Briana Scurry is hosting a podcast series with Sinead Farrelly on her return to women’s soccer

It’s the first time Farrelly has made extensive remarks on her story, from the allegations against former longtime coach Paul Riley to her departure from the sport and stunning return to it this year.

Havertown's Sinead Farrelly (center) has returned to playing soccer this year with the Republic of Ireland women's national team and Gotham FC.Read moreJonathan Tannenwald

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published June 7, 2023, 9:00 a.m. ET

U.S. women’s soccer legend Briana Scurry is again making waves, and this time it intersects with one of the biggest stories in the sport — Sinead Farrelly’s return to the field.

Scurry’s latest foray into media is as the host of a six-part podcast series spotlighting Farrelly, the Havertown native who launched the wave of reckoning with abuse in the NWSL. The series is available on Apple, Spotify and other major platforms.

It’s the first time Farrelly has made extensive remarks on her story, from the abuse allegations against former longtime coach Paul Riley to her departure from the sport and stunning return to it this year.

Farrelly said little else publicly, aside from a brief appearance while with the Republic of Ireland’s national team in April, as she has adjusted to a return to public life with Gotham FC. That will change this summer if, as is widely expected, she is named to Ireland’s World Cup roster.

Scurry recently sat down with The Inquirer for an interview about hosting the podcast series, which is produced by PRX and Religion of Sports, and how it affected her.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity and brevity.

Whose idea was the podcast and how did it come together?

Scurry: The folks over at Religion of Sports contacted me about potentially doing a podcast series, like a docuseries, about Sinead. And I was on board right away, as long as they were willing to be authentic in it and tell her story from her voice. And they assured me that’s exactly what they were going to do. They assured me that Sinead was on board and was willing to be open and vulnerable with how she’s doing.

What happens a lot with stories is you hear the first initial story, and then you don’t hear anything else about that person — it’s like they’re not news anymore after that. But people continue to do things, they continue to recover and get healed and all of that. And this story is about her strength and her poise and her ability to recover from everything that happened [and] the ramifications of it.

I really wanted to tell that story with her. And so I was on board and right away was thrilled to be able to get to interview her and all the other players in this story after the big splash. I feel like that idea of giving the story more depth was really exciting for me to figure out.

You mentioned that she was willing to tell the story. Did that surprise you?

Scurry: It didn’t. Because as someone who’s had really difficult times in my life and struggled and felt like I was alone in a lot of things, talking to her I had a hunch that I might know why she wants to speak about it. And then when I talked to her, I think my hunch proved to be true.

Part of it is part of the healing, honestly, and I understood that. And I think in the way we were speaking with each other, she felt comfortable that I got it, that I understood it. And that this was really about her evolution as a person and as a human being and becoming a new version of herself that was more authentic to who she thought she really was — which was, soccer is a very big part of who she is, and what she’s about, and one of her greatest loves.

And so the fact that she wanted to try and get back to it after a long time of healing and of essentially not wanting anything to do with it was very brave in my opinion. And I wanted to see and be a part of that journey for her.

Had you known her? You didn’t play with her — your playing career ended in Women’s Professional Soccer, the league that preceded the National Women’s Soccer League, the year before Farrelly’s career began with the Philadelphia Independence.

Scurry: No, I didn’t play with her, but I knew her from WPS. Because when I was on the Washington Freedom in 2009 and ‘10 and then she came into the into the league, she was a great player. She had potential.

She’s similar to Rose Lavelle a little bit, in her vision of the field and how she can make these passes that you’re like, “Where’s that ball going?” And all of a sudden, somebody comes running on to it and you’re like, “Oh, OK, that’s what she saw.” She was very similar, I think, to Rose back in the day, before Rose.

I thought she was a great talent. I thought she had something special, and I wasn’t the only one that thought that, clearly. So I do remember her, yeah, from then.

What has she been like to talk with as she has opened up? Has she said things that have surprised you?

Scurry: I think what I found most intriguing about Sinead is her energy. When I was interviewing her, she has a vibration of energy that is very, very intelligent. You can totally see it, you can hear it.

She’s very in touch with her spirit and her emotions, and I was very impressed by the fact that she was so in tune with that at her age. ... I got in tune with my emotions and my spirit and my being much later in my life. She was very captivating to speak to, and she was very thoughtful. When you speak to her, she holds your attention very well.

I was so angry when [the allegations against Riley] first came out that I felt this was my chance to be a part of some healing, be a part of something positive here. As this whole process went on, learning that she was going to kick a ball around again, then learning she has really been playing little pickup games, and learning when she came here to Virginia with her previous coach at U-Va. [Steve Swanson] and do some workouts, and then knowing that she was going to try out for Gotham, I was like, “You go girl, you go.”

I just feel like all these steps she’s taking, like a phoenix rising from the ash, she was just like, “You know what, I’m going to take this back. This belongs to me.” And just to see her doing that, and in the phases she’s done it in, it’s just so exciting for me.

My purpose and my intention on this Earth is inspiration and creation. And if I can be a part of anyone’s inspiration and creation other than my own and somehow affect that change in a way, then I’m there. And so it was really great just talking with her about everything, and that everything now is looking a whole lot different.

As I’ve talked with a lot of people in the women’s soccer world who’ve been around the sport for a long time, I’ve heard the same reaction, and I’ve had it too: Farrelly’s return to playing eight years after she left the field is one of the most astonishing things we’ve seen in the sport. Do you feel the same way?

Scurry: Absolutely astonished. That’s a great word to use.

It’s actually a two-piece astonishment. It’s the original hit of the story that was just like, you know, a gut punch and very visceral — I was very viscerally, emotionally, afflicted. My wife would say that I was beside myself because I was still angry.

The way I see it is similar to the Catholic church, the cover-up of abuse. When you use the name of God to abuse someone, that is a kind of evil that is beyond your normal, run-of-the-mill evil, if you will. And then this was the stealing of her dream by someone, by a coach, and that’s, like, the most diabolical thing.

Because the players see their coaches similar [to], and even more powerful than, their parents. I mean, that person has the gate, they’ve got the key, you know what I mean? They have all of that power.

Going through this whole story with her and understanding it better, sometimes when we got done filming an episode, I would just be like, “Ugh, I’ve got to get a shower. I just feel ill.” You know what I mean? I was just so angry and upset. And then I had to compose myself because I’m like, “OK, I’ve got to tell this story right and be in the right frame.”

I would have these situations where I was so angry. But then once I found out that she was coming back into the game, I was like, “Oh!” I knew it was in there. Talking to her, I’m like, “Hmm, you know, I could sense it, that this might happen, that she might come back.”

I don’t know if I maybe sensed it before she even wanted to take it on. But the way she was speaking, and just the way it felt, I was like, “If she comes back, I’m not going to be surprised.”

And then she did. And then she didn’t just come back, she was like, “I’m going to play in the NWSL; I’m not going to start over here in a smaller league [and] work my way” — she was like, “I’m going to the big show.” And then she gets called in for Ireland. And I was like, “What?” That was [a] mic drop right there.

I was so excited for her. I couldn’t have been happier for someone else’s triumph than I was for her, being able to take that back. No matter what happened with it after that, the ability for her to take it back, that’s the story for me.