The age-old question of second chances, when we give them and who deserves them, arises again here, viewed from the perspective of modern technology and sensitivity.
Should the author of a series of undeniably sexist tweets – ugly, unintelligent, downright backward writing – be held eternally responsible for those comments?
A healthy discussion can be had there.
What I can’t for the life of me figure out is why Merritt Paulson would want to make his fragile football empire the site of this debate.
By signing decorated former Manchester United midfielder Phil Neville as the Timbers’ next coach, Paulson decides to once again compete with his club’s most loyal fans.
Instead of showing compassion for the fans who were at the center of a sexual misconduct scandal that rocked the sport, Paulson thumbs his nose at them.
Instead of denouncing misogyny, Paulson exacerbates it.
Even if Neville was undoubtedly the best coach among the free agents, which is debatable, signing him to this club at this time will be viewed as a brassy decision that shows contempt for the Portland soccer community.
Wasn’t a coach available who could have united the Timbers’ fractured locker room without also stoking painful divisions between fans and the organization?
Was it Inter Miami’s 35 wins in 90 games under Neville that so stunned Paulson and helped him plunge headfirst into another controversy?
The selection of this new gaffer – football parlance – is simply a major faux pas.
It was nearly 40 minutes into Neville’s introductory press conference at Providence Park on Tuesday when I wondered if he finally realized the magnitude of the challenge he had taken on when he agreed to come to Portland.
It was after the fifth question about his tweets.
Neville spoke passionately about his experiences coaching the England women’s team for more than three years. He said that until he coached the Lionesses he was “ignorant” of the challenges women face. He promised to support the Thorns passionately, not “because I’m here in Portland and because of the things that have happened. That’s just who I am and what I do.”
He talked about his parents. He talked about the way they raised him.
“Without a shadow of a doubt,” Neville said, “when I see the tweets I put out, it’s not a reflection, but it’s not something that I am either. And it doesn’t make me happy.”
Then his voice fell silent and he fell back in his chair. For a moment he seemed defeated. Exhausted. And in many cities that might have been enough. We could have stopped the fight.
But it’s further evidence of the Timbers’ malfeasance that Paulson and general manager Ned Grabavoy intentionally put Neville in a position where he can’t win.
This organization was the starting point for sexual misconduct in women’s football.
It is barely two years since Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly went public with their accounts of former Thorns coach Paul Riley’s sexual misconduct, allegations confirmed in lurid detail by the Yates report last October. While that investigation was ongoing, the Timbers waited until Andy Polo’s domestic violence arrest became public before deciding to suspend and ultimately release the midfielder.
What if Neville had truly reformed and actually cared? How can he ever hope to prove this in a place where there is no forgiveness, nor should there be?
Not everyone who deserves a second chance is entitled to a second chance everywhere.
No one should confuse Neville’s tweets with Riley’s terrible actions, including one in which he described how women “want equality until it comes to paying the bills” and another in which he implied that women too would be busy with housework, watching sports and polo. Neville’s transgressions were stupid and insulting, not criminal or offensive.
But I’ll come back to this: The Timbers asked their fans to stand by them for this long. Why add this to the list?
It’s not like Neville should be blacklisted or banned from work because of his tweets. I do not believe that.
It’s that any reasonable person could have taken one look at Neville’s baggage and the current state of the Timbers’ relationship with this city and concluded that it was a terrible fit.
Neville apparently had offers from other MLS clubs. The better outcome would have been if the Timbers had allowed him to accept one.
Some might say that Neville’s tweets should only be disqualifying here if they would be disqualifying elsewhere. I do not agree. It’s necessary to hold the Timbers to a higher standard, just as Michigan State had to have zero tolerance for allegations of sexual impropriety surrounding football coach Mel Tucker after Larry Nassar’s defilement, and just as Penn State can’t even defend itself in the slightest Scandal followed the story of abuse.
Neville said he interviewed for the Timbers job primarily with Grabavoy and – you guessed it – Paulson.
Paulson, who sat in the back row next to general manager Heather Davis at Tuesday’s unveiling, was not transparent about the reasons for Riley’s departure from the Thorns in 2015 and vouched for him at another club months later, investigations show revealed last year.
He doesn’t have the credibility to demand fans accept a coach whose past actions could be so triggering.
Paulson is in the process of selling the Thorns to new owners by the end of the year. And the Timbers are no longer the same organization they were before they fired Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub. Three of the five top positions are held by women, including Davis.
But Paulson exercises significant day-to-day control and has ultimate decision-making authority over the Timbers. He signed this attitude. And if the decisions keep raising the same old questions, then not enough has changed.
Instead, Paulson and his subordinates seem to be hoping that everyone will just forget about it and move on.
By deciding to hire Neville, Paulson seems to be saying to his critics, “Oh come on, aren’t you done with this yet?”
Ultimately, I don’t think Neville’s tweets were ever intended to disqualify him from coaching. He apologized fully and convincingly and did not repeat his mistakes. Is it possible that a bumbling man-child who first entered the hypermasculine world of professional sports at the tender age of 13 can atone for his terrible judgment?
Gosh, I hope so.
I hope that at 46 he is no longer the same person he was 11 years ago and that these empty, silly comments no longer reflect his views towards women. That he’s not the sexist these tweets make him out to be.
But here’s the thing: we don’t know. We couldn’t know.
The person making this character judgment on our behalf has repeatedly fallen short when it comes to protecting women.
It is possible for a person to learn from his mistakes.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Paulson.
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