his proprioception and his technical speed are so special. It's like, just watching, you know, one of the best dancers in the world just perform their craft and, you know, I was able to watch him play with Barcelona, and then now to be able to welcome him into our, our backyard at BMO Stadium is going to be pretty exciting. Mia, we saw Messi walk away with the World Cup finally got the monkey off of his back a little bit, you're a two time World Cup champion over the past week there's been a lot of conversation over the past few days about what a world champion is or is not is no What is your perspective as someone who's competed all over the world and is decorated.

Oh no, you're really setting me up, because it's a conversation that my husband and I have after the, the World Series and I know the World Series for a long time. But they call themselves the world champions, I'm, I'm in that camp that I'd like to see them play, you know, maybe the winner of the Japanese, the Korean League, the other leagues just to, just to, you know, just to, you know, just to, you know, I understand they have so many players from all over the world playing. But, you know, you feel that competing in a world that is not going anywhere. You know, I understand they have so many players from all over the world playing, but you know, you feel that competing in a World Cup when you have the best 32 teams in the world, that, you know, the wonderful thing I always say about the international game is you're not just playing the 11 players on the field and whoever is part of the roster, whether it be 18 or 24, you're playing against the identity of that country. And so every game brings about different obstacles and problems to solve. You're not gonna play the same system.

Even if you play the same system, it's gonna be a different style. You know, one team might be more direct, the other team might be more technical, smaller passes. And then another team might be just on the ball, this incredible 1v1 flare, I think of Brazil. And then you play Germany that is just so disciplined in their style that really hard to break down and hard to get them to make a mistake.

And if and when they do, you have to capitalize on it. So I'm probably, I'm leaning more towards the camp of like, yeah, world champion needs to compete against more than just one country's league. The two-time world champion is talking to us with both the World Cup and the Olympics.

Mia Hamm is here. Over the years, from everything that you've competed in and all of your accomplishments, do you feel that the women in the women's league has garnered more respect? We have the nonsense with Rubiales last week and the KISS, et cetera. Do you still see that there's been a progression made? Yes, and I think you see that from this Women's World Cup, the fact that we have had more teams than we've ever had in previous Women's World Cup. You've had teams that have advanced to the knockout stage in their first time, teams winning their first game, scoring their first goals. You know, not necessarily the, you know, the high scores that you had anticipated for some of these games. The team showed up and played their hearts out and really showed that the small amount of investment that's made in these women's programs, just how much they've gained, and just imagine if they were fully committed and fully funded like their men's programs were, just how good they can be. And so that's what excites me, that these member associations, these confederations see the value in what was on display, both for the teams that competed, but for the teams that just missed out and say, hey, this is going, the next World Cup, this is gonna be our women's team.

We certainly hope to see some major moves and see the progression to take place. Mia, I wanna thank you so much for your time. Please share with us once again where people can find out more information about BMT, your foundation, everything you're working on. I appreciate that, JR. It's gvhdnow.com slash Vans, and just appreciate your time in helping us spread the message and the importance of being aware of graft-versus-host disease. No problem. Always a pleasure chatting it up with a legend. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio.

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