Solo began her memoir by writing, "I don't believe in happy endings but my mother did when I was born. ... But my family doesn't do happy endings. We do sad endings or frustrating endings or no endings at all. We are hardwired to expect the next interruption or disappearance or broken promise."

Little wonder. According to her book, Solo was conceived during a conjugal visit between her mother and father when he was serving a prison sentence for embezzlement. Her father, whose real name of Jeffrey John Solo she only learned years later, also was frequently homeless, living on the streets or in a tent in the woods. At one point, when Hope was in college, Jeffrey was falsely accused of murder.

Yet she stayed so close to him that, when her father died in 2007, Solo scattered some of his ashes between the goalposts at games.

Solo also reveals in her book, co-authored by Ann Killion, that, when she was a child, her older brother, Marcus, shot darts and BB guns at her and tried to poke her and a friend with sharp arrows. Their home, Solo wrote, "was a battlefield, a war zone of screaming, swearing and disrespect. Chaos was the norm. ... We pushed and punched and kicked and scratched and screamed insults into each other's faces. He hurt me, he hurt the things I loved. ... I tried to hurt him back. With words and with my fists. I called him fat and stupid and whatever cruel things I could think of."

Yet they, too, were close. "He was not only my tormentor, he was my closest family member and my protector," Solo related in her book. "We could fight each other, but pity the outsider who tried to mess with us."

Thus, it is perhaps not quite so surprising that in 2012 Solo would marry Jerramy Stevens -- whom she oddly never mentions once in her book -- the day after he was arrested (but not charged) after allegedly assaulting her, and despite his background of violent and drunken behavior.

Nor is it surprising that she would be involved in a fight with her half-sister and nephew in June, even now in her 30s.

"There are short fuses involved in that family," said University of Washington women's soccer coach Lesle Gallimore. "There is definitely a pattern of not being able to rationally settle disagreements."

Gallimore knows Solo very well. She coached Solo at Washington, and the two have remained close. Gallimore says that, contrary to perception, Solo never was a problem to coach, that she has a good heart and is someone you want in your corner.

Hope Solo, with her husband, 2002 first-round NFL draft pick Jerramy Stevens. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for ESPY

She first saw Solo become a lightning rod for fans at the 2007 World Cup, when she dared to criticize U.S. national team coach Greg Ryan for his strange decision to bench her in place of fading veteran Briana Scurry in what wound up a 4-0 rout by Brazil. Solo became a pariah for speaking her mind, and she has remained in the spotlight ever since, appearing on "Dancing With the Stars," posing for ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue, tweeting derogatory remarks about Brandi Chastain, marrying Stevens and being involved in the current domestic abuse case.

"Love her or hate her," Gallimore says, "she draws attention."

Asked to describe Solo, Gallimore said her former player is complex and simple all at the same time.

"And that's a little bit of the mystery about Hope," Gallimore says. "She's just a Tri-Cities girl who grew up -- well-documented -- in a tough environment and just came out a fighter. Wanting to fight for herself, and, even more so, fight for those around her. She's one of those kids who just instinctively puts up a guard and is like, 'Hey, there's an injustice here, and I don't want to see someone I'm close to, or someone I think is being treated unfairly, to be treated unfairly.' If she feels like she is being treated unfairly, she will stick up for herself.

"So she's a little bit of a fighter that way, and not in a bad way. That's just her nature."

One reason Solo is such a great athlete is that she never backs down from confrontation. She always fights. Even when she most definitely should not.

The Ray Rice case increased the attention on Solo's domestic violence case, and suddenly her name was being thrown around as the female equivalent of Rice. But there are key differences between the two.

For one thing, Solo's case is a fourth-degree misdemeanor, not aggravated assault.

The most obvious difference, though, is that there is no "elevator video" available. We cannot see what happened. With her trial pending, Solo has not spoken about the fight since it occurred, and she declined to be interviewed for this story. All we know is what's in the police report that is based on the statements of the alleged victims, Solo's half-sister, Teresa Obert, and Solo's nephew. The following details all came from that report.

On the night of June 20, Solo and Obert were at Obert's house in Kirkland, a Seattle suburb. Solo was upset that her husband, Stevens, had refused to drive her to the airport that night. Also in the room was Solo's 17-year-old nephew. He told the police that Solo and his mother were drinking wine.

The nephew said in the report that Solo became upset with him because she thought he was speaking ill of her. He says he tried to explain that he had been making a comment about Jackie Onassis instead. They then began talking about his theater work -- he is a talented young actor -- with the nephew saying that, to be a good actor, you need to have an "athletic state of mind."

According to the report: "Hope told him he would never be athletic, that he was too fat and overweight and crazy to ever be an athlete." This led to the nephew telling Solo to get her "c--- face" out of the house.

Upset, her nephew said he went to the house's rec room, and Solo followed him. He said she called him a "p---y" and he responded that her family was "crazy," particularly her father.

According to the report: "This upset her and she 'charged' him and took a swing at him with a closed fist that 'lightly connected' with his face. He pushed her down to the ground and she immediately got back up and came at him and repeatedly punched him in the face and tackled him. He grabbed her by the hair, took her to the ground and held her there until she calmed down." When he let her go, she grabbed him and started punching him again.

"At this point," according to the report, including quoted material from Obert. "[Obert] came in and tried to pull Hope off the nephew and then Hope punched her in the face several times. The nephew then tried to pull Hope off of Teresa and eventually got a wooden broom that he 'broke over her head' to get her to stop. 'She still would not stop so he got an old gun that did not work (ultimately determined to be a broken bb gun) and pointed it at her in an attempt to get her to leave and stop assaulting them."'

After a pause in which the nephew said Solo circled outside the house and came back, the fighting continued. He told police that he grabbed an aluminum mop and planned to strike Solo with it when the police arrived.

The officer reported that the nephew's nose and left jawbone were red, that his left ear was bleeding and that his arms were bright red with scratch marks. He was crying. Obert had a swollen left cheekbone that was starting to bruise. The officer wrote that Hope said she did not assault anyone and that, after she called her nephew "fat and un-athletic," he hit her over the head with a broom. The investigator said he did not observe any injuries to Solo.

Solo's attorney, Todd Maybrown, asked to depose the Oberts with a court stenographer present last month before the scheduled trial, but the two declined. He then filed a court appeal that they do so. A judge sided with Maybrown last week and ruled that the Oberts must submit to a deposition. This has delayed the trial to January, when we will also hear Solo's version of what happened.

After reviewing the case and speaking with Solo this summer, U.S. Soccer chose not to suspend Solo. "From the beginning, we considered the information available and have taken a deliberate and thoughtful approach regarding Hope Solo's status with the national team," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in September. "Based on that information, U.S. Soccer stands by our decision to allow her to participate with the team as the legal process unfolds."

Former U.S. backup goalkeeper Jillian Loyden sees it differently. She lost her sister, who was killed in an alleged domestic violence case. In an Oct. 6 story on espnW.com, she said Solo should be benched by Team USA.

"I have experienced domestic violence at the worst level -- losing my best friend, losing my hero, losing my sister," Loyden said. "And if I haven't had the courage to say anything yet, how can I expect other people to do that when I haven't done so myself?"

Loyden, who declined to be interviewed for this story, also wrote that Solo was a personal hero. "She's been a great mentor in my life, she's been a great friend for the last five years, and nothing will change on my part," Loyden said. "I will continue to love her through this, and [speaking out] has nothing to do with her. I hope that she's innocent and that her name gets cleared and everything gets resolved."

Her argument is a good one. Domestic violence must be taken seriously if we are to ever lessen it. And yet, are we to punish people before we know allegations are accurate (as the video showed they were with Rice)?

This also is not a case in which a much larger man struck and knocked a much smaller woman unconscious. Solo's nephew is a teenager, but he also is larger than her (she's roughly 5-foot-9, 160 pounds), with several sources interviewed for this story describing him as being close in size to Solo's husband, Stevens, who was listed at 6-foot-7, 260 pounds on his NFL player card.

The whole incident brings up a host of difficult questions. Does the alleged victim's size excuse Solo in any way? Is it equivalent to a powerful, large man punching a much smaller woman unconscious in an elevator? Does gender matter in a case like this -- how would we feel if the fight had involved Solo's niece?

This gets into the question of how we view domestic violence. It is always bad -- that's one area of agreement.

But at the same time, is a fight between two sisters or two brothers equivalent to a husband beating his wife or a man knocking out his fiancée? Is a violent, drawn-out fight between an aunt and a large teenage boy the same as an uncle assaulting a young girl? Is domestic violence always the same, or does it vary by specific case?

As with Solo, this is both simple and complex. Which is one reason a court will resolve this case, not social media or talk radio.

However this ends, this probably will not be the last Hope Solo story captivating sports fans. People will debate her actions again.

"Why does Hope get dragged into it?" Gallimore said of the constant controversy. "People just don't like Hope. That's OK. She couldn't care less. She doesn't want to be liked. She wants to be good. I don't think there's a problem with that, either. You can't be friends with the world. You've got to know who is close to you; you've got to know who your real people are. And you have to stick with that if you're a pro athlete, in my opinion. The rest of it, you just have to just let it roll off you.

"And that's sometimes Hope's problem. At times, she doesn't let it roll off her well enough."