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
CRUSHED Part 5: The Dirty Truth [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:08
In the years after Barry Bonds was crowned home run king, baseball's steroid problem became too big to ignore. Fans began to look for someone to blame, a villain—but truth and accountability remained elusive.
CRUSHED Part 4: The Cheater's Rulebook [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:07
Baseball has always had a murky code of ethics, a rulebook that feels more like a suggestion. Did that culture pave the way for steroids? And, in baseball and in life, where do we draw the line between advancement and ch…
CRUSHED Part 3: The Magic Shot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:44
At the height of the steroid era, players across baseball had to decide if they should use—and reap the benefits—or stay clean. We meet two such players and follow the ripple effects of their choices.
CRUSHED Part 2: The Snoop [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:51
When reporter Steve Wilstein started asking questions about a bottle of pills in Mark McGwire’s locker, it set off a chain reaction that would cast doubt on the home run record and the power that had come to define baseb…
CRUSHED Part 1: The Feel-Good Story [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:40
What happens when your love of a sport is built on a major-league lie? Sportswriter Joan Niesen was a kid in St. Louis in the summer of 1998, when the home run race made baseball magic. Mark McGwire was her favorite play…
Trailer: CRUSHED [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:24
Sportswriter Joan Niesen is revisiting the steroid era to untangle its truth from the many myths, examine the legacy of baseball’s farthest-reaching scandal, and explore what it tells us about sports culture in America.…