When a team decides to ignore the National Anthem, it’s a problem. And when the stage happens to be an international event, it’s a much bigger problem. I think that’s what the U.S. National Women’s Team discovered this week down in Australia during the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The incident in question occurred during the playing of the national anthem prior to their match against Vietnam.  It is customary for the athletes to rise, put their right hand on their heart and sing the national anthem along with the crowd.   Apparently beforehand the U.S. Women’s National Team decided to ignore this national ritual out of protest about transgender discrimination in women’s sports.

There are many other astounding examples of professional athletes using their platform to protest injustice. In recent years we watched as the NFL San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the playing of the national anthem before games.

The mother of all  sport protests dates back 55 years at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City when John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised black-gloved fists during the playing of our national anthem. In that case they were protesting the way Blacks were being treated in America. They were immediately expelled from the Olympic Village and returned home to be greeted with death threats.

Comedian Roseann Barr’s reputation was forever tainted after she screeched out the national anthem at an MLB game and finished the song  by grabbing her crotch and spitting at the booing crowd.   This was almost as insane as when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face during the Oscars because Rock made a joke about alopecia, a medical condition his wife suffered with.

When a celebrity professional athlete uses the sporting stage to protest some perceived political injustice, it is typically seen to be a display of  arrogance,  self-indulgence and highly inappropriate.

The audience at any sporting event is there to watch artistry and excellence and not to be taught a political lesson.

My guess is that the U.S. National Women’s Team was distracted enough by all of the political turmoil they created to be ousted by Sweden in the round of 16, a stunning surprise for a team that was supposed to win the whole thing.

The truth of all this is that the corporations and television sponsors that support these teams have no moral stake in any of this. They are uniformly driven by money and the profit motive.  And when the viewers who are the customers of these stations and companies are unhappy, that means the corporations are unhappy.  And that means that the athletes who choose to protest publicly this way had better realize that the money and the world stage upon which they perform could be pulled out from under them at a moment’s notice.

When I observe these public relation nightmares unfold, I always sympathize with the agents and handlers who are behind the curtains. The lawyers and agents silently watch in helpless agony as their celebrity stars self-implode before their very eyes.  Athletes are usually young. The young are strong and flexible and filled with energy.  But youth also comes with a profound lack of wisdom. It’s fine to uphold justice and to be self-righteous, but you had better have enough saved up for a rainy day. And as far as the U.S. National Women’s Team goes, the rainy day has just arrived.