I had no idea that
what I was doing was having
that kind of impact
that it would be in a place like this.
That it was that impactful
that I would be part of the fabric of my people.
I'm Briana Scurry,
goalkeeper for the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team.
If you were to go through the course of just my National Team career
you would see a lot of amazing achievement,
and then you'd see some real devastating times as well.
In 1999, for example, I go from
being the goalkeeper who made the
penalty kick save
in amazing fashion and style
winning the World Cup.
And everybody knowing me,
to the very next season,
in the 2000 Olympic Games
to not playing a single game.
And so what happened in between there,
you know I basically
started drinking the Kool-Aid
and lost sight of what was important,
which is my training, and my eating,
and the team.
I was like a kid with a new toy
experiencing all of that stuff.
All of a sudden everybody knew who I was overnight literally,
and I lost sight and I ended up
losing the thing that gave me
that amazing experience.
I essentially pitched a cot in the gym,
I was at the gym all the time.
I got on the Internet
and learned how to eat right,
and train, and rest and sleep,
and all these things that were important.
Fast forward a couple of years,
and I was by far better a goalkeeper in 2004
than I was in '99.
And so that's just one example of
when things don't always go your way,
whether they're self-inflicted
or, you know, happen to you,
or happen by you,
you've got to rise up.
You've got to rise up and be better,
and you can always do more.
I got it during a soccer game.
I was coming out on a low ball.
Ball came from the left-hand side.
So I was looking slightly to the left,
and one of their forwards
came in from the right,
and she was going to try to nip in front
and poke the ball away from me.
And unfortunately ended up smashing right into the side of my head
with her knee,
and my whole world changed from that.
The jerseys in the back --
the names in the backs of the jerseys were all blurry.
And I went home,
and that's when my problems really started.
You know I started to get like dizziness and insomnia,
and that was when I was 38 years old.
So essentially it ended my career
at that point.
And so I was a mess,
I was an absolute mess.
I was depressed.
I had anxiety which I had never had.
I couldn't focus,
and I didn't really talk about it, how bad it was.
Nobody really knew that it was that bad.
Nobody knew I was suicidal for a while.
And the thing that really kept me going
was my mom.
You know at that point she had Alzheimer's.
It wasn't too, too bad,
but it was bad enough.
And I had to continue to fight
and get back to normal
because I wasn't her baby
the way I was.
And I had to get back to being her baby.
Finally I was able to get the right care of the doctor
and was able to come out of that.
And now, you know,
I became an advocate for concussions
because I have to make this mean something.
And so I started doing speeches,
doing articles, doing interviews.
I testified before Congress,
and that was really intense.
There's a long way to go still obviously
but that's the case for any movement.
The interesting thing about being in a museum is,
as an athlete you go about your passion
and your joy for your sport,
and you live it, and you play it,
and you do it to the best of your ability,
and you don't ever really understand,
I didn't,
how my body of work of what I was doing
was affecting other people.
And to find out later, after my career was over
that I was going to be
put into the African-American Museum
was the most humbling thing
that ever happened to me in my life.
I had no idea that
what I was doing was having
that kind of impact that it would be
in a place like this.
That it was that impactful
that I would be part of the fabric of my people.
That it was
important enough to be in here.
Actually, I didn't understand that.
And I'm like, I'm going to be in there with Rosa Parks
and you know, slaves.
and Frederick Douglass, you know, like,
Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali,
and you know I didn't--
I didn't understand it at first.
And it's the Title 9 exhibit that I'm representing.
All the things and all the people's lives
that have been positively impacted by
the passing of Title 9,
and I am the --
symbol of that in here,
It is -- beyond, beyond words.
I am truly baffled.
I didn't know a little girl from Dayton, Minnesota
was going to be in here
just doing what I was passionate about.
So, that's a great honor for me.
Obviously they're going there
in France to win the whole thing.
The interesting thing about this team
team that's very, very different
is their goalkeeping
is now a question mark.
Whereas in the past
when it was either myself or Hope playing,
it was a strength, and you knew that.
It was a known quantity.
Now it's something of a question mark,
because you just don't know.
Because she's never done it before.
Whether it's Alyssa, or Ashlyn,
or anyone else.
None of them have ever played
in a major tournament,
and it's very, very different.
And in every tournament,
whether it's a semifinal game,
the quarterfinal or the final,
that goalkeeping is a factor.
Period.
And we don't know what's going to happen.
So it's going to be interesting.