Lori Lindsey
Photography by Colleen Claggett.
In her circles, she’s affectionately known as the “grandma” of the group. At just 42 years old, it’s a funny nickname, but one that’s been proudly earned. After all, Lori Lindsey is the walking embodiment of women’s soccer history in the United States: cool, experienced, groundbreaking.
Not many people can say they’ve played in every professional women’s soccer league that’s existed in this country, or say they’ve played at a World Cup with the USWNT, or even say they’ve earned a spot in the Guinness World Book of Records for playing atop Mount Kilimanjaro.
But Lori has checked all of those boxes and more.
It’s a brisk winter morning in Philly, and Lori rolls up to the Italian Market on the southern end of the city wearing a fashionable teal sweater, ripped jeans, and striking black boots. Her silver-blonde hair is brushed back, and the gold chains around her neck glisten in the soft winter sun. Although she’s only five-foot-five, she makes for an imposing figure as she walks confidently with a smile through the vendors and stands scattered through the street. Philly’s been her home for quite a few years now, and it’s evident she feels comfortable in these streets.
As she glides and dances in between regular pedestrians and Saturday-morning shoppers, it’s certain she’s still got that magic that once saw her dazzle every field she played on – even the ones back in her native Indiana, where it all began.
“The earliest memory I have playing soccer is back home in Indiana with my dad and my brother,” she says. “My dad used to coach our team, and he even built a goal in our backyard for us to practice.”
From the very beginning, Lori was enthralled by the beauty of the game, and as soon as her dad saw she loved the sport, he did his best to fan the flames. He helped her train every afternoon, and he stocked up on dozens of cassette videos of Marco van Basten, Roberto Baggio, and Diego Maradona.
“Most parents are like, ‘hey, listen, you’re going to do your homework when you get home.’ But my dad was like, ‘absolutely not, you’re going to put those VHS tapes in, practice your footwork, and then you can do your homework.’ I had such a good support system around my love for soccer. My dad was bonkers about it, and then my stepmom and my mom were more on the calmer side but still always showing up to my games and cheering me on.”
Throughout elementary school, Lori played on the same team as his brother, who was two years older than her. In that setting is where she learned to withstand the physicality of soccer in the U.S., and it kickstarted her love for playing in midfield.
“I was a good athlete for being an eight-year-old little girl,” Lori confesses, “so in a lot of ways, I could keep up with some of those boys. But I think that was also the time when I learned about angles and spacing and how to control the ball as a center midfielder.”
As Lori entered middle school and her brother entered high school, she soon began to look for other teams to play for so she could stay competitive and continue to grow. She had no trouble finding a local club, and by sixth grade, she was playing three to four days a week on top of all the training she did at home.
As we walk by a stand of oranges like the one in Rocky I, Lori says, “joining that team was all about improving so that I would get noticed as soon as I reached high school. But I eventually burned out.”
Years of playing day in and day out had taken their toll, and halfway through middle school, Lori was ready to pursue a different path.
“In seventh grade, I was done. I was like, ‘I’m going to quit soccer and become a famous actress.’ At the time, I loved Indiana and everything, but all I wanted to do at ten years old was get out and go to Hollywood. I was so pissed and so done with soccer that I quit my team and signed up for acting classes.”
Lori was away from the sport for seven months, refining her acting skills and preparing to put on a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.
“Looking back, I can’t believe someone chose that as a middle school play,” she says with a laugh. “But I also just remember trying to memorize my lines and how terrible it was. Most of us were awful, and all the parents knew it, so it was just really funny. Having to perform in front of everybody was the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve done in my entire life. I hated the whole thing. But that was the perfect scenario because I realized I missed playing soccer. I missed competing, I missed running around, and I missed hanging out with my teammates.”
“From then on, I knew that soccer was all I wanted to do. I can remember the feeling like it was yesterday. I started doing strength and conditioning, dribbling drills, and training on my own. Before that whole experience, my dad would be the one to push me to train. He never had to tell me to do a thing ever again. I did everything to get better. I’m grateful for that little time away because it’s important to try new things, but it also gave me perspective on what I truly loved.”
With a renewed love for soccer, Lori’s hunt to play on the national team had begun.
“Right around that time, the 1991 Women’s World Cup happened. My dad bought me a VHS highlight tape with the USWNT behind-the-scenes from the tournament. I also had years and years worth of subscriptions to Soccer America and other similar publications. I would just devour anything that had to do with the women’s team. I wanted to get to where they were. I was so sure about it.”
As just a freshman in high school, Lori was already well on her way to making her dream a reality. After climbing up the local and regional teams, Lori began to be regularly called up for Youth National Team camps. In a young class full of talented players like Abby Wambach, Aly Wagner, Danielle Slaton, and others, Lori finally found herself at home. It was the perfect opportunity to test her abilities and improve her skills by competing with the best players in the country.
“We all met when we were 14-years-old. I still joke with Abby that I’ve known every single girlfriend she’s had in her life,” Lori says cheekily. “Growing up together made all of us push each other further. For me, I could see if there were more technical players or stronger players, and then I would go right back to Indiana after camp and try to train like the best players I’d seen.”
Being exposed to the most talented individuals in the country certainly pushed Lori to develop into the player she would soon become. After being a recurrent member of Youth National Team camps all throughout high school, it only made sense that Lori would begin to receive attention from some of the best schools in the country. With no professional women’s league at the time, attending a good college program was a must in order to then make the jump to the senior national team – which was still Lori’s goal. With April Heinrichs as coach, with a few of her national team peers committing to the University of Virginia, and with the Cavaliers starting to become the program they are today, Lori admits that joining UVA was the “kick in the ass” she needed to mentally take things to the next notch.
At Virginia, she had no trouble standing out, and she quickly wrote herself into the college soccer history books. She was the school’s first Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, winning the award two consecutive years in 2000 and 2001, making her the only other player to achieve that distinction after Mia Hamm. Lori also finished sixth all-time scorer in UVA history with 33 goals and was named NSCAA Second-Team All-American in 2001 and Third-Team All-American in 2000.
“To bring home those awards was awesome, and I felt lucky to get those distinctions,” she reflects. “For me, those awards meant so much because it was great to be honored and recognized as a good player, but I think those accolades also stood for where the program was going. I felt really proud to be part of those formative years for the UVA soccer program, and the school just hasn’t looked back.”
Despite the individual distinctions and the attention she was receiving as a standout college player, Lori continued to push herself to achieve her goal of making the national team. In her offseason, she would play for the Indiana Blaze in the W-League with players in their mid-20s and older, which only helped her improve her craft.
“Looking back, I don’t want to paint a picture of a linear trip to success,” she says. “That was far from it. I can’t count how many days I trained in the snow and in the rain, or how many times I would go to Klockner Stadium by myself to hit balls against the brick wall. There were so many hours that rivaled how many games I played that no one would know about except myself. I was just doing it because I wanted to do it. But outside all of those trials and tribulations, there are so many fun moments to look back on with happiness.”
One of those happy moments was none other than being drafted to the San Diego Spirit in the WUSA, the world’s first-ever professional women’s soccer league. Still, that moment wouldn’t come with its own trials and tribulations.
“My very first game, I was keeled over trying to catch my breath. The style of play was much faster and more physical than I was used to. It took a little bit for me to adjust, and at the end of the season, I got traded to the Washington Freedom in 2003, where I played with Abby [Wambach] and then Mia [Hamm].”
At the Freedom, Lori and her teammates had a standout year, making it all the way to the final. In the championship game, they took the Atlanta Beat to extra time in what would ultimately be the last Golden Goal in a FIFA-sanctioned first-division league before the practice was changed. However, the joy of that moment would be short-lived.
“We won the championship, and then the league folded.”
We stop by a bright mural a few blocks up from the market, and Lori takes a seat on a wooden bench across from it.
“I like to joke that this is the only career I could have chosen where I’ve actually made less each year as a professional,” she says with a hearty laugh. “In the WUSA, I was one of the top draft picks and got paid X amount of money. Then, with the WPS, I was making a little bit less, and then when the NWSL started, it was like, ‘Listen, no one’s gonna be making any money!’”
“But part of that was because they were obviously trying to figure out how to be sustainable in the long term. In the WUSA, the pay and the care of athletes were quite excellent. Unfortunately, one of the reasons why it was pretty well done is also one of the reasons why it folded. We just lost a lot of money.”
Despite the league folding, though, the Washington Freedom managed to stay alive in some capacity thanks to coaches Jim Gabarra and Clyde Watson, as well as league owner John Hendricks, who lived in the D.C. area. During those years without a professional league, Lori and the Washington Freedom would travel up and down the East Coast and Canada playing in semi-pro leagues to continue competing.
“For me, it was like this is what we do until the league comes back. And they were some of the most amazing years of my life. I’ll never forget the ten-hour bus rides with all of my teammates in the middle of the summer. We’d finish a game, and then we would always stop at a McDonald’s. I would be so sweaty just guzzling down a McDonald’s Coke to replenish my energy in the middle of nowhere. Those small moments will always stay with me.”
While it seems surreal to think that legends such as Lori, Ali Krieger, Kylie Bivens, and Emily Janss were once in such a situation, they were totally unfazed. All in all, they were just having fun.
“I also vividly remember having to train in a person’s backyard when we would be competing in summer league. This person had built a field in their backyard, and our coaches had to mow it down before we could play, but we would just park our cars outside their home and just start training.”
“It all still felt so organized and professional,” Lori maintains, “and a group of us would even play indoor soccer leagues multiple nights a week when we weren’t training with the Freedom. We played in a co-ed league, but we were an all-women team, and we would just destroy our competition. It pissed people off, and we would always end up in these yelling matches with other teams. But there were so many laughs, and it was just a straight-up good time.”
During her time with the Washington Freedom, Lori began working as a personal trainer, and she would schedule her hours around whenever the team would train. After a few seasons of working part-time and playing in the semi-pro space, Lori was ready to get back to playing pro once the Freedom joined the W-League in 2006. A couple of years later, in 2008, the club entered the WPS, and for Lori, it was like the team “hadn’t missed a beat.”
The Freedom made the playoffs that year, and the following season, Lori was selected by the Philadelphia Independence in the 2009 WPS Expansion Draft.
“It was the most pivotal moment in my career,” she states.
“I was getting looked at by the National Team, and I knew I needed a new environment. Philly was that environment. It was awesome. We called ourselves the cheesesteaks, and we were truly underdogs – a bunch of misfits. We assembled a good team, and we had a chip on our shoulders, which just made for a great season. I also felt like I grew so much that year as a player. It was exactly what I needed.”
Her good performances in Philly did not go overlooked, and Lori was finally called up to the National Team for a major tournament: the 2011 FIFA World Cup.
“When I got the news, I think I fell to my knees and did some fist pumps in the air silently,” she remembers. “I don’t think people understand how cutthroat it is, and everyone in that environment is exceptional at what they do. It all comes down to the smallest details, or sometimes it’s just the preference of what the coaches want in terms of rounding out the roster. A lot of these opportunities are luck as well. That wasn’t lost on me. I knew everybody was working just as hard as I was, so it’s such an honor when you peel back the layers to see everything it took to make that roster.”
If joining Philly was a pivotal moment in Lori’s career, making that World Cup was even crazier, as she puts it.
“That World Cup was pivotal for U.S. Women’s Soccer forever. I remember there were 5,000 fans at our send-off game at Red Bull Arena before the World Cup. It was like nobody knew about it. In the group stage, we didn’t do so well, and we finished second in our group, which eventually made us have to face Brazil in the quarterfinal. I say that’s the biggest event in USWNT history because basketball had just finished, MLB went on strike, and everyone was tuning in to ESPN to see what was happening in Germany.”
“I will never forget that game against Brazil, and I don’t think anyone else will either. I was on the sideline with Becky Sauerbrunn warming up since the 25th minute of the game. We were supposed to come in at halftime, but we got a red card, so that changed the plans. It was now like the 120th minute, and we were still warming up, and we were both exhausted just from the emotions of the game. I was basically on the verge of tears, and all of a sudden, the advertisement boards just switched to the word ‘believe.’ I turned to Becky and was like, ‘holy crap, we’re going to win this game.’”
“Of course, three minutes later, Abby [Wambach] hit that last-minute winner in front of the entire world. Everything changed since. That’s when everything blew up.”
While that goal will forever be the marquee moment from that 2011 World Cup in Germany, there are plenty of other anecdotes from that trip that still make Lori smile from ear to ear.
“U.S. Soccer does such an amazing job with friends and family at World Cups. They had more fun than we did. They were right in Frankfurt, and they would bus them around the country for all of these extracurricular activities. All of our parents are really close, so they’re all drinking and just having fun, it’s like a vacation. But there was this one time after the group stage match when my aunt Charlotte got lost. We had just dropped three points, and we’d gone back to the stadium, and our families were nowhere to be found. We were waiting for an hour for them to show up. Later on, I learned that my aunt Charlotte had followed a random American fan after the game and not gotten on the bus. She showed up an hour late with no care in the world even though everyone had been worried sick. Since then, it became a running joke that my family and I are just troublemakers. It was so embarrassing, but we all still laugh just remembering all the craziness with the friends and family at that World Cup.”
Even though the USWNT would go on to fall to Japan in the final of the tournament, the effects of that World Cup are still evident today.
“Today, you have household names like Megan Rapinoe or Alex Morgan. On top of that, you have a fight for equal pay that people outside of the game can understand and empathize with. In 2019 you had Trump tweeting at players and all that stuff. But it’s like you can almost trace back the momentum and the trajectory of the USWNT to that one tournament – even almost that one game. The game against Brazil showcased the USWNT to the general consciousness of the country, and it’s all evolved from there.”
After the bright yellow mural, we loop back around and head toward one of Lori’s favorite coffee stands in Philly.
On the way there, we chat about everything she’s done since that World Cup, and what she’s been up to since hanging up the boots in 2014 following two seasons in NWSL.
“I think still being involved in the game is important,” she says. “I’ve been in broadcasting for a couple of years now, and I take it seriously because I think it’s an avenue to continue to grow the game. Still, anytime you step away from something that you’ve done for so long and have such a love for is really challenging. I think there’s a desire for a lot of athletes to try to replicate that feeling that you got when you played in the big games. But there’s no way to do that, so it’s hard.”
“I’ve also had to learn to believe in myself and my abilities to do other things outside of soccer. I’m a multifaceted person, but I’ve had to work through the fact that I’ve been so ‘singular-focused’ for so long. I tried my hand at some coaching and doing personal training again, but eventually, I realized I wanted to try broadcasting, and I’ve been doing it since 2017.”
Although her pro-playing days may have been over after 2014, it doesn’t mean life has been any more quiet or tranquil since then. In 2017, for example, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to play in a game at the highest-ever altitude.
“There were sixty of us invited to go and play the game, and we were doing it as a way to bring awareness to the fight for equal pay. We got donations through GoFundMe in order to pay for the trip, and we had like six weeks to train for the climb. For the game itself, everything had to be official in order for us to break the record, so we had players from all over the world, a handful of referees, and coaches.”
“For the climb, we took the longest track, which took nine days on the way up. The summit was at 5729 meters above sea level, and we took a slow trip up to get acclimated. The morning of the game, we got up at 2 AM and had to take an almost vertical hike in order to get to the spot we were gonna play at. When the game kicked off, most of us were ready to throw up from altitude sickness, so I think the score was 0-0 after 90 minutes.”
Climbing Kilimanjaro came at perfect timing for Lori, too, as she was just readying to transition away from the sports performance field. After returning from the trip, she got her first break into broadcasting college soccer, and – as she puts it – “the rest is history.”
Over the next few years, Lori climbed the ranks to become one of the top broadcasters for NWSL on CBS, and she’s also continued to be involved with the game by putting on soccer camps and clinics around the world through the State Department.
As we enter Lori’s favorite coffee place, she bumps into the owner of the place, and they strike up a conversation. It’s clear she’s a regular, and they chat for a good fifteen minutes after she’s ordered her cup.
After spending a few hours with her and seeing her ease with conversation and her natural charisma, it’s no wonder she’s one of the top broadcasters today. It is also clear why her circles have given her that one affectionate label at 42 years old. The stories she holds are the stories of women’s soccer in this country. One afternoon feels too short to learn about everything she’s seen and everything she’s lived.
“It’s all about continuing to share the journey,” she says, “so that people understand the longevity of women’s soccer, but also see how quickly it’s come about.”
After our interview with Lori, we asked you to submit your own questions for this legend of the game. Here’s what she had to say:
If you could go back to being a youth player, what’s something you would focus on more?
I would have tried to focus more on scoring goals. It would have helped me be more impactful and a better goalscorer. Even though I loved to create and assist, I would’ve liked to be more lethal in front of goal, so I would’ve focused more on that.
You had many different coaches and styles. Which one helped you the most?
All of them were very influential, but I would probably say April Heinrichs at UvA. She was also my coach at the U-16 level. She was all about making her players mentally tough. Everything was documented and everything was tracked, so we were constantly competing. It’s exactly what I needed as someone coming from Indiana, which was just a smaller pool of players. Right after April came Steve Swanson, who helped me refine my knowledge of tactics, working on setpieces, and different areas I wanted to improve on. He was like a father figure, and we’re still very close. Both of those coaches really marked me.
Of all your teammates over the years, which one did you learn the most from?
I have two: Homare Sawa and Megan Rapinoe. I played with Sawa at the Freedom, and she beat us in the World Cup Final in 2011. She’s so calm, and so smooth on the ball, but there’s also a power about her game that was kind of deceptive. She’s probably the best player I’ve played with. But the other one is Megan Rapinoe, who is such a great friend of mine. Her attitude to approach the game is unmatched. She takes her craft very seriously, but she does it with so much joy. She shines in the spotlight and understands that soccer is entertainment. We saw that on display at the 2019 World Cup with how clutch she was. She plays with so much confidence, and so much freedom. I wish I’d taken that from her.
What has changed most about how teams operate since the WPS days?
So much has changed, but mainly the resources. The CBA just got signed, for example. There’s protection and collaboration between the league and the players. That’s huge. There’s also more money being invested today, and you’re seeing a new era of clubs come about.
What’s your favorite NWSL team to call games for?
I’m pretty impartial. I love the league, I love the players, and I believe in the direction that our game is going in. If I had to choose one, though, I would say the Washington Spirit just because I played for that organization and D.C. was my home for over a decade.
Most interesting/fun player that you’ve done analysis of, or who you want to do analysis of?
Debinha. She scores, she assists, and runs everything. She’s so polyfunctional too. We’ve seen her play at such a high level since 2017 now, and she hasn’t dropped.
Can you tell the BTS of you saying “piled high with veggies” on air?
We were covering games at the 2020 Challenge Cup with Mike Watts, and we did like 25 games in four weeks. Subway was a sponsor, and Mike would just have to read their slogan every game. After doing it so many games, we just decided to start having fun with it. He’d say something about Subway, I would wait, and then say “piled high with veggies.” It was just a fun thing to mix things up.
What do you see as the right veteran mix from a leadership POV for the USWNT?
I get this question a lot because I’ve lately been doing the Attacking Third podcast on CBS (that’s my plug for the show). That’s a big major talking point because Vlatko already said he’s not going to call certain veteran players. Everyone who has stepped into the USWNT these last few rounds of friendlies is incredible. But now there’s qualifyers coming up, and that can be a whole different ball game. When things are not going your way, you want to have those veteran players around. I think Becky Sauerbrunn, Christen Press, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe would be ones that Vlatko would probably draw from — just from a leadership standpoint. Those four out of a 23-person roster would be good, I think.
Would you change anything about your pro career?
I would chill out a lot more, and have a lot more fun. Sometimes I was just like a ball of anxiety, but it was a cutthroat environment, especially at the international level. I had a great time, but still I’d just chill out more.
How did you know when it was time to retire?
Mark Parsons was my coach in my last years, and I’d been playing soccer for longer than he’d been alive when he coached me. So I like to joke that that’s when I knew. But more seriously, I think I felt like I had gotten everything I could out of the sport. I had played in all the three women’s professional leagues, and I felt like I was leaving the sport in a better place.
What’s your favorite NWSL team (outside of Washington)?
Angel City. I love the project they have going on there.
Funniest teammate?
Megan [Rapinoe] for sure. We crack each other up all the time. To be fair, I think both of us together were the funniest teammates.
Top 3 best women’s soccer players of all time?
Mia Hamm, Megan [Rapinoe], Michelle Akers, Brigit Prinz, Renata Lingor. The caveat is that players just keep getting better and better these days, so it’s so hard to pick. I don’t think I can.
Go-to cleat?
Nike CTRs. But I had Diadoras and other lesser-known-brand cleats while I was growing up. My dad didn’t want us wearing the mainstream Copas. We’d sit down to polish our leather cleats before every game growing up. But my favorite cleat ever were the Nike CTRs.
Who wins the championship this year?
I’m calling it now, Spirit-OL Reign make the final again, and the Spirit repeat.
Early pick for Men’s World Cup?
I’m gonna go with Belgium.
Early pick for Women’s World Cup?
USWNT, of course. But I’m worried about Spain and the Netherlands. We’ll see how strong they are in the Euros this summer.
Favorite memory from soccer?
It’s so cliché, but all of them. I was just fortunate to be able to play and make all the friendships I made during my time playing. I’m so thankful for every single moment.
Photography by Colleen Claggett.
