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Do you care that Hope Solo’s husband’s been arrested again?

Nov 28, 2012, 6:14 PM EDT

Hope Solo AP

Do you know how many times Amy Rodriguez’s husband’s been arrested? Or Shannon Boxx’s? Or Heather O’Reilly’s or Christie Rampone’s?

Neither do I.

If you did have access to this information, would you care?

Again, neither would I.

As unfair as those questions are to the husbands of Rodriguez, Boxx, O’Reilly and Rampone, it serves a point. People care about Hope Solo’s personal life. A lot. It’s an artifact of the same trans-sport celebrity that’s allowed her to appear on Dancing with the Stars, adorn the cover of Shape magazine, and cash in with an autobiography.

It’s part of the game she’s electing to play, one which she seems to acknowledge (if anything can be discerned by her attitude toward the media), even if she wishes people found better uses for their time.

That Solo’s new husband, former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens, also has a degree of celebrity makes stories like today’s arrest in Florida automatic blog fodder. ProFootballTalk has the news. Yes, Solo’s bad boy boyfriend’s back in handcuffs. Yes, this adds to the narrative of a rebellious Solo thumbing her nose at the world (to use the nicer of two hand gesture idioms). But isn’t that narrative firmly established?

There’s an undercurrent of misplaced protection in the current dialog about Solo, somebody who has firmly established she can take care of herself. Is Solo too good for him, people have asked? It’s a ridiculously judgmental question. Does Hope know what she’s doing? I don’t know. We didn’t ask these questions about the recently married Rodríguez or O’Reilly. Was Hope the victim of domestic violence? Any assumption to that end is reckless (particularly considering her denial she was assaulted).

At some point, everybody needs to acknowledge that they know almost nothing about Jerramy Stevens and Hope Solo, as a couple. If Stevens is arrested, it’s news, but it’s not a warning sign for Solo, nor is it a reflection on her character, state of mind, or even her celebrity. It would be naive to assume Solo’s unaware of Stevens’ past, just as it’s naive to assume anybody knows more about what’s best for Solo than Mrs. Jerramy Stevens herself.

Jerramy Stevens was arrested on a probation violation today. He’s an ex-NFL player, and he’s married to Hope Solo. That’s about it.

The question I put to you, PST’ers, is whether you care, on what level, and why? Because it seems (at least within the soccer community) that there’s some major Hope Solo fatigue going on, a lot of which has to do with events beyond her control.

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