The life of the love of athletes have been a national obsession for almost as long as we have had professional athletes: Marilyn Monroe And Joe Dimaggio's relationship was great news in the 1950s, for example. Then and for a long time after, our interest was generally focused on pairs like those in which an established celebrity was linked with a sports icon and their combined star power made the diversion of the gaze impossible.
Then came the 2006 World CupThis brought the England team to the Baden-Baden pirate, Germany. It was a year after the beginnings of TmzIn the booming days of the toxic concern of America with party girls as Lindsay Lohan And Paris Hilton – Media societies began to understand what they could do online with celebrity gossip. The 24/7 news cycle was hungry for women to eye and hate in an equal measure, and it found them reactive in the women and friends of England players.
Among them, some tabloid lights established, notably Victoria Beckham (married, of course, in David) and the pop star Cheryl Tweedy (then engaged in Ashley Cole, left back for Team England). But the group also included many otherwise non -famous women. And they are not lying down, instead Courage By shopping, dancing, dancing on tables and in general, a multimedia circus which lasted until their partners are ousted from the tournament in the first round of the scene with direct elimination.
This is how the rest of the world met the Wagan acronym that had been circulated In the British press for a few years at that time. Speaking literally, a WAG is simply the woman or the girlfriend of an athlete. But the WAG as we see in Baden-Baden housed in public conscience, creating an identity indicating a type of woman, living a particular type of life. The prototypical WAG is young, white, thin, beautiful and, if possible, blond. It is also superficial, oriented and obsessed with status. She lives to drink pink wine, go to the holidays and spend her husband's money.
There was immediately the term, in particular wives themselves: “” Don't call me a Wag “,” Tweedy said The standard, making sure to clarify that she did not need a rich husband to take care of herself – her heavy shopping and her clubs were made on her own ten, thank you very much.
It didn't matter. The jargon – and its associations – stuck. In 2010, the New York Times note That the nets of the New Jersey “could be second position of the Ligue in a scoring and in the middle of the road in rebound, but they can compete with the best of Wag.” (One of their attackers, Kris Humphries, went out with Kim Kardashian at the time.) In 2015, E! made his debut on a reality TV show called WAGS LAwhich would become the first of a Housewives style franchise which finally included Miami And Atlanta Also. Then, in 2019, we obtained the Wagatha Christie Scandal: Wag Coleen Rooney football claims according to which his compatriot Wag Rebekah Vardy had disclosed details about him in tabloids … and that she had private Instagram messages to prove it. The story was juicy and fun, but it did not do much to dispel the idea that Wag Life was for fundamentally petty and catante women, women who had nothing better to do than to be espirum and go there to the press on this subject.
Throughout all this, the Wags that attracted the most attention were almost always famous themselves, or joined forces with extremely well-known players. If you can name an American Wag, he is probably someone like Curry Ayesha Or Brittany Mahomes – Women whose husbands command several million dollars and approval agreements.
But there are 15 players on each list of the NBA. The NHL allows 23, MLB takes 40 years and the NFL consists at 53 years. And most of these players are not even about to be guys from the brand. The least low means that the minimum league, which still represents a lot of money: somewhere between $ 700,000 and a million dollars, according to sport. But it is only if they can stay on the list all year round. The drop in the upper level does not remove them from the pros, but this can cost them a substantial income. Baseball players, for example, have no guaranteed contracts, which meant that if you were sent to minors during the 2022 season, your salary went from $ 700,000 to $ 57,200.
Which is still not the salary of poverty, of course. But for these athletes, the uncertainty concerning money is aggravated by other types of uncertainty – mainly on the place where you live, possible injuries and a body always of age. The romantic partner of a player is subject to these same pressures – income fluctuations, sudden changes in the life situation and concerns for the future. But she imposes them in the service of someone else's dream. And even if she travels fairly regularly, she spends a good part of the year alone, which becomes particularly difficult if the couple has children.
This is the life of the majority of professional athletes and their women; There are many, many more Kucharczyks Allison than there are Currys Ayesha. Unsurprisingly, some of the most convincing social media content comes from women in this situation – whose husbands live the dream, but somewhat precariously, and whose life, consequently, is equal aspiring and relatable.
