This Merry-Go-Round SUCKS

I’ve been putting off writing about the latest steaming pile dropped by the NWSL’s headquarters because I’m just so tired. But the league—and NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman—has plumbed new depths of absurdity and seem to be diving deeper into their ridiculousness.

**deep breath** Okay, let’s do this.

Should We Talk About the Weather? (👋🏼👋🏼)¹

Jessica Berman would rather we didn’t. Scheduling an afternoon kickoff anywhere east of the Sierra Nevada and/or Cascade Mountains is mind-blowingly reckless. (And even then, west coast weather has been a bit of a crapshoot lately, with seemingly more days/weeks hitting triple-digit heat.)

THIS POINT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE UP FOR DEBATE.

And yet, in order to appease the executives at CBS, the league agreed to a 3 p.m. (CT) kickoff time for a marquee matchup between the league-leading Kansas City Current and the reigning NWSL champions Orlando Pride. Now, a 3 p.m. kickoff in either city would seem ridiculous (and was flagged as such by the NWSLPA when the schedule was first drafted); however, that was the time slot offered, and the league office gleefully snapped it up without any pushback for a more reasonable evening primetime spot.

What was CBS showing in the 7 p.m. CT time slot you ask? They showed repeat episode of 48 Hours.

The NWSL couldn’t play a nationally-televised high-stakes game in evening primetime because CBS would rather show reruns.

I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in. You good? Let’s carry on.

Now, there was a small chance that it all could have worked out for the league and they would have had a pleasant afternoon at CPKC Stadium. After all, here in North Carolina, we had fall-like temperatures for the entire month of August (we call it “false fall”).

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen in Kansas City. What did happen was an absolute shit show that included a threat from Berman to fine the Current over their perfectly reasonable request for a safer kickoff time.

For most of the preceding week, forecasters had predicted extreme heat for the weekend of August 16, causing officials from the Current and the Pride to raise concerns with the league office about an afternoon start time. The league chose to proceed as planned, so the game could be nationally televised, even when staff from the two teams asked the league the morning of the game to push back the start time.

The forecasts proved correct. While fans filed into the stadium, the temperature soared above 90F. As kickoff drew near, the wet bulb temperature was nearly 94 degrees, surpassing the NWSL’s 92.3F safety threshold. Despite that, players were sent out for pregame warmups, only to have the first of several weather delays send them back to their respective locker rooms.

Let me take a moment to give a huge shout-out to the medical staff of both the Current and the Pride, who did their best to make the safety of everyone on the field their top priority.

What followed was over three hours of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WGBT) readings² every 15 minutes, apparently in the hopes that, somehow, the sun would just stop being so damn hot in the middle of August (after all, there was a game to be televised!).

At least CPKC is a new stadium, having opened in 2024, so players, technical staff, and match officials were able to retreat to air-conditioned locker rooms. The fans attending the game, however, were not so fortunate. They tried to find refuge in shaded areas, and the Current did their best to help fans stay hydrated during the delay. Many gave up and left as the weather delay stretched into hours.

By the time the WBGT reading had dropped to a “safe” level, it was already after 6 p.m. CT, and CBS was airing a preseason NFL game, pushing the Current/Pride match off the network and onto their streaming platform. The electric crowd atmosphere that a game of this caliber would normally create had largely disappeared with the fans who gave up and went home.

The game itself was a 0-0 slog that saw three players leave the game with injuries—a problem that seems to happen more often following lengthy weather delays.

One of the injured players was Zambian international and Golden Boot contender Barbra Banda, who injured her hip and is now on the season-ending injury list.

¹ sorry…couldn’t resist sneaking in an R.E.M. lyric.
² I tend to be a bit of a weather nerd, but even if you’re not, this stuff is fascinating

So…TL/DR

1) The NWSL front office decided to ignore extreme heat forecasts and insisted on playing a mid-afternoon game in a hot climate in the middle of August. Because TELEVISION.

2) The NWSL front office finally realized that the sun has not one single f**k to give about their nationally televised game and was forced into a series of delays lasting 3-1/2 hours. The decision to move forward with an attempted 3 p.m. CT kickoff put players, staff, officials, and fans at risk.

3) After more than 3-1/2 hours the game finally kicked off to a nearly empty stadium and the match ended up not even being shown nationally on CBS. The network opted to air a meaningless preseason NFL game and a rerun instead, moving the NWSL game to their streaming platform.

4) The Orlando Pride (and the NWSL) have now lost one of the world’s most dynamic players for the year.

Berman Chooses to Plugs Her Ears Rather Than Face the Music

A Universal Truth of American sports is that a league commissioner is pretty much going to be greeted with a chorus of boos when showing up for a league event. Berman had mostly escaped this fate through her first couple years at the helm.

But after a season that has seen Berman/the NWSL: 1) Gloss over reports of player harassment and abuse at Bay FC; 2) Shrug its shoulders over allegations of sexual harassment and assault, and an extremely hostile front office environment in San Diego. 3) Force players, officials, and staff to continue a soccer game after a player nearly died on the field and had to be resuscitated³ , Berman is learning that being a league commissioner is sometimes not much fun. So lately she’s choosing to opt out of some of her roles and duties.

³ (And folks, it’s only September…)

She even appeared to turn tail after spotting a member of the media in Chicago:

She also opted out of presenting a $10k Lauren Holiday Impact Award check Kansas City player Claire Hutton at the Current’s August 30 home game.

And now Berman is learning all about the Streisand Effect. In an effort to quell the groundswell of “Berman Out” sentiment, the league has instructed team security confiscate Berman Out signs (one sign a Gotham FC supporter brought to a match was removed with the flimsy rationale that the sign had not been submitted for approval before the game). All that seems to have accomplished is getting fans’ creative juices flowing. They’re sneaking in smaller signs (and may be taking advantage of some fanfest creativity stations) and finding ways to get them on camera, despite efforts from the broadcasters and the league to keep them out of view.

Is Berman the Problem? Or a Symptom of a Larger Problem in the NWSL?

All of this brings me back to the question I posed at the top of this post. And at this point my conclusion is that the owners are probably not going to force Berman out anytime soon.

Why? Because she is business-first. Her mandate was to bring in money for the league (and by “league,” I mean team owners). As long as she’s pulling in hefty sponsorships and national television contracts, there is little will among the owners to push her out.

Could supporters and the players association force the owners’ hand? Maybe. But the cold, hard truth is there was some movement toward player protection following the Paul Riley/Richie Burke/Rory Dames scandals, but if we look at where we are today, how much has really changed?

I see a lot of flowery language from the NWSL front office about player safety, but the actions speak far louder. Players (and front office staff) continue to face harassment and hostile work environments. Players, staff, and officials are still expected to perform in unsafe weather conditions. And the league’s idea of accountability is always some form of “we were just following procedure.”

I mean, they did manage to come around to the idea that maybe they shouldn’t continue a game after someone on the field has a near-death experience, so maybe I’m being too hard on them? (That’s sarcasm, if you were wondering.)

The NWSL (and Jessica Berman) has repeatedly shown who they are.