When United States Women’s National Team forward Alex Morgan made some Tweets ripping the National Women’s Soccer League for substandard team accommodations a month ago, it received a lot of media coverage. Anything involving bed bugs, as this matter did, tends to get a lot of attention. Both bed bugs and Alex Morgan are indeed clickbait.
The NWSL response to Morgan’s complaints went completely under the radar however. NWSL Commissioner Jeff Plush answered a reporter’s question on this topic yesterday.
“That came to our attention and we dealt with it within hour hours,” Plush said while speaking to the media at halftime of FC Kansas City’s 3-0 drubbing of the Chicago Red Stars in the NSWL semifinal yesterday. Even though this incident occurred on the weekend on August 17th, it appears no major national media outlet covered the NWSL response.
“We switched hotels, which we would have done had we known about it when it happened. It’s something we take very seriously, but it’s actually a hotel issue more than it is a NWSL issue. (It’s) fair comments and we take ’em all on board. Criticism is fair and we also did a lot of really good stuff, but generally that was the only comment we got all year.”
“We take taking care of our players very seriously.”
Plush is entirely right in that all of the good work turned in by the NSWL this season didn’t make headlines while this fiasco did. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in. Controversy and conflict moves the needle, puff pieces do not. This is true for everyone, but it’s an especially sensitive situation to league like the NWSL which is still fighting to maintain its existence in the long term.
On the other hand, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” as Alex Morgan showed us once again. When the Diamond Bar, California native and face of the USWNT franchise speaks out, things get accomplished.
Alex Morgan recently made history by being named the first woman ever to grace the cover of EA Sports FIFA video game. Here’s more on that below:
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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