For most of the last couple of weeks, this nation has basked in the glow of the United States women’s national soccer team’s win in the World Cup finals.

 

From sea to shining sea and across computer screens and tablets and smartphones, Americans have declared their undying love for the plucky bunch of young women who banded together to bring home that tiny gold trophy for the first time in 16 years.

 

Along the way to the 5-2 win over Japan in the finals and all the way through the match, messages of undying love and support flashed through tweets and Instagram and Facebook posts. And thousands of people turned out in Manhattan for a ticker tape parade.

 

During these days of divisiveness and strife, it’s a beautiful thing when disparate constituencies can unite behind the common goal of rooting our country’s female athletes on.

 

Actually, there’s something else that unifies us Americans in the context of women athletes. We could care less about them unless they’re wearing red, white and blue.

 

Indeed, it’s a near certainty that most of the women on the U.S. team will go into the sports version of witness protection by the end of the month, if not sooner.

 

Our passions get stirred to fever pitch in the midst of high profile international competitions, then get reduced to a mild elevation just after the competition is over. And within a reasonable time, we slip back to good old-fashioned cold indifference.

 

It’s the American way. And it’s time tested. Go back to 1999, when the U.S. team last won the World Cup. Remember how we just couldn’t get enough of Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain’s sports bra?

 

The love affair between the American sports fan and the women’s soccer team lasted so long that two prospective professional leagues went out of business in three years.

 

There’s a current organization, the National Women’s Soccer League, populated with players from this year’s World Cup team.

 

It’s doing so well financially that former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy has two players living in his home in Houston because they can’t afford housing on their own.

 

That was sarcasm, in case you missed it. And it’s not just soccer. Women play professionally in a variety of sports, including softball and hockey. Good luck finding mentions of either in your local newspaper, much less on television.

 

The exception is the WNBA, which celebrates its 19^th year of operation next year, about 19 more than many critics figured it deserves. Even there, salaries and revenues are a far cry from what NBA players and owners receive.

 

The free market types among us will say that women should earn their athletic keep in the marketplace just like men do.

 

Take away the decades of a head start that men have at being accepted as professional athletes in America and there’s not a Mia or Serena or Carli that wouldn’t jump at the chance to sustain themselves in the marketplace.

 

The confetti from Friday should be out of the soccer team’s hair soon. We’ll see if the public still recognizes them without it.

Check out the audio version of this piece at WYPR. It airs each Monday at 4:45 p.m. and re-airs Tuesday mornings.