COUNTERATTACK Part 3: The Whistleblower

COUNTERATTACK Part 3: The Whistleblower

Author: Religion of Sports | PRX May 25, 2023 Duration: 35:33
The National Women’s Soccer league launches, creating new opportunities for elite female soccer players, including Sinead Farrelly, Michelle Betos and newcomer Mana Shim. But the imbalance of power and lack of oversight that defined previous leagues persists; coaches remain powerful and unaccountable gatekeepers. Sinead vows to take her and Paul’s secret to the grave, but it leads her down a path of self-destruction. At the same time, Paul pulls the same moves on a new player — but she has no intention of keeping quiet.

From the team at Religion of Sports and PRX, ROS Presents: Counterattack is a season-long audio documentary that digs into a pivotal, personal story within the wider world of sports. This season focuses on the life of professional soccer player Sinead Farrelly, tracing her path from a celebrated young talent to a central figure in a movement that changed the game. The podcast chronicles her complex journey, detailing her rise as a hometown star, the difficult decision to become a whistleblower regarding conditions in her league, and her subsequent path toward an unlikely return to the field. It’s a narrative about resilience and the personal cost of speaking truth to power, set against the backdrop of a revolution in professional women’s soccer. Through intimate storytelling and layered sound design, this series explores how individual courage can collide with systemic issues, creating ripples that transform an entire sport. Listeners will hear a nuanced portrait of an athlete’s struggle and triumph, framed within the larger societal conversations about accountability, justice, and the true meaning of a comeback. This is ambitious audio journalism that treats sports as the deeply human endeavor it is, offering more than just game highlights-it provides a front-row seat to a story that reshaped a league.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 37

ROS Presents: Counterattack
Podcast Episodes
ROUGHHOUSING Part 4: The Snitch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:15
We’ve all heard that ‘snitches get stitches.' It’s a rule on the streets but also on many sports teams. So what happens when kids speak out about being hazed in high school?
ROUGHHOUSING Part 3: The Coach [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:12
What role do coaches and other school leaders have in a hazing incident? And how much oversight can parents expect when their kids participate in school sports? We look at Rodney’s coach, his background, and ask what, if…
ROUGHHOUSING Part 2: The Line [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:41
What if the person being hazed is kinda having fun? Is all hazing a bad thing? A lot of guys on Rodney’s team say the locker room “tussling” just went too far in Rodney’s case. In this episode, host Iggy Monda looks at t…
ROUGHHOUSING Part 1: Hell Week [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:51
What does hazing look like in high school sports today? Our series begins in Mobile, Alabama, where Rodney Kim, Jr. was a freshman with dreams of making the varsity football team. But a brutal locker room initiation chan…
ROUGHHOUSING: Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:56
Roughhousing is a new narrative series examining hazing culture in high school sports today. Host Iggy Monda takes listeners inside locker rooms to hear deeply personal stories from kids who have been hazed, parents who…
CRUSHED Bonus Episode: The New Steroid Problem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:50
Joan Niesen, the host of Crushed, is back with a bonus episode exploring baseball’s latest steroid controversy. Find the entire seven-part series in season one of this feed. Today, on the rare occasion that a pro basebal…
FALSE IDOL Part 7: Culpability [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:46
Would Pistorius be convicted of murder? Finally, Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered her verdict, and it drew a visceral reaction from across South Africa. Afterward, how would the Steenkamp family, the prosecution team, an…
FALSE IDOL Part 6: Swart Gevaar [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:04
During his murder trial, Pistorius claimed he’d mistaken Reeva for an intruder, when he shot her in his home. He listed instances where he’d been the victim of crime. But for many South Africans, there was a coded messag…