Retired soccer star Megan Rapinoe has traded sports for Hollywood as she will soon release a television series centered on lesbian athletes.
Rapinoe and her partner Sue Bird’s production company, A Touch More, will create the series based on the novel Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner.
The story centers on two players on the same team, Grace and Phoebe, who fall in love as they prepare to compete for the World Cup. Future Shack, the company that produced Fox’s Murder in a Small Town and Good Cop/Bad Cop on the CW and Roku, is also involved.
“We are thrilled to be working with Future Shack to bring Meryl Wilsner’s wonderful book to life. Having spent most of our lives on teams, we want to celebrate the ways in which relationships, both romantic and platonic, are organically created through sports,” Rapinoe and Bird said in a statement. “Cleat Cute will not shy away from the messiness, occasional frustration, and undeniable beauty that come with loving the game and the players within it.”
Future Shack CEO Jeff Wachtel credited Bird and Rapinoe with women’s sports’ increasing ability to “captivate audiences around the globe” by virtue of being the “most iconic athletes of our time.”
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Bird was the No. 1 WNBA draft pick in 2002 and won four championships and five Olympic gold medals. Rapinoe has won two World Cups in addition to having an Olympic gold medal.
Bird has been retired from basketball since 2022, and the pair have been engaged since 2020. Rapinoe was Bird’s first public relationship since she came out in 2017. They met during the 2016 Rio Olympics while representing the United States.
