More Soccer: Did Mrs. Murphy Learn Spin From Her Husband’s Staff?

Just yesterday The Bob & Steve Show and several others were writing and talking about the fact that Governor Phil Murphy’s soccer team sent out a Tweet in which Mrs. Murphy said she has “chosen to take an active role in club activities moving forward.”

I wrote about how Tammy Murphy, in the team’s Tweet, said she anticipates players “will enjoy their upscale apartments and new furnishings.” I was hopeful that it meant women would never again be forced to live with an elderly man who repeatedly makes inappropriate comments to the players.

Given that back on January 10th when the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced, “the Permitted Team Assistance Cap has nearly doubled from the previous season, allowing teams to spend additional amounts through providing players assistance in the areas of housing and automobiles,” that by Tweeting, “We are committed to improving the player experience and anticipate they will enjoy their upscale apartments and new furnishings,” all players would be provided housing.

Well…you know what they say about never assume anything. I was wrong to assume all players would be provided housing. Fortunately, Forbes magazine today asked a bunch of questions about the announcement. The first question and answer:

What is new and improved about the housing mentioned in Tammy Murphy's note?

Via the team, we have some specific news here.

“Thanks to an increased housing cap, we were able to secure apartments for 14 players and, thanks to an investment from ownership, we are providing brand new furnishings for those apartments. Like the rest of the league, Sky Blue FC is moving away from host families and will be less reliant on them this year than ever before.”

 Hopefully, this will mean an end to things detailed in the important reporting last summer at Equalizer Soccer, from repeated in-season moves to sleeping on couches.

Here’s the thing, under 2019 rules the “NWSL senior rosters will expand to a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 22 players.” The team is providing apartments for 14 players which means a minimum of 6 players will either have to find their own apartments or be forced to live with host families.

Given that Sky Blue FC obviously is not providing housing for all of its players I have to ask if when Tammy Murphy wrote that she anticipates players “will enjoy their upscale apartments and new furnishings,” if she was simply being a spin doctor?

Surely, Sky Blue FC will end up using host families for the 6 players that aren’t fortunate enough to get to live in one of the team provided “upscale apartments.”

To be fair, every team uses host families, but I have to wonder if the Murphy’s will be a host family. Or maybe the women who get placed with host families will get lucky like a pair of Houston Dash players did a couple of years ago when they landed at Jeff Van Gundy’s house.

But for now, I simply want to know where Mrs. Murphy leaned the art of spin, because it did appear that every player would enjoy an “upscale apartment” in the Tweet sent out by the team.