Less than 48 hours after leading the Chicago Red Stars into the NWSL championship, where they lost to the Washington Spirit, coach Rory Dames resigned amid multiple allegations of emotional and verbal abuse.
According to an investigation conducted by The Washington Post, Dames's behavior allegedly ranged from verbal abuse during team activities to off-the-field expectations that went beyond the boundaries of a normal player-coach relationship.
Some of the allegations of abuse in the report include: texting players at all hours, asking players to spend significant time at lunches and dinners with him that he said were mandatory, joking that an Asian player should be smarter than how she was playing, commenting to religious players about their holidays, calling a player from Appalachia "trailer trash," comments on players' appearances, withholding family time off for a player due to her performance during a game and, on one instance, allegedly benching a player after she introduced him to her boyfriend.