Over and over, according to interviews and confidential records reviewed by The Post, players had seen Rory Dames cross a line into what they believed was verbal and emotional abuse: controlling, berating and humiliating players, and breaking the boundaries of the player-coach relationship.
The players turned not to the league itself, which has struggled to police abuse in its decade of existence. Instead, they went to the U.S. Soccer Federation, the sport’s powerful governing body, which oversaw the NWSL at the time and supported it financially by paying national team members to play in the league.
But Dames kept his job, going on to become the NWSL’s longest-tenured coach.