Why did the NWSL reject the Washington Spirit's contract offer to Trinity Rodman?
Full Time: A show about women's soccer
The Athletic
4.8 • 756 Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The NWSL is at risk of losing one of its biggest superstars. But what exactly is holding back the Washington Spirit from re-signing Trinity Rodman?
On Monday's edition Full Time, host Jillian Sakovits is joined by The Athletic's Meg Linehan to break down the ongoing contract saga that unfolded last week. Why hasn't the NWSL accepted the Spirit's proposed offer to Rodman? Why is the NWSL players' association filing a grievance against the NWSL on Rodman's behalf? Is the Spirit breaking any salary cap rules with their offer to Rodman? Could Rodman head to Europe?
PLUS: Tamerra Griffin checks in from World Sevens Football in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the San Diego Wave took home the title, $2 million and the tournament continued to grab headlines for its ability to create joy and viral soccer moments. And, in the English Women's Super League, Chelsea's 34-match and 585-day undefeated streak finally came to an end with an unlikely 1-0 home defeat to Everton.
_______________
HOST: Jillian Sakovits
GUESTS: Tamerra Griffin, Meg Linehan
PRODUCER: Theo Lloyd-Hughes
VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Emily Olsen
_______________
Referenced on the show:
The WSL title race has some juice in it
NWSL can’t keep Trinity Rodman and its current salary cap. It’s up to the league to choose
Trinity Rodman receives contract from Super League team larger than NWSL can match: Sources
San Diego Wave swag surf their way to $2 million prize at World Sevens
Trinity Rodman negotiations explained: Why did NWSL reject the Spirit’s offer and what’s next?
Everton end Chelsea’s 34-match Women’s Super League unbeaten run with 1-0 win
_______________
Get in touch: [email protected]
Follow on Instagram and TikTok: @tafulltime
Subscribe to our Youtube channel: here
Subscribe to the Full Time newsletter here
Visit the Yahoo Women's Sports hub here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What the league is saying is they are banking on the league revenue, having increased so drastically that the spirit would not actually be able to field a team with whatever amount they promised Trinity Rodman in 2028. |
| 0:18.3 | Now, the challenge is, first of all, that may be true, right? But the Spearer saying, |
| 0:23.9 | hey, we've got the safety valve of the buyout. If we can't pay her, then, like, we'll pay her |
| 0:29.2 | basically outside of the mechanism of the salary cap, but then she won't be playing for us. |
| 0:34.3 | Like, we literally can't afford her, but she still gets that money, |
| 0:42.4 | but it doesn't hit the salary cap for us. So it's honestly kind of a punishment for the spirit. |
| 0:50.7 | Hello, everybody, a very warm welcome to full-time. It is Jillian Sackavitt's. What an episode we have for you today. Have you been trying to follow the Trinity Rodman contract situation? So have we, and so has every other writer on our athletic roster. So we bring in the great Meg Linnehan today, who's going to get you all caught up on where we stand as of Monday, December 8th. |
| 1:14.2 | After that, we're going to check in with Tamara Griffin, who is in Fort Lauderdale to watch the San Diego Wave become the second World Sevens football champions. |
| 1:22.6 | And we're going to close out the show by talking about the end of a historic, undefeated streak for Chelsea over in the English |
| 1:28.5 | Women's Super League. |
| 1:29.7 | Let's get into it. |
| 1:36.5 | Joining me now is the athletics, Meg Linnehan, who has been following the drama of the |
| 1:41.1 | Trinity Rodman contract situation every darn step of the way. |
| 1:46.1 | Good morning, Meg. How are you? |
| 1:48.2 | Yeah, I think I'd honestly like to be free of the saga a little bit. It's just, I feel like |
| 1:53.5 | since the last time we talked about on the show, a whole year has happened, and it's only |
| 1:58.3 | been a matter of not even like three weeks max yeah yeah weeks |
| 2:04.0 | okay um but for someone who has not been freed from the trinity rodman contract situation |
| 2:09.3 | uh we're going to dive into a lot with you uh for our listeners we are talking about this on monday |
| 2:15.0 | december eighth so at this venture in Meg, what are the key plot twists that have transpired over the last few weeks? We'll say since the NWSL championship. |
| 2:27.8 | Right. So, I mean, coming out of the NWSL championship, first of all, you have NWSell Commissioner, Jessica Berman, on the podium at Media Day saying, |
| 2:35.3 | we will fight for Trinity Rodman. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.