Team should be ashamed

For the past 15 or so years, I've tried to showcase the best of girls and women in sports. I've always believed females worked just as hard and were just as competitive as their counterparts when it came to athletics.
But, clearly, the two genders are wired differently.
When I was a kid, when we picked teams during recess, it was about winning. It just so happened, the jerks were usually the best athletes. So, everyone wanted the jerk on their team.
It didn't matter that the jerk had threatened them on the bus or taunted them during class or teased them in the lunchroom. If the jerk could help your team win, you picked the jerk.
Basically, the only time the jerk wasn't a jerk was when he was on your team.
I say this because I still can't wrap my tiny, little male brain around this whole U.S. women's national soccer team fiasco.
I don't like soccer. I could care less about the world cup. But, this story has me mesmerized.
They actually kicked the girl off the team?
If you don't know, he's a quick recap. Goalie Hope Solo was benched for no reason for last week's semifinal game against Brazil. The USA lost that game and Solo criticized the coach and, probably inadvertanly, implied she could've done better than the teammate that replaced her.
The next day, Solo apologized to the team and, specifically, the woman who replaced her.
The team captains responded by kicking her off the team. She was not there for the bronze medal game, was not there for the medal ceremony and it wasn't even clear if she would be allowed to fly back from China with the team.
Am I the only person that finds this stunning?
If Terrell Owens or Charles Barkley or Allen Iverson got kicked off the team everytime they criticized their coach and teammates, they would've retired about two years after their rookie season.
Solo wasn't allowed to get the bronze medal that she helped the team win!! The team was unbeaten in its previous 40 games with her in the lineup. Nobody had scored a goal on her in almost 300 minutes.
Yet, she got mad, said some stuff she shouldn't have said, realized it, apologized and was still kicked off. This, after being a starter on the team for the past year or so. I've since found out, she was also bannished from the team completely, forced to stay away from the team in the hotel, forced to eat alone away from the team.
They're in CHINA. Who the hell else does she know in China besides her teammates?
How could you go over there as a team then abandon her all along like that?
My News-Times colleague Kev explained it to me this way saying, "I hate to say it like this but that's just women."
It's the truth.
Women would rather lose with their girlfriends than win with somebody they don't like.
I try not to paint an entire gender with one brush. Perhaps there are some female athletes who aren't catty, who understand what being a team is all about.
It's not about turning your back on a teammate when they make a mistake. Once she apologized, they still could've kept her on the bench. Hell, make her sit under the bench. Take away her starting spot until she proves she's learned from her mistake.
But to abandon a teammate after they've asked for forgiveness, and a teammate that's helped you enjoy a ton of success on the field, is one of the most heinous acts I've ever seen by a group of professional athletes.
For some of the comments she made, Hope Solo probably was a jerk. But, if she's on your team, then she's your jerk. More importantly, she's your teammate. You don't do teammates, jerks or not, like that.
Everyone involved in female athletics should feel ashamed.