Saw something posted on Reddit about

The USMNT that I thought some of you would be interested in reading. Here’s a copy and paste of the thread

I’ve alluded to my experiences here a few times, and people have encouraged me to share my story so they can get a better idea of the culture within the USMNT.

Which I found to be....toxic and unprofessional.

Over the years I’ve met and filmed many famous names, from Barack Obama to Tom Brady to Alex Morgan to doing chairlift interviews with Lindsay Vonn. I was also a D1 athlete in college so I’m no stranger to big egos, bro culture, or the pressure of high stakes sports, although I was certainly nowhere near the professional level.

Most of the time, these shoots with pro athletes and celebrities are tightly organized, highly professional, and everyone does their part. Generally you spend 2+ hours setting up and will get 10-15 minutes for the actual interview. And that’s just the way it is, neither good nor bad. You get in there and get the job done, and everyone (including the talent) understands the importance of these shoots.

Sometimes, you get surprised with the friendliness of big name people; for example, I thought Von Miller was going to invite my crew to stay for dinner he was so amicable, hospitable and humble while filming at his house for a day.

All that said, my experience with the USMNT during a training camp remains the single worst experience of my career.

I wasn’t sure how to tell my story, so I decided to simply copy the email I sent to my supervising producer after we wrapped. This shoot was for a big name broadcaster, one that you all know. Names have been redacted. Some context added in brackets.

See my email excerpt below and draw your own conclusions:

“....But with the US men's national team, it was a bit of a disaster. I'm sure you gathered that the communications from the team were very disorganized, and finding out we weren't accredited to film the game at midnight last night was both surprising and frustrating.

 Worse, we were treated poorly and met with hostility and disdain by every single team representative and staff member throughout the weekend. During training yesterday, we were chastised numerous times for where we stood and wanted to film from by various USMNT staff, and were then asked to leave only 25 minutes into the training, despite having been scheduled and preapproved to shoot for 2 hours.

There was no chance of getting any coaches mic'd up, and we weren't allowed anywhere near any of the players. Again, despite being pre-approved for all of this weeks ago. Our [crew member] was even told that he couldn't enter the training building to use the restroom. This was all quite strange, as we simply wanted to do our job, get our shots, and move on with the day.

Upon arrival at the hotel to setup for team interviews [the next day] the hotel staff brought us to a conference room to setup cameras. When the [Senior, 15+ years USMNT staffer] arrived, he became extremely angry at us, as it turned out the hotel staff had brought us into the wrong room. It was a simple, inconsequential mix up, but he began yelling and screaming in my face, telling us how stupid we were and how we’re “nothing but a bunch of stupid frick ups.” I've been shooting for 20 years, and have honestly never been spoken to like that before by anyone.

 Luckily, [crewmember] stepped in and calmly confronted him, in order to diffuse the situation. That lack of professionalism was certainly a new experience for me. [Different USMNT rep] then took control of the interviews, which we had not agreed to, and cut out a number of the segments and questions that your producers had requested. I didn't want to push for keeping anything that he had cut, as I thought [senior USMNT staffer] might get angry again and kick us out.

 When the players came in for interviews, they were aloof, distracted, and curt, with the exception of Mr. Ream, who introduced himself to and shook hands with the entire crew. The worst example was when [one of the starting 11 players] cut off his interview after a mere 90 seconds, and simply stood up and left the room without saying anything.

In the end, I was floored by the level of disrespect and general standoffish behavior from the organization. As a lifelong fan of the sport, I had figured the US team could use some positive press on the international stage, but I guess they feel differently.”

I can't say whether my experience reflects the organization as a whole or whether things have changed since last summer. But after watching recent events, especially against Belgium (and reading that two staffers were suspended from attending), I find myself thinking back to this shoot.

To close, I'm not sharing this because I dislike the USMNT. Quite the opposite. I've been a fan my entire life, and I want to see the team succeed, or to at least go down fighting next time. If there are cultural or leadership issues then I hope they're addressed, because everyone, from the players to the fan, deserves better.