Editor’s Note: To close out the year, we are recognizing our best stories of 2022. This is the first in that series, originally published on Feb. 24.
When Brooke Elby found herself suddenly traded from the Utah Royals to the Chicago Red Stars in a three-team deal in 2018, she considered quitting the sport of soccer entirely.
Staying in a Chicagoland hotel room while her car sat in a Salt Lake City parking lot for weeks with all of her things, Elby reflected on her position in the NWSL, a 6-year-old league where player rights were not yet protected under a collective bargaining agreement.
“That was the first time I ever really felt like I was such a pawn in this league, and really like no one valued me,” she says.
During her stay in that hotel room, Elby reached out to a number of trusted friends to figure out what to do. One of the people she contacted was Yael Averbuch West, president of the NWSL Players Association at the time, who presented Elby with a different path: Instead of walking away, she could get involved.
The NWSLPA has had only three presidents in its five-year history: Averbuch West, Elby and current president Tori Huster. The PA hired Meghann Burke as…
