Sports
Brandi Chastain's iconic moment aided women's movement from field to owner's box
It’s one of the most powerful images in women’s sports history.
Brandi Chastain, after converting the penalty kick that gave the U.S. its second women’s World Cup title, dropped to her knees and ripped off her jersey in celebration, exposing her black sports bra to a live crowd of 90,000 and a national television audience that peaked at 40 million.
Twenty-five years later it’s still celebrated as a moment of unbridled joy, but also one of liberation. Never before — or since — has a team of women athletes played before a crowd that large in the U.S. And rarely had a woman athlete felt so unburdened by societal constraints that she started taking her clothes off in public.
“That was an iconic moment but it transcended sport. People saw the raw emotion in that photograph and it made people feel differently about women,” said Chrissy Franklin, an executive vice president with the sports and entertainment marketing firm Octagon. “She opened the door for women to be unapologetic about their success.”
If Title IX, Billie Jean King and Florence Griffith Joyner changed the way we thought about women athletes, Chastain and her teammates began to change the way we watched, consumed and supported women’s sports. It has been a long, slow and painful evolution, one that is still far from finished even as Caitlin Clark draws record crowds to WNBA arenas and the NWSL nearly outdraws the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
But Chastain’s journey from the floor of the Rose Bowl to the owners’ suite at PayPal Park, where the NWSL franchise she founded plays, is proof that progress has been made.
“Obviously the trajectory of women’s sports has skyrocketed in the last couple years and that has been a game-changer,” said Chastain, one of a growing number of women who have moved from the playing field into the executive offices of women’s soccer and basketball teams. “I think men in business, who have been decision-makers, now look at women’s sports as not just a charitable organization. We’ve been saying for 25 or more years that women’s sports has a place in the landscape and it’s viable.”
Cheryl Cooky, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Purdue, agrees. This moment, she said, finally feels different.
“Part of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing is because women athletes are taking the reins,” said Cooky, who has been studying the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture for more than three decades. “Women athletes today are creating their own media platforms, becoming owners and investing in women’s sports.
“I really do think it’s women athletes who are starting to really push the conversation, invest in women’s sports, speak out against injustices.”
Angel City players run on the field after a match against NJ/NY Gotham FC on May 29, 2022.
(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
Few U.S. professional sports franchises were owned by women in 2013, when the NWSL played its first season with eight teams. Since then the league has nearly doubled, to 14 teams, eight of which have women as owners, founders or significant investors. Chastain is all three for Bay FC, an NWSL expansion franchise she started with three other national team players.
On Saturday, Bay will play host to Angel City, a third-year club whose sprawling group of more than 100 owners and investors includes 14 former USWNT stars, two Wimbledon women’s champions and Olympic gold medalists in skiing and gymnastics.
Other NWSL minority owners include former World Cup champions Carli Lloyd and Briana Scurry, basketball’s Sue Bird, tennis champion Naomi Osaka and gymnast Dominique Dawes. Partly as a result of their investments, the league is stronger than ever, with a record four-year, $240-million domestic broadcast deal, record average attendance and two more expansion teams scheduled to begin play in 2026.
Angel City alone has been valued at $180 million by the sports business website Sportico, making it the most valuable franchise in U.S. women’s sports history. And it’s run by the largest majority-women ownership group in global sports. No longer do women athletes have to rely solely on men in business to make decisions about their livelihoods, a problem that repeatedly sunk women’s sports just two decades earlier.
“We do ourselves a disservice,” Cooky said, “if we don’t recognize all the work and all the effort that women athletes have put in, both on and off the field, to make this moment happen.”
A fan holds up an Angel City scarf during a match between Angel City and Bay FC in March.
(Doug Benc / Associated Press)
There was a lot of patience involved, too. A year after Chastain’s penalty gave the U.S. a World Cup title, she joined 19 other national team players in forming the Women’s United Soccer Assn., the first in a series of short-lived women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. The WUSA folded three seasons later, but the problem wasn’t with the players, it was with the investors.
“Business executives and decision-makers were not ready for women’s sports at the time,” Chastain said. “This is not a short-term investment. Women’s sports has not been given the breathing space that men’s sports has, and so it’s hard to grow. And it hasn’t been given the nourishment to grow into what it can fully be.
“Now it’s breathing on its own, it’s healthy. The sponsorship space, the business space, we’re seeing what impact we can have.”
And it’s not just the NWSL. The WNBA has long struggled to draw fans and sponsors, but with Clark joining after a record-setting college career at Iowa, the league recently released figures showing attendance was up 156% in the first month of the season and more than half of all league games had been sellouts. Televised games on ABC and ESPN averaged 1.32 million viewers in May across ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC and CBS, three times as many as they did last year.
So can you draw line from Chastain kneeling on the floor of the Rose Bowl to Clark draining shots from the midcourt logo today? No, says Joy Fawcett, a teammate of Chastain’s on three World Cup teams. Agreeing with Cooky, she says seeing Chastain’s success reflected in Clark’s doesn’t do justice to the difficulty of the journey, nor the contributions so many others made along the way.
“It wasn’t a straight line,” said Fawcett, now an Angel City investor. “It was a lot of ups and downs to get to this point.
“This is something that takes a village. You have none of this without the fans and their support. You have nothing without the investors. It’s all layered over time and none of us could do it alone.”
But Fawcett, the first coach of UCLA’s women’s team and now an assistant with the national deaf soccer team, said she and her teammates never doubted this day would come.
“We always believed that it’s like ‘you just need to see it,’” she said. “You just need to watch the women’s game. It’s a beautiful game. You will love it. You just need to come.
“And that’s what happened. They did, and it took off.”
Twenty-five years later Chastain keeps a framed copy of that iconic photo in her San Jose home, though humility prevents her from displaying it in a prominent place.
“It’s in the bathroom,” she said.
Brandi Chastain speaks during Zeta Live 2023 in New York. Chastain tries to stay humble about her iconic moment in the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
But then Chastain doesn’t need a picture to be inspired, which is how the photo came to be in the first place. Her mother Lark raised her daughter to be the kind of woman who wasn’t afraid to take her shirt off in public if the moment called for it or to start a professional soccer team from scratch. However she did that not with words, but deeds.
Lark Chastain dreamed of becoming a flight attendant but was told she couldn’t keep the job if she married or had children — rules that didn’t apply to male flight attendants. So she quit, married and raised a family before returning to the work force, eventually becoming the vice president of a Silicon Valley employment agency.
While Brandi Chastain was winning World Cups, her mother was filling the board rooms at Hewlett Packard and IBM, arguably influencing the direction of the tech revolution.
“There was no reason for her to think she could do that. She was told she could be a nurse, a secretary or a teacher,” Brandi said of her mother, who died in 2002. “I saw that example every day in front of me. Her fearlessness gave me the power to stand up and say: ‘I love sports. I belong in this space.’ I will take pride in knowing that I was gifted something really powerful from my mom.”
So maybe there is a straight line from Chastain to Clark after all, only it’s Lark Chastain who blazed that trail by questioning whether the way things have always been done is necessarily the way they should continue to be done.
“What Caitlin Clark has been gifted,” Brandi said, “is women who have been showcasing powerful strength and confidence. So she too believes she belongs in that space.”
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Russell Wilson and Sean Payton spent just one NFL season together, but tension lingered after a rocky year.
And it appears the tension that built up from that tumultuous stretch continues to linger.
Wilson’s interview on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, recorded before last month’s Super Bowl between Seattle and New England, recently resurfaced.
In the interview, Wilson doubled down on his October comment labeling Payton “classless,” saying he felt slighted by his former coach’s remarks.
Head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos talks to quarterback Russell Wilson on the sideline during an NFL preseason football game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium Aug. 11, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
“[When] you’ve been on the same side or this and that, and I got the same amount of rings as you got, meaning Sean, right?” said Wilson, who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks as Payton did coaching for the New Orleans Saints.
“I got a lot of respect for him as a play-caller, this and that, but to take a shot, I don’t like. I don’t think it’s necessary, you know, I mean, especially when I’m not even on your own team anymore. So, for me, there’s a point in time where you have to, I’ve realized, I’ve stayed quiet for so long. There’s a there’s a time and place where I’m not.
“I know who I am as a competitor, as a warrior, as a champion, too, and, you know, I’ve beaten Sean, too. You know, like we’ve been on the same place and the same thing. And so, it’s not a matter of disrespect. Just don’t disrespect me.”
Sean Payton and Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos during an a game against the Minnesota Vikings at Empower Field at Mile High Nov. 19, 2023, in Denver, Colo. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
After a rocky one-year stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024, Wilson joined the New York Giants last offseason. However, he was relegated to a backup role after just three games.
Rookie Jaxson Dart quickly showed promise once he had the chance to start, but his season was briefly derailed by injury. Jameis Winston — not Wilson — stepped in for Dart in a handful of games. Dart threw three touchdowns in a Week 7 matchup with the Broncos, nearly pulling off an upset in what was eventually a close loss.
After the game, Payton said Dart provided a “spark” to the Giants’ offense.
“I was talking to [Giants owner] John Mara not too long ago, and I said, ‘We were hoping that that change would have happened long after our game,’” Payton said.
The New York Giants’ Russell Wilson attempts to escape a sack by Dallas Cowboys defensive end James Houston (53) in the first half of a game Sept. 14, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Payton also said the Broncos would have faced less of a challenge had Wilson been under center.
“Classless … but not surprised,” Wilson responded in a social media post. “Didn’t realize you’re still bounty hunting 15+ years later though the media.”
Despite last season’s struggles and chatter about his football future, Wilson does not appear ready to call it quits in 2026.
“I wanna play a few more years for sure,” he said. “I think, for me, I’ve always had the vision of getting to 40, at least. I think the game is different. Quarterbacks, we get hit. It’s not, you know, we get hit hard, but … there’s certain rules. I mean, back in the day when I started, bro, it was you just get [clobbered].
“I mean, so I feel like the game allows you to, you know, live a little longer, I guess. I feel healthy. I feel great. But I think, more than anything else is, do you love the game? Do you love studying? Do you love the passion for it all? Do you love the process? Do you love the practice? Do you love — everybody loves the winning part of it, but it’s process. There’s a journey that you got to be obsessed with. And that part I’m obsessed with.”
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The early rounds of the BNP Paribas Open began Wednesday, with top seeds slated to start play Friday during the 12-day ATP and WTPA Master 1000 tournament.
A busy stretch of the tennis season reaches another gear at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the second largest outdoor tennis stadium in the world.
While many consider it the “fifth Grand Slam” because of its elite player field, amenities and equal prize money for men and women, professionals acknowledge the tournament is part of a stressful stretch on the tennis calendar.
Indian Wells is followed by the Miami Open, another two-week Master 1000 tournament. The tour stops are known as the “Sunshine Double.”
Some players made the short trip from Indian Wells to Las Vegas this past weekend to participate in the MGM Grand Slam, an exhibition designed to help players ramp up for back-to-back tournaments.
American Reilly Opelka, a 6-foot–11 pro, said managing fatigue after a series of tournaments before hitting Indian Wells has altered his practice and play in exhibition matches, including a loss to 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca in Las Vegas.
“Normally in any kind of competition, you get excited and play with a pressure point … but you don’t feel this when you are practicing,” Opelka said.
“I was trying to feel like this a few days ago while practicing with … [Tommy Paul,] but instead we got tired and hungry. … That usually doesn’t happen. We just decided to stop and go to eat somewhere.”
Paul said despite the decision to cut practice short, he feels fresh for the upcoming events.
“I started the year pretty well and for Americans, we are excited for the Sunshine Double,” Paul said.
Casper Rudd lost to Opelka during the first round of the Las Vegas exhibition. The Norwegian also lost a week ago during the first round of the Acapulco Open, falling to Chinese qualifier Yibing Wu in straight sets.
Rudd said he felt “extremely tired” after the Australian Open in January.
Rancho Palo Verdes resident Taylor Fritz, ranked No. 7 in the world, said the best way to prepare yourself for grueling tour schedule is “putting [in] the time, work and repetition.”
“… Be there, be focused on the quality that you are doing,” said Fritz, a 28-year-old who won the Indian Wells title in 2022.
While some players are guarding against burnout, others struggled to even reach California. Some players who live in Dubai, including Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, have to contend with closed airspace triggered by the U.S. and Israel bombing Iran.
The ATP announced Wednesday that, “the vast majority of players who were in Dubai have successfully departed today on selected flights.”
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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