By now pretty much all of the 8 billion people on Planet Earth have seen the Coldplay concert meme. But in all of the parodies and reenactments, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe may have done it best.
In case you need your memory jogged, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught on camera at a Coldplay concert with his arms wrapped around the company’s “Chief People Officer” Kristin Cabot. As soon as they were shown on the screen at Gilette Stadium, they quickly tried to distance themselves from each other, but it was too late as their affair would soon become meme fodder for the entire universe.
The Coldplay concert meme has then been reenacted thousands of times in the weeks since, including by SportsCenter anchors Randy Scott and Gary Striewski. But nobody has done it better than women’s sports power couple Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe at Tuesday’s Seattle Storm game.
The former United States Women’s National Team star and Seattle Storm legend often attend games together. However, when Rapinoe was shown on the scoreboard, Bird was not in the empty seat next to her. With Coldplay playing in the background, you probably figured what was coming next.
Sue Bird was in the upper reaches of Climate Pledge Arena with the arms of Seattle Storm mascot Doppler wrapped around her.
Did NOT see this coming 🫢 pic.twitter.com/wk2aFEMtbd
— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) August 6, 2025
The reactions and acting here from both Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe are both Emmy worthy. The facial expressions were top notch in what was overall a fantastic performance. And was that Sue Bird wearing a Mexico soccer jersey to add insult to injury? Shoutout to Doppler as well, it couldn’t be done without a willing and able mascot.
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