Mary Earps is the Sports Personality of the Year - but she's much more than that
The potential problem with naming someone a Personality is that you run the risk of allowing them to be filtered into a corresponding list of adjectives: brazen, fearless, uncensored, outstandingly good at saving penalties, almost better at TikTok.
Get nothing wrong. Mary Earps is brazen. The England No.1 is fearlessly emotional, gloriously uncensored and just that little bit unhinged when swept up in the moment, particularly a moment wholly defined by her and her goalkeeping gloves.
The thing is (and this is the salient part as the Manchester United shot-stopper claims her latest laurel in a year that might as well be dubbed the Year of Earps): Mary Earps is larger than a personality.
In a modern football milieu in which women are still expected to sit pretty and speak when spoken to, to appreciate the menial gestures, not ask for too much and stop commenting on men's football – Earps is the expletive-laden wrecking ball to football's lingering mediaeval institution.
Another way of putting this is Earps is a state of being, an era in her own right, forever operating at a roar: on her toes, arms wide, fists clenched, mouth open, poised to deliver whatever iconic moment she has to.
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For the last two years, this is precisely how Earps has existed: from lying prostrate on the kitchen floor believing her time in football had run dry after failing to be selected for the England squad to being named a European champion, FIFA's Best Goalkeeper, a Finalissima winner, a two-time Arnold Clark Cup winner, World Cup runner-up and the tournament's Golden Glove winner and finishing in the top five of the Ballon d'Or.
Earps has saved. She's denied, she's inspired, she's won, she's transcended the pitch and the confines of TikTok and recalibrated the world of memes.
She's graced flashy magazine covers, been the subject of world record bids and made women's goalkeeping the very thing that has historically been used as impeachable evidence of women's football's inferior quality in comparison to men's not only cool but an art form.
Earps has also, in more ways than one, defied: the odds, the haters, her uncertainty, football's status quo, a global sportswear juggernaut and its failure to fathom just how big Earps Fever could be.
Mary Earps celebrates winning the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award (David Davies/PA Wire)Which is potentially a misleading description of the fervour surrounding Mary Queen of Stops in the UK and beyond. A fever eventually relinquishes its grip. It fades. Football feels too saturated with Earps for that to happen.
It’s precisely what modern football has needed. Earps’ strength, and subsequently her success as both a footballer and a lucrative brand, is rooted in her unflappable and unapologetic commitment to being herself.
That's not as easy as it sounds, though Earps has made that commitment look as simple as saving a penalty in a World Cup final. Earps' row with Nike, while headline-grabbing, can ultimately be boiled down to her acute understanding of her worth and her refusal to let anyone argue differently.
That lesson is especially priceless for young girls aspiring to follow in the goalkeeper’s footsteps of challenging established worldviews.
Mary Earps claimed the Golden Glove award at this year's Women's World Cup (AP)None of this means Earps is incapable of making mistakes or succumbing to self-doubt. If Earps’ breakdown following England’s Nations League clash with the Netherlands in which her mistake very nearly cost England a crucial victory demonstrated anything, it is that the world’s best women’s goalkeeper is as vulnerable as anyone to the overwhelming weight of heightened expectations.
Earps reacts to FIFA Best nomination and on season so far with Man Utd
Very few have done more to demonstrate and champion to the masses the authentic, raw and complex reality of being an elite-level women’s athlete changing perceptions and lifting standards in real time.
It’s why Earps’ being named this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year is more than just another crowning of an athlete responsible for supplying fans with a special moment (moments* in Earps' case) of personal success that epitomises the country's strength.
Earps' victory is victory for authenticity, and importantly the power that can be harnessed for remaining loyal to it.
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