Neil Morris covers his local teams — North Carolina FC and the North Carolina Courage — for WRAL. His work includes a terrific podcast, the Inverted Triangle. In his day job, he’s an attorney and mediator.
So why not combine his areas of expertise and try to mediate the NASL/USSF lawsuit? We gave it a whirl, with Neil playing the role of mediator and your host flipping between the roles of NASL and USSF advocates.
The conversation starts around the 8:45 mark. We quickly explain what’s going on in the real world with the lawsuit, and then Neil explains the mediation process.
I present a hypothetical NASL offer, prompted by Neil’s helpful questions and prodding, around the 25-minute mark. (Highlights: Cosmos owner on the USSF Board, drop divisional sanctioning OR give us D2 for a few years.) I give a hypothetical USSF counter at 43:45. We spend the last half-hour assessing our progress — some promising ideas, but some roadblocks that even the most reasonable people may have difficulty eliminating. Uh oh.
Ranting Soccer Dad 