All the time. In his emails to The Magazine, Borislow likened his success at anticipating customer demand in the tech world to knowing what's best for his players. I am trying to do what I think is right," he wrote. I believe in this philosophy. That confidence carried into MagicJack's inaugural season. When the Boston Breakers came to town for the team's opening game in April at the FAU Soccer Stadium, the Breakers' coaching staff walked the field and realized it was three yards narrower than the standard 66 yards.
They discovered why when the game started and Borislow fielded an unorthodox formation that placed three strikers up front, presumably to give Wambach more opportunities to score.
On May 12, , he fired off another email to Fitzgerald: "You will be lucky," he wrote, "if the league is still in business by the playoffs. But behind the scenes, a more complex subplot was playing out. As one rival GM puts it: "The real scandal on that team was that the national team players never stood up for the lesser players. And they bragged about it. Borislow denies ever telling players to call him Daddy. They give everything they have. Adds another: "It always feels good to get praise, especially from a man that powerful.
But he changes so fast. Cat Whitehill, a former Freedom and national team player, says the complaints magnify the often subtler reality of women's soccer: There are so few superstars that the majority of players can be easily intimidated. But I have a hard time believing it. I think the national team members never deliberately meant for the other players on the roster to get treated badly. But it does appear that they didn't consider what standing up to Borislow would mean for the rest of the team.
Wambach was unavailable for comment through her agent, Dan Levy. I was one of those players. But Dan has always supported me, always loved me. Indeed, during a win over Atlanta in May , Wambach felt emboldened enough to openly argue with her head coach in front of her teammates.
When Wambach and her national team colleagues left for a four-week stretch for the Women's World Cup in Germany, Borislow began to ride those left behind even harder. After a loss to Boston, he lashed out at his players in an email, writing, "I didn't play this sh--y game, you did. He also threatened to institute five-minute-mile runs that the women dubbed "suicide miles" and required them to take hot Jacuzzi baths before practice.
Some players said they worried they might not even get medical attention if they were seriously injured. Ella Masar, a forward who is the only MagicJack player to publicly break with Borislow, wrote on her blog that when she suffered a kick in the nose, the owner offered to drive her to the hospital but abruptly changed his mind.
I just don't think [Masar] had thick skin at all. By July , the non-national players had had enough. They met in their practice facility to vote on a grievance they wanted to file through their players' union. Coincidentally, in the middle of the discussion, Borislow called. Ellertson, a defender, gave him the news. When he asked who voted which way, she simply replied that it was a team decision among the players who were there to take the vote.
WHEN THE NEWS broke weeks later that WPS was banning Borislow from being on the sideline for the rest of the season, his first reaction, according to Masar's blog, was to tell his players that they could either disavow the grievance or have him cancel the rest of their season.
Unable to be on the field with his team, he named Wambach player-coach of the MagicJack. He also sent a fuller response to the team -- a long, rueful, contradictory email.
I always thought I would be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem when I donated to this charity called Women's Professional Soccer. The question is what solution he thinks he has to offer. Even after the five remaining WPS owners voted on Oct. He would walk away from WPS in exchange for keeping the MagicJack team as his personal bauble -- a barnstorming exhibition club. He would, in other words, keep the world's best players living in luxury without having to worry about how to sustain women's soccer as a business.
But when the USSF failed to bless the deal, WPS's partners finally decided three months later to fold their league, causing scores of jobs to evaporate. But Borislow's stars are still aligned with him. He still has Hope. And Abby. And Christie. And Shannon. While they're technically not on a team anymore, they all retain MagicJack sponsorships. And he's in a prime position to offer top dollar to anyone else looking for job security.
There just aren't enough quality players who people want to watch. Hofstetter, an organizer of the new league, promises that his group will deliver more with less.
For the moment, Borislow seems to be going in a separate direction. He tells The Magazine he intends to keep Wambach, Solo, Boxx, Rampone and Megan Rapinoe whom Borislow acquired from the Philadelphia Independence when he learned they were having financial issues on the MagicJack payroll and is approaching two players "to see if they want to own a team that we would sponsor. Left unsaid is where they would play. But wherever it is, he'll make it hard for anyone else to compete with the expectations he's unleashed -- not to mention the deeply personal role the game plays in his life.
A place where you can heal the soul. It's the oligarch talking, the man with enough champagne and cash to offer the best women players on the planet the kind of heedless lifestyle that the LeBrons of the world enjoy.
He gave them the chance to say, 'Screw this, I don't have to worry about residency near a training facility, about clinics and appearances, even Skip to main content Skip to navigation.
The winners Michigan, Cincy and losers oh, Texas! Florida Gators. KU stuns Texas on walk-on's winning 2-point grab. Kansas Jayhawks. Big Ben out vs. Pittsburgh Steelers. Timme nets career-high 37 as Zags roll past Texas. Gonzaga Bulldogs. Irked Riley: Baylor timeout for FG breaks 'code'. Oklahoma Sooners. Joerger leaving Sixers to have cancer treatments. Philadelphia 76ers.
Source: Cards not optimistic Murray, Hopkins play. Arizona Cardinals. Rams' Woods suffers season-ending torn ACL. Los Angeles Rams.
Gators' defensive woes persist vs. FCS Samford. Gonzaga beats Texas: What we learned and what it could mean in March. Numbers behind Baylor's defensive performance that might have crushed OU's playoff chances. Week 10's biggest fantasy football questions: NFL reporters give advice. Max Holloway deserves another title shot -- but does he want it next? That's some background. Borislow's way is to arrive at practice on a Batmobile-like motorcycle, a stealth black machine with three wheels and four stereo speakers "My primary mode of transportation," he said.
He wears cleats because he often scrimmages with the team. One is make money. And the other one is spend money. He also inexplicably fired head coach Mike Lyons, who'd lead the team to a start, and made his players take on double duty as coaches. Sometimes, before the league realized he didn't have the proper license, he'd coach himself.
Via a pleasant but curiously impersonal recording, a woman told me the number had been disconnected. Essentially, Borislow behaved like the multimillionaire class clown who'd do anything to get thrown out of fourth period, and then acted as if he'd had no idea what he'd done wrong. This wouldn't fly in any league—but especially not in one that, as Littlefield put it, "needs all the publicity it can get.
Borislow tried filing a motion to demand that the league go to court before terminating his team, but it didn't go anywhere. So yesterday, the league kept it short and sweet :.
WPS will continue to deliver to its players and fans the world's top women's soccer league, with plans to make the most competitive and successful season to date. Borislow, eternal optimist and oblivious soul, said that he had plans to stay involved in women's soccer. Specifically: There's "something I think would be a lot better for me and a lot better for soccer and the community down here.
The A.
0コメント