Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Merry Toyotathon (but never Happy Honda Days. That woke nonsense is just part of the War on Toyotathon.)

It has been a busy stretch but it’s good to be back with you. With the NWSL season in the books, we have more room again for other sports but we are able to kick things off with a story of an NWSL star.

In this edition, we learn a bit more about the corporate investment into women’s sports and how newly-crowned NWSL champion Jess Carter is helping forge new beauty standards as a Black British woman in soccer.

Plus, we’ll learn about two older men in sports, one hanging ‘em up and the other coming out of retirement, and see a consummate example of leadership in the face of both adversity and tragedy. And we see the President of the United States acting as a consummate example of… well… not that.

But first, before we jump in, here’s Peach!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s a reigning NWSL champion taking full advantage of the league’s branding bonanza by serving as a beauty ambassador: Jess Carter!

The 28-year-old Gotham FC defender started as a center back in the club’s stifling defensive performance in last month’s championship game against the Washington Spirit. 

But she’s also been the star of a brand campaign by e.l.f. Beauty, a cosmetics company that has signed on as the NWSL’s first beauty and makeup-related partner.

As part of her efforts to promote the brand, which included a turn in a documentary-style ad campaign (which you can see above,) she sat down with me for a chat.

We’ve talked a bit here before in the newsletter about the way brands have poured in a lot of investment into the NWSL and women’s soccer. And Carter says that, at first, she didn’t originally think of herself as the right fit for this particular role, especially because she didn’t know anything about makeup. 

“I couldn't be further from makeup, really. And then when I spoke with e.l.f., and I got to understand that the whole purpose of the the brand, and what they're really trying to push… is about being authentically yourself, and that is something that I do strongly root for,” Carter said.

But she did say somebody else in her family has been very excited about the partnership from the get-go.

“My sister is in the other room, and is very excited about some of the products, because she is very much into makeup, and she cannot believe that I've never like used some of them. So it's definitely got its plusses,” Carter said.

She felt that across the board, brands backed up their ad campaigns with active investment.

“A lot of brands and sponsorship here in the NWSL, it's not just putting money into the game or it's not just a sign on the side of the pitch,” Carter said. “They are there. They're trying to create a really good relationship with the league, with players, trying to really promote the game.”

One of the things that struck me about Carter being a spokesperson in a beauty campaign is that, even in women’s sports, campaigns around fashion and beauty often overlook players like her. As her accent and years playing for the English national team prove, she is not from here, plus she is Black and openly LGBTQ+ (and engaged to the woman she stands in front of at work, her Gotham FC teammate, goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.)

“I think there's always been a narrative that athletic black women are too masculine and or too powerful,” Carter said. “And I'm thinking that that, to me, is what femininity is, is by being powerful, is by being yourself. I think that that is your true, most feminine that you could possibly be.”

Because of narratives like that, Black, queer women don’t often get recognized by mainstream brands and leagues, especially not for feminine beauty. This year has offered plenty of proof that the opposite is true with Black women in soccer, where racism has again reared its ugly head.

Carter herself faced racist abuse while playing on the England team that won the 2025 Euros. She shared earlier this year that she had to take a step back from her social media accounts and that she feared playing in the Euros final because of the abuse she received. British authorities arrested two men in the weeks following the tournament for the racist and abusive messages they sent Carter.

And across the game, regardless of their sexual orientation, Black women are facing efforts to cast doubt on their womanhood, often as part of bad-faith political attacks.

After all, in October, Angel City FC benchwarmer Elizabeth Eddy made headlines by calling for transgender and intersex women to be excluded from pro women’s soccer, with the article including several references to Orlando Pride’s star striker Barbra Banda, who is Black, Zambian and by all public accounts, not a transgender woman.

One of the most powerful responses to Eddy’s piece came from her teammate Sarah Gorden, Angel City’s captain and a Black woman. Gorden said Eddy’s piece had undertones that “come across as transphobic and racist” in its targeting of Black players from Africa, saying that “to single out this community based on them looking or being different is absolutely a problem."

The op-ed and the targeting of players like Banda didn’t come up explicitly in my chat with Carter. But I couldn’t help but think of that whole affair when Carter expanded on what it meant to be a Black woman playing a role in setting a beauty standard.

“We're all about inclusivity,” Carter said. “I don't care where you come from, what you look like. I don't—I don't care. I think that we should feel so lucky that we get to work with and play against some of the most incredible athletes in the world. And I think the people that want to be negative about that are ones that are uncomfortable about playing the top of the top. Because I think when you are playing the best of the best, there will always be someone who is more superior than you in certain aspects. And if you're making these comments, it's probably because you're not beating them. That's probably, to me, that what it's down to. Because if you were winning, you wouldn't care. So, yeah, I just think that everyone should just be themselves and allow everyone to be themselves, and you just focus on what you can do.”

We did get to touch a bit on some more on-field topics—I asked about how things change after winning a championship and becoming a target for the rest of the league.

Carter joined Gotham last year, after their 2023 championship but knows a thing or two about trophies, winning five straight Women’s Super League titles with Chelsea FC before coming stateside.

Going back-to-back, Carter admits, will be a challenge.

“I've been lucky enough to be part of teams that have done that, and it is, it just gets harder. You have this huge high, and then you're constantly chasing that when you win. Nothing else feels as good as the win. So it's that, actually, you now need to be to get to another level in order to do that again.”

Win or lose, next year will include a different kind of ring. Carter says she and her fiancée will tie the knot.

Despite Carter and Berger having to be on top of things on the pitch, wedding planning is, apparently, a different story. 

“We've been the worst brides. We have not planned, organized a whole lot besides the venue. So we will have to get on that.”

The good news for Carter is, should she need some makeup for her wedding outfit, she signed up for the right endorsement deal.

My Reporting

MS NOW

For the digital side of MS NOW, I offered my take on the World Cup draw, held the Friday before last at the Kennedy Center in Washington. 

It’s just the latest step FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, have taken to cozy up to President Trump since the Republican returned to the White House just under a year ago.

Trump received a specially-created FIFA Peace Prize, receiving a funky-looking trophy and a gold medal, which he took out of the box and put on himself immediately.

As I wrote for MS NOW, this Trump lovefest reflects everything that FIFA is, and that American soccer is not. 

Professional soccer emerged in the U.S. in the 1970s, relying on immigrant players, many of whom were Black or Latino. The women’s national team has led the way in developing soccer in the U.S., with players fighting for justice, equal pay and progressive social causes. And even in 2025, American soccer fans have built a bastion of resistance, protesting everything from ICE raids to National Guard occupations to policies targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

I wrapped up the piece by saying the following: “The Trump White House and FIFA co-opting a cultural space for its glossy World Cup draw tramples on the welcoming environment fans, players, teams and leagues have built for decades in American soccer. Whatever gold trophies FIFA wants to award Trump, one hopes that American soccer will remain truer to its values than becoming a Trump sideshow.”

You can read the piece in full here.

Other Sports Takes and Things of Note

Old Man Rivers – I’m not sure if it counts as elder abuse, but 44-year-old grandfather Philip Rivers had a rough go of it as the starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts in their 18-16 loss to the Seahawks in Seattle on Sunday. Rivers completed a solid 18 of 27 pass attempts but threw for just 120 yards.

And although he did throw for his first passing touchdown since retiring after the 2020 season, he also threw the interception that allowed Seattle to turn around and hit a game-winning field goal as time expired.

It has been absolutely bizarre to see Rivers go from a long-retired player coaching high school football to a starting NFL quarterback role in less than a week’s time. He was drafted so long ago that at least one other player from his 2004 draft class, Jared Allen, has since been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Several other draftmates, including Larry Fitzgerald, Vince Wilfork and Eli Manning, the latter of whom was traded for Rivers on draft day, are likely to follow soon.

Rivers himself has punted his Hall of Fame eligibility by five years with his return. And while he’s been barely hanging on, the Colts seem ready to entrust him with the starting role again when they play the 49ers on Monday night. It may be a car crash but I know I probably won’t be able to look away.

A Brown alumna confronts tragedy – As someone who has covered my share of press conferences after losses, I know it’s hard for players or coaches to say anything after a big loss, let alone something meaningful.

After USC women’s basketball’s loss on Saturday to UConn, where they fell 79-51, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb learned about the shooting on campus at her alma mater, Brown University.

Gottlieb fought back tears addressing reporters just after learning that a shooter killed at least two people and wounded nine others.

“It doesn't need to be this way. Sending thoughts and prayers to my teammates who have kids there," Gottlieb said. "Sending thoughts and prayers to my teammates who have kids there. To the parents that have to worry about their children, I’m just going to end it with that, but just to say we’re the only country that lives this way.”

Gottlieb pointed out how tragedies like this mean so much more than the day-to-day of sports.

“The college football cycle has been in the news a million times and are we going to report about this? It’s the guns. We’re the only country that lives this way.”

She continued, "Parents should not have to be worried about their kids. I have a teammate who has a daughter who is in the basement of the library because she doesn't know what's going on there." 

And his name was John Cena! – After 23 years and 17 world championships, WWE legend John Cena finally gave up.

Cena walked a singular path as a star for WWE. From a debut in which he faced an open challenge from Olympic gold medalist-turned-wrestling star Kurt Angle, to saving his career from ending before it really took off with a “white rapper” gimmick, to becoming the perfectly manicured, PR-friendly face of the pro wrestling business, Cena has done it all.

In a sense, his career parallels where WWE went in the 21^st century. After building a reputation as a seedy, violent, sexually-charged show in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the company found a path to billions and public trading by building a more family-friendly image.

Cena was able to straddle both, with the ability to trash-talk with the best of them while also setting the Guinness World Record for most Make-a-Wish requests fulfilled in the 45-year history of the foundation, at over 650.

On Saturday night, Cena wrestled his final match in an event in Washington, D.C. with even the worst seats selling for over $400 a pop on most ticket-selling websites. And despite his work advancing the business into the future, he went out in the traditional way, dating back even to when wrestlers would leave town to head from one territory to another: on his back. 

After a valiant fight, Cena tapped out for the first time in over 20 years, submitting to the sleeper hold of the rising Austrian star Gunther. 

I began watching WWE just weeks before Cena’s debut. I have tuned in and out, seeing Cena as a rookie, a rising star, the driving force of the company, and a legend phasing himself out into part-time work. 

Now, WWE has become too morally rotten for my taste. From WWE legend-turned-executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque building ties with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the company expanding its partnership with Saudi Arabia even after their likely role in the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to their decision this summer to bring back star Brock Lesnar despite his role in the sex trafficking allegations by former employee Janel Grant that forced out former chairman Vince McMahon (including an allegation that McMahon pooped on her head,) WWE has changed less than it may want people to believe.

John Cena may have been, publicly at least, a paragon of morals in his long career. But sadly, at the end of the road, he leaves a company that is just as seedy as ever.

Something Good I Ate

On the way back from San Jose last month, I had a layover in Nashville. It wasn’t long enough to head into the city, but it was enough time to have some lunch at the airport outpost of a Nashville staple: Hattie B’s Hot Chicken.

Nashville Hot Chicken has gone mainstream in recent years. Prince’s is the pioneer in the space, with its original location dating back to 1945. But Hattie B’s has emerged quickly, opening its first location in 2012 and becoming a chain with locations across the Nashville area and in Alabama, Georgia, Texas and even a Las Vegas location.

I had their hot chicken sandwich, going for a version of it that was not especially spicy to avoid having too many issues on my flight home.

But it was delicious. For some reason, I had thought it would be a little more elevated in terms of the quality—a bit closer to fast casual or restaurant grade—but it bore a bit closer of a resemblance to a fast food fried chicken sandwich.

No problem here, though. Comparing it to fast food fried chicken sandwiches, it’s top of the class. I’d put it right up there with the version from Popeyes and I’d happily have it again.

Just a note: Any work here or opinions I express are solely mine, and do not reflect the views of my employer, my coworkers, or anybody else affiliated with me. The newsletter is not monetized in any way and everything in here is written and reported with my own resources on my own time outside of my working hours unless specifically noted otherwise. “I’m Curious” is just for me, the author, and for you, the reader. Thank you for reading. I’m glad you’re here.