Review: ESPN’s investigation of abuse in the NWSL tells a lot of truths, but there are more still to tell

As I sat down to watch ESPN’s investigation into abuse and harassment in the NWSL, I was ready to be hit hard.

I’d seen the trailers ESPN posted on social media and knew that the broadcast had been delayed three months for additional production. I’d spoken to sources at ESPN and to colleagues in the media including the Athletic’s Meg Linehan, a close friend for well over a decade whose reporting blew the lid off allegations against former North Carolina Courage and Philadelphia Independence manager Paul Riley.

And through my coverage of women’s soccer for nearly 20 years, I’d crossed paths with many of the current and former players interviewed on camera.

The revelations and allegations in the latest installation of ESPN’s E60 series, Truth Be Told, which premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN, are indeed hard-hitting. (The Inquirer and other media outlets were given an advance screening.) Casual and hardcore fans alike will be impacted, as will coaches, players, and — at least one would hope — the administrators who ignored the scandals or swept them under the rug.

Viewers will be confronted directly by Mana Shim’s explicit details of Riley’s alleged acts of sexual coercion toward her and Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly when both women played for Riley on the Portland Thorns in 2015. They will learn how the NWSL had barely any means of reporting the allegations to human resources staff or anyone else who could take action, because those people didn’t exist.

And the public will see former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird stumble repeatedly under direct but simple questions from ESPN’s King of Prussia-raised reporter Lisa Salters, attempting to claim a lack of knowledge of the matter at the time.

» READ MORE: Ex-Philadelphia Independence coach Paul Riley fired from NWSL team amid allegations of sexual misconduct

Not only do the claims come across as weak, but they are immediately undercut by ESPN showing emails sent by Shim and Farrelly proving that they raised allegations to Baird directly at the time.

And when the camera cuts to Alex Morgan, who played with Shim and Farrelly in Portland, the U.S. national team superstar doesn’t hold back.

“She [Baird] said she was ‘shocked and disgusted,’” Morgan says on camera, quoting Baird’s statement from the day of the Athletic’s report. “That was surprising, because that was a lie.”

Nor is Riley the only ex-coach put under the spotlight. Allegations are detailed about verbal and emotional abuse by former Washington Spirit manager Richie Burke, as first reported by the Washington Post’s Molly Hensley-Clancy last year. When Burke goes on camera, he goes off about cancel culture.

But for as direct and discomforting as all those moments were, they weren’t what hit me hardest. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been involved in the sport for so long and knew of all the allegations and reports that were already public. Casual viewers who are new to the subject won’t have put up those same psychological walls.

What really got me was a line that some viewers might not even notice. It came from Merritt Mathias, a veteran midfielder who played for Riley with the semipro New York Fury in 2012 and again for the Courage from 2018 on.

Reflecting on the moment the allegations against Riley came out, Mathias said: “I had no idea.”

The force of that “no” hit with the power of a 20-yard rocket shot.

Because I didn’t either.

» READ MORE: NWSL players get higher salaries, free agency, insurance under first CBA

Nor did a lot of people in the women’s soccer world who knew Riley since he led the Independence for its two seasons in Women’s Professional Soccer, both of which saw the team make the league’s championship game.

On the day the Athletic’s report came out, I was knocked sideways. Here was someone I had considered a friendly source for many years, exposed as an alleged sexual harasser. I covered Farrelly’s playing days for Riley in Philadelphia and the Courage’s three straight title game runs from 2017-19, with championships in the last two — including a historic treble in 2018 of the NWSL regular season title, playoffs, and International Champions Cup.

Along the way, I said a lot of nice things about Riley, as a player and a person, in The Inquirer and on social media. Had I helped enable him? It took hard conversations with friends and colleagues to dispel the feeling of blame, because so many people — especially in the media — also had no idea.

All of that came rushing back as I watched Truth Be Told.

But amid the many emotions, I identified some things missing from the piece.

Salters notes aloud that Riley and Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and general manager Gavin Wilkinson “declined ESPN’s interview requests.” The Fifth Amendment doesn’t apply to the court of public opinion, especially in women’s soccer, and this will further tarnish their already-stained reputations.

Farrelly also declined to be interviewed on camera, so Shim and Morgan spoke on her behalf.

» READ MORE: CBS will televise this year’s NWSL championship game in prime time

There is a lack of detail in some major areas, starting with exactly what U.S. Soccer knew about Riley’s history when he briefly was a candidate to succeed Jill Ellis. Morgan tells ESPN that she shared information about Riley with U.S. Soccer — “as much information as I could with the people who were in charge of selecting the next head coach.”

But we don’t hear from anyone at U.S. Soccer about that.

There’s only a scant mention of scandals involving former Racing Louisville manager Christy Holly, Utah Royals manager Craig Harrington, Houston Dash manager James Clarkson, and Gotham FC general manager Alyse LaHue.

There is some mention of Christen Press’ allegations against former Chicago Red Stars manager Rory Dames, including complaints Press made to the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2014 and 2018. Former USSF president Sunil Gulati is interviewed on camera and says he won’t comment since the governing body’s investigation is still ongoing.

No one else involved is interviewed on camera, though: not Press, not Dames, not Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler. An ESPN spokesperson told The Inquirer that Press and Dames declined interview requests, and the network did not make one of Whisler.

Some fans will be dismayed by that lack of detail. The same goes for the lack of detail on U.S. Soccer’s knowledge of Riley’s alleged deviance. Those fans will be unsatisfied and perhaps critical, even as they know it would take many more hours of broadcasts to fully explain every scandal — and that’s just those in the United States.

They also know that all exposing of abuse in women’s soccer, as with any sport, is a way to help heal. It is difficult and painful to get through, but it is necessary and good.

So even if Truth Be Told doesn’t tell the whole truth, it makes two truths clear above all. There’s a lot of work left to fully root abuse out of women’s soccer, and the work must be part of a continuous process to ensure it never returns.