Sam Mewis Hasn’t Let Her Injuries Keep Her From Changing Women’s Soccer
Are you having an O.K. time?
It’s the de facto catchphrase for the hit Just Women’s Sports podcast, Snacks, hosted by soccer stars Sam Mewis and Lynn Williams. The slogan emerged from a story shared on the show by Sam’s sister, Kristie Mewis (also Williams’s U.S. and New Jersey/New York Gotham FC teammate), and fans quickly latched on, turning the episode into a cult classic. Now emblazoned on merch and printed on signs accenting the stands of USWNT and NWSL games, the tagline perfectly encompasses Snacks: an intimate, yet delightfully goofy, insider’s look into women’s soccer.
The phrase is also an apt expression of Mewis’s current state of mind. She is O.K., but it's taken a bit to get to this point, and the podcast in many ways is to thank for that. Snacks, which began in 2021, has assumed new weight in her life, with the 31-year-old largely away from the pitch since that August, when she underwent her first knee surgery. Mewis played in two Challenge Cup games in March 2022 but had another procedure on her knee in early ’23.
“It’s one of the only things that kind of brings me back to myself and allows me to suspend my pain of being injured for a while,” Mewis says of her podcast ‘Snacks.’
IMAGO
“Doing the podcast has remained this constant source of happiness and fulfillment and connection for me during this very terrible and strange time in my career,” says Mewis.
The 2019 World Cup champion, who boasts nearly every accolade in the sport, including three NWSL championships and 2020 U.S. Women’s Soccer Player of the Year honors, has worked to forge and nurture her identity outside of being a soccer player—something she deems a necessity amid a complicated rehab process. Williams, who was also injured last year, shares Mewis’s perspective, with both hosts turning to the podcast as a place to, yes, talk about soccer, but also to channel their simmering energy.
“‘The only time your face lights up is when we’re on doing Snacks,’” Mewis says Williams told her amid a particularly challenging period during her rehabilitation. “Through both of our injuries in 2022, the podcast was this other way to express ourselves and find joy and feel passionate about and plan for and practice for,” says Mewis. “It was something that filled the gap while we couldn’t play.”
Williams has since returned to the pitch, representing the U.S. at the 2023 World Cup before leading Gotham FC to an NWSL championship appearance in her first year with the club. No one would blame Mewis—who describes her rehab as “one day at a time”—if it was simply too difficult to talk about soccer. But Mewis reveals that covering the sport with Williams on Snacks has been anything but rubbing salt in the wound. Instead, it's been therapeutic.
“It’s one of the only things that kind of brings me back to myself and allows me to suspend my pain of being injured for a while and be with my friend and talk to our friends and create this dialogue and conversation,” says Mewis. “And while it may seem like it would be hard, it's actually one of the positive associations I have with soccer now, is getting to talk about it on Snacks.”
Mewis expanded her foray into media last summer, joining Men in Blazers’ World Cup programming. Would she rather have been playing? Of course. But once again, being involved as a commentator allowed Mewis to feel connected to soccer during a period that could’ve been particularly isolating. She offered a singular perspective, too, four years removed from her own breakout tournament appearance in France and with close bonds to the USWNT, as Kristie and Williams both made the roster. At first, this potentially precarious position gave Sam pause, but as the World Cup got rolling it became abundantly clear that her conflicts of interests, so to speak, were actually a gift and an asset.
Mewis’s family ties produced one of the most compelling viral moments of a disappointing World Cup—at least for U.S. supporters. Kristie, having not taken a touch all tournament, was called upon to take a penalty kick during the USWNT’s round of 16 match against Sweden. Sam could only look on from her office while a packed Men in Blazers livestream watched her, hands over her face in agony. Kristie ripped her shot into the back of the net, converting from the spot. Sam’s palpable and jubilant relief was sullied moments later as the U.S. fell to the Swedes. But American fans will always have that shared moment between the Mewis sisters as consolation—connected across continents, more touching than any livestream has a right to be.
“In the moment I was just so caught up in the game and wanting Kristie to succeed. There are so many emotions attached to it. What came through was real, and thank god she made it,” Sam says. “I know it ended up being such a terrible moment just moments later, but if I could just isolate that moment and my pride for Krisite, what I showed was so real.”
Authenticity is an overused term, but in Mewis’s case, it's a perfect explanation of what makes her such a persuasive media personality. Snacks is part of a growing trend of player-driven shows and commentary, all built on athletes’ personas. For Mewis and Williams, that means embracing the inherent silliness at the core of their friendship. “We’re still so surprised every time somebody comes up to us and is like, ‘I love Snacks!’” Mewis says. “And we’re like, ‘Oh my god, you're so weird, because we know the show is so weird.’”
Their odd-ball energy is genuine, and it’s what has built a loyal audience, but that doesn’t mean Mewis and Williams aren’t capable of earnestness. The hosts often weave in and out of consequential conversations with the earned trust of their listeners. Mewis points to the podcast’s genesis as a lasting blueprint, with her and Williams wanting to talk about race. George Floyd’s murder and the national reckoning that followed, along with the change they felt needed to occur in the NWSL and beyond, headlined the first Snacks episodes.
“I think our goal all along was to create a place where we could have important and sometimes difficult conversations,” says Mewis. “I hope that it remains a place that people can come and talk about real issues.”
In more than two years of doing the show, Mewis and Willams have cultivated a trusted forum for players. Whether it be through Janine Beckie talking about the rise of ACL injuries in women’s soccer, the NWSL commissioner sharing her state of the league, or Alyssa Naeher’s and Naomi Girma’s World Cup postmortems, Mewis and Williams take pride in cultivating a reliable space. “Even asking somebody to come and knowing you’re going to have to ask them hard questions feels like a little bit of a weight on your friendship, and so you want to make sure you are protecting them and taking good care of them on the show,” says Mewis.
After enduring heaps of media training and years when the narrative has felt out of her hands, Mewis has relished having her own platform to tell her own story. Snacks, she says, marks the first time a media outlet has let her and Williams feel like themselves. She appears equally devoted to providing that stage for her fellow players and guests as the show continues to evolve.
“I really love connecting with people. If anything, I can always use vulnerability and making a joke to help them feel connected and supported in this kind of setting,” says Mewis. “That’s a productive skill to have.”
What’s next for Snacks? Mewis has her ideas. Citing podcasts like SmartLess and Call Her Daddy as inspiration, she’d like to see Snacks progress into new spaces—maybe more visual components or a live show. “I feel like kind of branching out and experimenting and seeing what else beyond just audio could we make of a show like this.”
On the pitch, Williams will play in this weekend’s NWSL title game, the culmination of a playoff journey that’s been, and will continue to be, chronicled on Snacks. As for Mewis, she is entering NWSL free agency and “just trying to do what’s best for her body.” Dealt an excruciating curveball at the peak of her on-field career, Mewis has learned to flex a new muscle, and in doing so has not only shifted her trajectory but, along with Williams, has altered the look and feel of women’s soccer coverage.
