Denver NWSL named Curt Johnson GM on May 29, touting his 25-year history of sports executive experience, including stints at Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer and the North Carolina Courage of the NWSL.
“He brings championship-level experience, a collaborative spirit, and a clear passion for growing the game,” team owner Rob Cohen said in an announcement of Johnson’s role. “He’s been a part of building some of the most successful organizations in our sport, and we’re thrilled to have him shaping the future of our club.”
As GM, Johnson will hire a head coach and construct a roster of athletes. At North Carolina, his rosters won two NWSL championships. However, Johnson was also responsible for retaining one of the most notorious abusers in modern women’s soccer as a head coach. Some fans were quick to point that out on social media, pointing to Johnson's appearance in the Yates report.
Named after former U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, who conducted the inquiry, the Yates report is a landmark investigation into allegations of misconduct in the NWSL and failures by both that league and the U.S. Soccer Federation to protect players. U.S. Soccer commissioned the investigation after the Athletic reported that coach Paul Riley had been credibly accused of encouraging players to get drunk at his apartment, suggesting they kiss to get out of drills, and sending them lewd photos and messages during his tenure with the NWSL's Portland Thorns from 2013 to 2015 — before the team fired him for cause. The Thorns did not publicize that Riley had been fired for cause, but merely shared that the team had decided not to renew his contract.
A season later in 2017, Riley was hired by the Western New York Flash, which later relocated to become the North Carolina Courage. Johnson was appointed by the Courage as GM in 2017 and retained Riley as coach despite being told about one incident when Riley invited former players to his apartment to drink and orchestrated two of them kissing in front of him, according to the Yates report.
The report detailed how the Thorns covered up Riley’s actions, which led to owner Merritt Paulson eventually selling the team. Despite the cover-up, the Yates report found that Johnson and the broader Courage organization knew Riley might not be a good actor before deciding to keep him on as head coach.
“NCFC Chairman and Owner Steve Malik and NCFC President and General Manager Curt Johnson both contacted multiple sources, including representatives of the Thorns, WNY Flash, the League, and USSF,” the report said. “Through those communications, NCFC learned of an alleged incident in which Riley had players up to his apartment, where two women kissed.”
The report found that both former league commissioner Jeff Plush and the Thorns purposefully didn’t give North Carolina the full information, though.
“Johnson did not specifically ask WNY Flash for its understanding of why Riley had left the Thorns; however, he said he asked about red flag issues and recalled nothing being raised,” the report found.
Johnson also told Yates’s team that he had been told Riley made a “poor decision” related to drinking with players, but that Riley denied any untoward actions occurred (which Riley has maintained despite significant evidence to the contrary and a permanent ban from the league instituted in 2023).
However, Johnson said he was never told that Riley was terminated for cause from the Thorns or provided any of the reports of untoward actions. The Courage immediately fired Riley after the allegations became public in 2021, without waiting for the Yates report to come out. Johnson stayed on as GM until December of last year, when he stepped down.
Many fans still question whether Johnson did enough to look into improper actions taken by Riley before hiring him as the coach of the Courage. As a result, many were mystified by Denver NWSL’s decision to hire Johnson.
When making hires for your women’s soccer team, follow these simple steps to avoid hiring a bad person: 1) Open the Yates Report 2) Press Ctrl+F 3) Enter the interviewee’s name 4) End the interview process if their name appears
— Bret (@bretk.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 6:04 PM
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“When making hires for your women’s soccer team, follow these simple steps to avoid hiring a bad person: 1) Open the Yates Report, 2) Press Ctrl+F, 3) Enter the interviewee’s name, 4) End the interview process if their name appears,” @bretk.bsky.social wrote on Bluesky.
Denver NWSL did not make any additional comments to Westword about Johnson and Riley's relationship, but when the Athletic asked Johnson about Riley and the Yates report, the new Denver GM said he felt everyone learned a lot from the report and resulting reforms, which included better systems set up to allow reporting of abuse and investigations into reports.
“The bottom line of that is, we’ve learned, we’ve grown, we’ve evolved, and we’ve identified where there was abuse of power, and we’ve created a lot more channels of communication and a lot more safe places for players to be able to honestly relay their views and their feelings and their experiences,” Johnson said.
Cohen told the Athletic he believes Johnson shares the team’s values of player safety and inclusivity.
But fans weren't buying that across social media, with comments on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky all expressing discontent with Johnson’s hiring.
Hey fans, if you have a deposit, make it clear to the club that you will not purchase any tickets they reverse this decision, issue an apology, and lay out a clear strategy to ensure nothing like this will ever happen again. What a face plant, Denver NWSL. Fix this now or it will be too late.
— Ben there, done that (@beninquiring.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Several people said they wouldn’t attend a game while Johnson was the GM, while others said they were glad they hadn’t made a season ticket deposit.
Other reactions were positive, however, congratulating Johnson or mentioning general excitement for the team, and asking when the team name and logo might be announced.
But team names also haven’t gone well for NWSL expansion teams.
Boston is also receiving an NWSL franchise, but the team's owners inexplicably revealed that the team name will be BOS Nation FC as a weird nod to the term Bostonian. Worse, the announcement video featured all the men’s sports teams in the Boston area and a campaign called “Too Many Balls,” implying the women's team was needed to combat testosterone in the city. BOS Nation FC later apologized for the branding campaign, and renamed itself Boston Legacy FC.
There has been considerable excitement around Denver NWSL, with the team setting league records for season-ticket holder deposits and fans rallying behind a planned stadium in Denver, which could receive around $70 million of taxpayer dollars.
Johnson’s hire has deflated the excitement for some fans, though.
Felt like it was probably only a matter of time until this team eventually disappointed me or made me feel let down but I gotta say it happened earlier than I expected
— hals517.bsky.social (@hals517.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 1:40 PM
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