The latest on Gregg Berhalter is… something Image: Getty Images
To say that US Soccer is a Byzantine organization would mean that they have any rules and protocols. They rarely feel like they’re doing it and just make stuff up as they go, with almost everyone screaming to protect their bogus bogus jobs. This is how Gregg Berhalter can get the head coaching job without them interviewing anyone else, even though it’s a highly coveted position. It has helped to utterly anger and poison the atmosphere surrounding the women’s team for years, when they should be the shining beacon of the entire organization. And the guy primarily responsible for this, Carlos Cordeiro, can find the tires to try to run for President again!
US football has already been extremely strange this month as Berhalter’s contract expired yet no announcement was made that he would be transferred or renewed or that anyone had considered either possibility. The usual January training camp for MLS players is upon us and yet the national team has not had a manager. Maybe now we know why.
Yesterday Berhalter, along with his wife, released a statement in which he accused someone of trying to blackmail him and then clarified what he would have been blackmailed with. When he and his wife were teenagers, they apparently had a drunken argument that ended with Berhalter kicking his wife in the legs. This is one of the many shades of domestic violence and certainly cannot be averted easily, but it is also decades in the past and evidently he and his wife have come to terms with it, got over it and moved on to live happily ever after.
US Soccer then released its own statement, claiming it had become aware of this story a month ago, and then alluded to “possible inappropriate behavior towards several members of our staff by people outside of our organization.” Which could mean anything, but obviously Berhalter is on hold for a while while US Soccer wraps up its investigation into…whatever. It appears that Berhalter has tried to ward off any blackmail attempt on the passport, and yet he’s still frozen from the job, which he may or may not want to hold on to. But at least he didn’t pay that person anything. We believe.
However, it takes years for the USMNT to really do anything important, so there’s plenty of time for it all to fizzle out. It could cloud the air around Berhalter to continue, but again, the men’s side may not get the spotlight until the summer of 2024. It’s never easy with these guys. At the very least, US Soccer promises total transparency, and judging by how the reports from Yates and NWSLPA went, they should do better. But anything is possible in US Soccer, where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems.
Rumors are swirling about Jim Harbaugh to the Panthers, NFL
So let’s do that whole Jim Harbaugh back to the NFL thing again, huh? Perhaps the Panthers were simply overwhelmed by Michigan’s complete inability to deal with a QB who could run or their innovative defensive tactic of blitzing violently while ducking into cover, creating a bubble in space that sent TCU for 893 yards threw through.
In the end, Harbaugh probably got Michigan as far as it gets with back-to-back playoff appearances. It’s about as good as one could hope for in Ann Arbor, although everyone there is certain that anything less than eight straight national titles is a failure. Which is weird since they’ve never won a real one.
Harbaugh is sure to win wherever he goes… just enough to break your heart. Which is probably an improvement over the Panthers, to be fair.
Rangers’ Chris Kreider tries to be cool, fails
Finally, when it comes to The Michigan keeping the puck off the ice and then putting it in the back of the net, Chris Kreider introduced The Indiana to the world last night:
