Here are things we know.

Trinity Rodman wants to continuing playing for the Washington Spirit.

The Washington Spirit would happily pay Trinity Rodman an amount commensurate with her talent to continue to play for the Washington Spirit.

The NWSL thinks this is a bad idea.

The saga of Rodman's contract negotiations with the Spirit and how they interact with the cost controls put in place by America's top women's soccer league is complicated and messy and yet another headache for NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.

Now, I might argue that Berman has exacerbated this (and other headaches) by Sideshow Bob'ing a series of very conspicuous rakes^[1], but we're not here to litigate the commish's record. Though it might not convey a blanket pass, Berman is merely the avatar (as all commissioners are) for the distilled position of the NWSL's ownership collective.

That position seemed to be that Spirit owner Michelle Kang's aggressive and legal (re: the NWSL salary cap) contract offer nevertheless "violated the spirit of the rules"^[2] and would not be approved.

Berman has previously highlighted the inability of any owner to outspend their counterparts as a means towards parity, something often cited as a strength of the NWSL. While the Kansas City Current ran way with this year's regular season points title, teams two through nine in the table were separated by a scant nine points.

Oh, and Gotham knocked off the top seeded Current in the first round of the playoffs on their way to a second NWSL championship.

The rejection of Rodman's contract caused a stir in American soccer circles, to put it mildly. How could the league botch the mind-boggingly simple choice to let an ambitious owner drop enough cash on a hugely talented and marketable American player to keep that player from jumping across the Atlantic (or swapping American leagues)? Once again, the NWSL appears to be, as Meg Linehan put it, "shadowboxing with its own potential".

While I can sympathize with the NWSL's desire to both maintain financial discipline and foster the parity so many fans and pundits seem to love, what's at risk for NWSL is something much bigger.

Parity won't make for a good excuse for limiting the league's ability to retain and attract stars when the NWSL is downgraded from "one of the elite competitions in the women's game" to, well, Major League Soccer.

The NWSL faces many of the same problems MLS has dealt with for the last 30 years: operating in country where the sport is second tier, geographical isolation from more famous soccer-playing countries, convincing foreign players to make the jump to America, et al. The thing that distinguishes the NWSL though—the gargantuan advantage it possesses over its men's soccer counterpart in the United States—is that it didn't arrive 60 years too late to plant its flag at the top of the mountain and then defend that position.

Maybe there's nothing the NWSL can do to slow the eventually ascension of European leagues (the WSL, mostly) to the apex of women's soccer competitions. The Champions League is going to only grow in the women's game and few, including Americans, can resist the pull of that name^[3].

But dammit, I'd rather the league do everything (reasonable) it can to slow the process than to willingly sideline itself in the battle for preeminence. I don't love patly suggesting things that would be complicated and difficult to pull off^[4], but why should women's soccer in the United States be subject to the same constraints that hold back our top men's league?

How does it make sense for the NWSL to slow walk itself into the second tier of women's professional soccer leagues?

Maybe the new rule the league just passed on Thursday night is a fix^[5].

Maybe it's a band-aid.

Maybe we'll be back here again very soon.

For a full review of all of this nonsense, see this breakdown from Claire Watkins at Just Women's Sports. I haven't seen a better explanation of the full timeline of the Rodman saga.

Plugs!

Listen to last night's edition of The Best Soccer Show. We talked MLS Cup, World Cup group draw, and roster issues for Poch.

Watch and subscribe to Morning Kickaround. Tune in at 9:30 AM Eastern on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Grant Wahl passed away three years ago this week. It's still strange that he's not here to poke and prod at the good and bad in soccer, both at home and around the world. Miss you, Grant.