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| Dick! |
“Yates’ investigation found that Paulson knew of other alleged, non-sexual abuses as early as 2014, but did not act on the information. It also found that in a conversation with the Western New York Flash — after Riley and the Thorns parted ways — that Wilkinson blamed Shim for ‘putting Riley in a bad position’ and said that he would ‘hire (him) in a heartbeat.’ Riley was soon hired by the Flash, which later relocated and became the North Carolina Courage.”
“’In 2014, after Riley’s first season as head coach of the Thorns, the NWSL issued an anonymous player survey in which players identified Riley as “verbally abusive,” “sexis(t),” “destructive” and stated he “s--- on (the) players every day,”’ U.S. Soccer’s report reads. ‘The survey results were shared with NWSL Executive Director Cheryl Bailey, USSF President Sunil Gulati and (CEO and secretary general) (Dan) Flynn, but no one provided them to the team and no action was taken.’”
And that’s without getting into darker findings about the Portland Timbers/Thorns front office impeding the investigation, revelations that Timbers/Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and General Manager Gavin Wilkinson “not only enabled, but also vouched for [former Thorns head coach Paul] Riley,” a man who, even they now agree, used his position to manipulate and do all the abuses (sexual, emotional, professional, probably some others) during his time with the team. And, as the phrase goes, they knew.
Just over(?) 24 hours passed (does it matter?) before Paulson released a statement. He attempted contrition – he may even believe it – but the substance of the response amounted to an apology that, in context, reeks of insincerity. Moreover, taking the token step of removing himself and the other executives under suspicion (Wilkinson and Mike Golub) from all “all Thorns-related decision making” raises more questions than it answers – e.g., if they didn’t take a pay-cut and now have less day-to-day responsibility, how is that not like out-of-school suspension for a high school kid who doesn’t give a fuck?
I, like many Timbers/Thorns fans, have spent the past couple years turning over this scandal in my head. One thought I keep coming back to – and I don’t know how universal this is – but I know certain moments, certain decisions, have enough gravity that they stick with you not just for years, but for decades. Someone you wronged, something you didn’t do that you should have, random moments of extreme embarrassment, even some shitty thing you said to someone: I have a head full of these things (and I’m somehow the same age in all of them, which is weird), but I’ve never done anything to anyone that approaches the way Paulson/Wilkinson/Golub handled Riley’s abuses. And that’s why I believe beyond a reasonable doubt that they compounded that initial mistake by conspiring to cover it up for...Jesus, seven years. Wait, sorry. Eight years. Paulson knew about it in 2014.
That they can summon the nerve to talk about their time away from “all Thorns-related decision making” as if they’ll be exonerated by the NWSL/NWSLPA Joint Investigation shouts down any apology Paulson can offer. I’d call the idea that he and the other two only care because they got caught less an impression than a fact. People don’t spend seven years speaking weasel, 1) if they know they’ve been wronged, and 2) or if they feel actual remorse. What Paulson, Wilkinson and Golub feel to today is embarrassment. And it’s fucking embarrassing they expect anyone else to pretend otherwise.
I made a conscious decision not to post this to the politics site (though that's gonna light up shortly), which spares you lucky devils from me kicking around big ideas about why people can’t admit fault, even egregious fault. That has grown into a genuine pathology in American politics and culture – and it very clearly relates to the Timbers/Thorns front office, even if not in some grand or exemplar way. Still, I run what I think I know about the three main bastards and try to puzzle out what went on in their heads during the months all this came out...to borrow a phrase from Rick Perlstein (again), the months of slow, soiling humiliation.
“’In 2014, after Riley’s first season as head coach of the Thorns, the NWSL issued an anonymous player survey in which players identified Riley as “verbally abusive,” “sexis(t),” “destructive” and stated he “s--- on (the) players every day,”’ U.S. Soccer’s report reads. ‘The survey results were shared with NWSL Executive Director Cheryl Bailey, USSF President Sunil Gulati and (CEO and secretary general) (Dan) Flynn, but no one provided them to the team and no action was taken.’”
And that’s without getting into darker findings about the Portland Timbers/Thorns front office impeding the investigation, revelations that Timbers/Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and General Manager Gavin Wilkinson “not only enabled, but also vouched for [former Thorns head coach Paul] Riley,” a man who, even they now agree, used his position to manipulate and do all the abuses (sexual, emotional, professional, probably some others) during his time with the team. And, as the phrase goes, they knew.
Just over(?) 24 hours passed (does it matter?) before Paulson released a statement. He attempted contrition – he may even believe it – but the substance of the response amounted to an apology that, in context, reeks of insincerity. Moreover, taking the token step of removing himself and the other executives under suspicion (Wilkinson and Mike Golub) from all “all Thorns-related decision making” raises more questions than it answers – e.g., if they didn’t take a pay-cut and now have less day-to-day responsibility, how is that not like out-of-school suspension for a high school kid who doesn’t give a fuck?
I, like many Timbers/Thorns fans, have spent the past couple years turning over this scandal in my head. One thought I keep coming back to – and I don’t know how universal this is – but I know certain moments, certain decisions, have enough gravity that they stick with you not just for years, but for decades. Someone you wronged, something you didn’t do that you should have, random moments of extreme embarrassment, even some shitty thing you said to someone: I have a head full of these things (and I’m somehow the same age in all of them, which is weird), but I’ve never done anything to anyone that approaches the way Paulson/Wilkinson/Golub handled Riley’s abuses. And that’s why I believe beyond a reasonable doubt that they compounded that initial mistake by conspiring to cover it up for...Jesus, seven years. Wait, sorry. Eight years. Paulson knew about it in 2014.
That they can summon the nerve to talk about their time away from “all Thorns-related decision making” as if they’ll be exonerated by the NWSL/NWSLPA Joint Investigation shouts down any apology Paulson can offer. I’d call the idea that he and the other two only care because they got caught less an impression than a fact. People don’t spend seven years speaking weasel, 1) if they know they’ve been wronged, and 2) or if they feel actual remorse. What Paulson, Wilkinson and Golub feel to today is embarrassment. And it’s fucking embarrassing they expect anyone else to pretend otherwise.
I made a conscious decision not to post this to the politics site (though that's gonna light up shortly), which spares you lucky devils from me kicking around big ideas about why people can’t admit fault, even egregious fault. That has grown into a genuine pathology in American politics and culture – and it very clearly relates to the Timbers/Thorns front office, even if not in some grand or exemplar way. Still, I run what I think I know about the three main bastards and try to puzzle out what went on in their heads during the months all this came out...to borrow a phrase from Rick Perlstein (again), the months of slow, soiling humiliation.
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| Still a dick! |
For what it's worth, Wilkinson makes more sense than the other two. He’s spent his life in soccer, both as player and executive, which makes me assume he panicked about ever finding work that pays anything like the same again. I don’t say that to excuse anything – I believe a decent man would resign, and an honest organization would fire him if he didn't – but that motivation resonates. Golub, meanwhile, comes off as a random dick-head executive, the kind who would be welcomed in one of the many executive offices across the country with companies that could not give less of a shit about this kind of thing. If he can’t find one in Oregon, there are at least 25 states where he could find those companies. And his odds would get even better if he joined the local mega-church. Based on that pop psychology profile, he’s less of a mystery to me...
...funny story: I just tried to go deep on Paulson’s mental/moral machinery, but it took only one scenario to realize that all of them would end in the same place. The first mistake - what Riley did to Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim - simply wasn’t important to him. He cared more about his professional peers, his bros, than he did about the women they wounded by letting Riley run wild, first in Portland, then, incredibly, with another team of women at no less risk for the same abuse. And I guess that’s the impulse that launched the “Omerta” idiocy, aka, the delusion that none of this would come out. Paulson’s statement tells me that delusion remains operative. And, as what I consider to be a relatively normal person, all I can think is...wow. I don't even know how that kind of brain works.
At this point, Merritt can’t skate away by firing either Golub or Wilkinson or both of them. Maybe he still tries it [UPDATE: Yep, he did it. Paulson fired both Golub and Wilkinson. And, lo, it satisfied no one. The mystery of how the twit's brain work deepens...], maybe one of them discovers basic decency and resigns. And if there’s a mystery to Merritt Paulson, it’s that he doesn’t just sell the team at a huge profit, take the pile and go all-in on creepy a la Elon Musk or Peter Thiel....shit, will all this “radicalize” him in the classic right-wing way of convincing himself that he’s the victim?
...funny story: I just tried to go deep on Paulson’s mental/moral machinery, but it took only one scenario to realize that all of them would end in the same place. The first mistake - what Riley did to Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim - simply wasn’t important to him. He cared more about his professional peers, his bros, than he did about the women they wounded by letting Riley run wild, first in Portland, then, incredibly, with another team of women at no less risk for the same abuse. And I guess that’s the impulse that launched the “Omerta” idiocy, aka, the delusion that none of this would come out. Paulson’s statement tells me that delusion remains operative. And, as what I consider to be a relatively normal person, all I can think is...wow. I don't even know how that kind of brain works.
At this point, Merritt can’t skate away by firing either Golub or Wilkinson or both of them. Maybe he still tries it [UPDATE: Yep, he did it. Paulson fired both Golub and Wilkinson. And, lo, it satisfied no one. The mystery of how the twit's brain work deepens...], maybe one of them discovers basic decency and resigns. And if there’s a mystery to Merritt Paulson, it’s that he doesn’t just sell the team at a huge profit, take the pile and go all-in on creepy a la Elon Musk or Peter Thiel....shit, will all this “radicalize” him in the classic right-wing way of convincing himself that he’s the victim?
The last three paragraphs are, clearly, a combination of extrapolation and speculation. For all I know, Paulson, Wilkinson and even that weird fucker Golub actually believe they can make this right by sitting through enough sensitivity training.
Whenever I look at the world, I hold two thoughts in my head: what I’d like to see happen and what I believe to be good and useful versus the things that actually happen. And I don’t think anything happens here. As most people who follow this space know, I know more about the scandals around the Thorns than I know about the team, but I do know they made the NWSL playoffs. I also know the Timbers packed the house for their final regular season home game against Los Angeles FC – that’s despite playing precarious, borderline unwatchable shit all season. That tells me that too many people see the Timbers as simple entertainment, if one that comes with a pang of guilt, for the people who do care to get the justice they want.
Going the other way, none of those investigations would have happened if the people who cared didn't made noise....which means, maybe the whole Timbers/Thorns scandal does relate to the world in some grand and exemplar way. I guess that's my way of saying, I see people harassing sponsors and I'm OK with it.
That’s it. Just had some thoughts I wanted....no, needed to get out. As much as anything else, I wish I could just enjoy spectator sports....and, to think how much this pales against Qatar 2022.
Thanks, man. I have more hope than you, only in that I think Merritt is too soft for this level of loathing. As you pointed out, for different reasons, MG and GW could hang on for years, but Merritt wants to be loved and respected. That's never going to happen now, so I have some hope he'll move to Illinois and run for office.
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