In the 74th minute of Angel City’s May 9 game against the Utah Royals, Angel City defender Savy King collapsed on the field. She was immediately tended to by medical staff, who performed chest compressions. Once she was stable, she was carted off the field and transported to a hospital by ambulance. Other players appeared emotional during the stoppage of play. Ten minutes after King collapsed, the match continued.
After the game finally ended, players hugged and cried. Utah player Alex Loera, who was teammates with King last year at Bay FC, led the teams in a prayer circle. Shortly after that, Christen Press was interviewed on the broadcast. She had scored her first goal of the season—it was a signature Press how’d you make that ball move like that? shot—just a few minutes before King collapsed. But her focus wasn’t on the win at all. “I think this game has been very emotional, very tough. All of us are praying for Savy, our teammate. … She is on our hearts and minds and that’s really all I can think about right now,” Press said. “It was a really, really emotional game.”
Angel City won that game, but figures from around the league expressed dismay that it had proceeded at all. Directly after the match, Royals coach Jimmy Coenraets said, “In those moments, I’m not sure if we should have continued the game.” Washington Spirit star Trinity Rodman posted her well wishes for King on Instagram and wrote, “In no world should that game have continued.” The NWSL is not the first soccer organization to have to navigate something like this. When Christian Eriksen collapsed and had to be revived on the field during a Euro 2020 match, the game resumed after a 90-minute delay.
The NWSL’s protocol for game postponements and cancellations give the league the responsibility for making such decisions. The policy reads, “Certain event categories automatically trigger the League Office into an evaluation of whether delay or postponement is necessary, including … serious incident, injury or fatality to a Player, Coach, Official, Team representative or spectator or other medical concern.” King collapsed in the 74th minute of the match. Per the policy, “In the event a game cannot be completed, the game counts if seventy-five minutes (75:00) (excluding stoppage time) were played.”
The NWSL also has an operations manual, which is not made public. The Athletic reviewed the manual and reported that it states that “Commissioner Jessica Berman has the final say over all league representatives, teams and any other stakeholders concerning delays or postponements of matches.” Per The Athletic, the manual states that in the case of serious injury, “‘every effort’ should be made to finish the game once the injured person is safely removed.”
On May 14, the NWSL Players Association released a statement condemning the league’s decision to let the game restart. “These moments demand humanity, sound judgement, and restraint. Any medical emergency that requires the administration of life-saving care should bring play to an end. The match should not have continued,” the statement said. “Our members are elite, world class competitors who have proven they can perform under unimaginable circumstances. That does not mean they should have to.” The PA said it is committed to making sure that going forward there is no gray area should a life-saving measure be taken in the future.
Following the incident, the NWSL made a series of statements which said all medical and operational protocols were followed, and that a process was underway to review the incident and determine if changes should be made going forward.
Finally, on May 16, the league determined that play should not have continued, and said that should a similar situation arise in the future, the game will be abandoned. “The Angel City vs Utah game last Friday night should not have continued and we regret that it did,” the statement said. “The health and well-being of the entire NWSL community remains our top priority, and in any similar situation going forward the game should and would be abandoned.”
King, who is 20 years old, was diagnosed with a heart abnormality and underwent a successful surgery on May 14. She was released from the hospital on May 17 and is “home with her family and resting comfortably,” per a statement from Angel City. On May 18, she posted on Instagram to thank her team, family, and fans for their support. “I’m looking forward to recovering and getting back out on the field!” she wrote.
The day after the league’s May 16 statement, Berman attended Angel City’s match against Bay FC in San Jose. She sat down for a press conference at halftime, giving reporters their first opportunity to ask her questions since King’s collapse. Berman was unable to answer a question from The Athletic’s Tamerra Griffin about whether a replacement ambulance was sent to the stadium after King was taken to the hospital, and then refused to answer a follow-up question about what role she specifically played in allowing the May 9 game to restart. When asked if she was awake when King collapsed, or if she was called and informed about what had happened, Berman responded, “Yeah, I think as we review the situation, I don’t think it’s constructive to recount who did what and when.” When pressed for an answer by Griffin, Berman deflected again: “Our focus really has been on ensuring that all of our medical procedures were followed, and that on a go-forward basis, the game would not continue, and it won’t in the future.”
Before sitting down to dodge a few questions at halftime, Berman did her part to create a revealing juxtaposition. While Angel City and Bay FC players and staff wore shirts reading SK3—in honor of King—Berman could be spotted wearing an Unwell FC shirt while walking around the field with podcast host Alex Cooper. The game happened to be the debut of the league supporters’ group sponsored by Cooper’s hydration drink brand. During the press conference, Berman was much more willing to talk about that partnership than she was her own decision-making process from a week prior.
She described how Cooper, who played soccer in college, approached the league with the idea for a partnership. She said the league thought Cooper’s self-professed focus on “women supporting women” was a perfect match with the league. “Of course, I know and recognize that there are some people out there who don’t love everything that she does, and that’s OK,” Berman said. She didn’t get specific about what things Cooper has done that some NWSL fans “don’t love.” Perhaps she was referring to the fact that Cooper rose to podcasting fame while working for Barstool Sports, whose founder, Dave Portnoy, has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women and who is currently trying to attach himself to the WNBA for the sake of inflaming some of the ugliest discourse that league has ever encountered. In 2024, Cooper said she thanks Portnoy every time she signs a new business deal.
The NWSL has notoriously struggled to protect its players. The harassment and abuse scandals of 2021 were top of mind when Berman was hired as commissioner in 2022. “The health and safety of our players is the utmost priority, both emotionally and physically,” she said at the time. An ongoing investigation into Bay FC’s coaching staff and a lawsuit against the San Diego Wave and the NWSL by former employees have most recently indicated that the league is not the haven it claims to be for its players and employees. When King collapsed, the league was presented with a horrific situation and an important decision to make. Both the league and the Players Association are now in agreement that the wrong choice was made, but Berman’s refusal to stand up to questioning about how league protocols were carried out can only weaken any trust that may have been built between the players and league office.
That Berman had to face these questions on the same day as the launch of Unwell FC was a coincidence, but a telling one. Berman’s conduct on Saturday, from what she wore to what she did and did not want to talk about, offered a clear picture of what she currently prioritizes as commissioner. “We see the partnership as an incredible opportunity for us to grow our audience. And I think all of us in this room and everyone who’s in that stadium wants more women’s soccer fans,” she said of the partnership with Cooper. It was a desperate plea to the reporters in the room to pay attention to the league’s shiny new brand deal, not that thing that happened last week that she’d really rather not discuss.
It is absolutely a commissioner’s responsibility to help grow the league she presides over. But more than that, it is a commissioner’s responsibility to ensure the safety of her players, a task which sometimes requires difficult decisions. It’s not hard to tell which side of the job Berman cares more about.
