RALEIGH, N.C. — Haven’t we had enough silence?
Almost a week since the NC Courage fired Paul Riley when allegations of sexual coercion at a previous coaching stop surfaced, the team has released two statements, one last week collectively from the players and management and one Wednesday from primary owner Steve Malik. No one’s taken a single question.
The team even refused, Wednesday night, to make interim coach Sean Nahas available to the media after it resumed play against Racing Louisville at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Nahas probably isn’t the best person to speak for the team, but in the absence of anyone else, the National Women’s Soccer League’s media guidelines require it — not that the NWSL has done a good job lately of living up to its own rules.
Instead, the Courage served up soccer with a side of more silence.
The Courage players declined to speak to the media, with the support of their union, and that was their choice, not the team’s. That’s fine. This should be a player-centered moment as the NWSL reckons with what has been thoroughly unmasked as a culture that enables systemic abuse, and players at the other NWSL games Wednesday night — including Louisville — said they would only answer questions on that specific subject.
If that’s how they want to approach it, more power to them. At this moment of high visibility, there’s probably no better way for the players to advocate for their own safety.
But at some point, we’re going to need more answers from Malik and general manager Curt Johnson about what they knew and when they knew it. They inherited Riley when Malik bought the franchise in 2017 and now, Malik admits, subsequently became aware of the investigation into allocations of abuse that led to his firing from the Portland Thorns in 2015.
Malik’s mea culpa letter raises as many questions as it answers.
What exactly does it mean that after they found out about the investigation into Riley’s behavior in Portland they “were subsequently assured that he was in good standing,” as Malik’s statement put it.
By whom? When? How? Did they feel no need to dig deeper, for the safety of their own players?
Even as recently as last week, the Courage knew The Athletic’s bombshell story was coming and stood by him until after it was published. The team insisted Riley “lived up to (the Courage’s) expectations” in a statement to The Athletic, which also sent Riley a list of 23 questions about the allegations against him.
Was Riley’s firing once the allegations became public merely an exercise in damage control?
This is no time to hide behind statements. If Malik has clean hands, let’s see them on the table.
This is a time for transparency, honesty and forthrightness. The stakes are too high for anything else. If the Courage is comfortable playing games and selling tickets, it should be comfortable facing the music.
A little accountability would go a long way. After all, without The Athletic’s reporting bringing all of this to light, Riley would still be coaching the Courage.
Perhaps that’s why the NWSL Players Association on Wednesday night called for the immediate institution of a “step back protocol” for any person “in a position of power” at the time any of the four NWSL coaches accused of abuse were hired or fired this summer. That would allow them to be independently investigated, with the caveat that any officials who acted quickly upon the receipt of new information would be quickly reinstated with the union’s approval.
Certainly, the former provisions would apply to Malik and Johnson. Perhaps the latter provisions as well, although it’s impossible to know at this point. Malik’s statement makes that claim, but how can you trust the Courage when the franchise’s first instinct is to hide behind more silence?
