There are supporters who leave when the final whistle blows. And then there’s Rich Rogers.
Long after the players have disappeared up the tunnel and the stands have started to clear out, Rich is usually still talking about the match. Sometimes it’s with the people sitting around him, and sometimes it’s with complete strangers who overheard the conversation. Nowadays, it’s into a microphone alongside his friend and fellow DTFC supporter Jesse Madsen. You’ll most likely see them recording another episode of the ‘Pegasus Post Match podcast.’
The funniest part is that none of this was supposed to happen.
If you had met Rich twenty years ago and told him soccer would become one of the defining parts of his life, he says he probably would have laughed.
“I didn’t know anything about the game. I’d see scores like 0-0 or 1-0 and think, ‘This has got to be the most boring thing in the world.'”
Rich Rogers
Today, it’s difficult to imagine anyone saying that to the owner of Scardello, Dallas’ beloved cheese shop on Oak Lawn.
Before Rich became one of the club’s supporters, though, he first had to fall in love with the sport itself. That’s something that happened almost by accident.
A friend dragged him out to watch the matches during the 2010 Men’s World Cup. He enjoyed them way more than he expected, but his obsession wasn’t built in a day. A few years later, he decided to commit to becoming a fan of a Premier League club for a whole season. He promised himself he’d watch every match before deciding whether soccer was really for him or not. He didn’t need to make it to the end of that experiment before he had his answer.
Part of what clicked was how much the game reminded him of hockey, another sport he loves. Low-scoring games didn’t mean low excitement. Every chance mattered, and every mistake carried weight. His family trips to Portland only deepened that appreciation. Watching the Portland Thorns introduced him to an atmosphere unlike anything he’d experienced before. Still, the club that would eventually make soccer feel personal wasn’t in Oregon or England. It was waiting back home in Dallas.
When Rich first heard Dallas was getting a professional women’s soccer club that would actually play in the city, he didn’t overthink it. He put down a deposit for season tickets, picked up his phone and called his friend Jesse.
For Rich, Dallas Trinity FC felt different almost immediately. Not because there was finally a professional women’s team in Dallas but also because supporters weren’t treated like people watching from the outside. They are always encouraged to become part of the club’s identity from the very beginning.
“By the end of that first year, I definitely felt like this is my club,” Rich says. “It’s different from any other team I’ve ever followed.”
Rich Rogers
That feeling extended well beyond ninety minutes on matchday.
After home games, Rich and Jesse settled into a routine. They’d leave the Cotton Bowl, find somewhere nearby and spend the next hour replaying everything they’d just watched, debating the lineup, questioning substitutions and trying to figure out what had worked, and what hadn’t. After enough of these conversations, Rich’s wife Karen finally interrupted with a simple suggestion.
“You should just record this.”
So they did.
The Pegasus Post Match podcast was simply an extension of conversations they were already having, with the hope that other supporters might want to join in.
“We wanted to support the club,” Rich says. “It’s not that we can’t be critical, but for the most part we want to talk about the positive things we see and bring more people in.”
That last part has become something of a theme for Rich. Bringing people in.
By the end of last season, what had started as two friends with microphones had turned into postgame gatherings of twenty-five or thirty supporters. Some stopped by to celebrate a win, while others came to vent after a frustrating loss. Eventually, the result almost became secondary. People stayed because they enjoyed spending time together.
It’s why Rich rarely starts talking about Dallas Trinity by mentioning league standings or memorable goals. He talks about the people first.
“The most important thing I realized last season was the community that’s built. Win or lose, you’re doing it with people you’ve gotten to know really well and care a lot about.”
That same sense of community has become part of Rich’s family life too. When he first discovered soccer, Karen was happy to let him enjoy it while she watched from the sidelines. Dallas Trinity FC changed that.
Today they travel together, attend matches together and build their schedules around the club. Somewhere along the way, soccer quietly became one of the things they enjoy most as a couple.
Rich says neither of his daughters grew up especially interested in sports, but supporting a women’s professional club still means something to him. Having spent his life surrounded by strong women, from growing up with three younger sisters to raising two daughters, he appreciates seeing young girls grow up with professional opportunities that simply didn’t exist before.
“Having the ability for young women to have this career option… it’s really, really great.”
Ask Rich about his favorite DTFC memory and he’ll immediately tell you he can’t choose just one.
One of them took place on a freezing night in Spokane, where four Dallas Trinity FC supporters made enough noise to make it sound like four hundred. Throughout the match, the players on the bench celebrated with them, and after the final whistle the team walked over to exchange high-fives with the tiny traveling contingent.
“It just felt great,” Rich says.
The other story could probably only happen to someone known around the club as “the cheese guy.”
For Amber Brooks’ farewell match, Rich wore a Sydney Cheesman jersey. Why?
Because, as he puts it with a grin, “I’m a cheese man and she’s Cheesman.”
Rich Rogers
The joke turned into an ice breaker, and the following morning Sydney visited Scardello with her family. They sampled cheese, talked about the game and spent time getting to know one another. It’s a wonderfully ordinary story that says a lot about what Dallas Trinity has become. The distance between players and supporters doesn’t always feel quite so large.
Even Boots, the club’s mascot, has become part of Rich’s matchday routine. His seats are directly behind the bench, where Boots is constantly interacting with fans.
“We lock eyes once in a while,” Rich laughs. “I feel like we know each other pretty well.”
This captures Rich pretty well. He notices the little moments and loves to celebrate them.
Running a business takes time, and recording a podcast after every home and away match doesn’t exactly leave many free evenings either. But with both daughters now out of college, Rich and Karen have embraced this stage of life by filling it with something they love.
“The club’s fun to follow,” Rich says. “And we love the people we’ve met.”
That’s probably the simplest way to explain why Rich Rogers has become such a familiar face around Dallas Trinity FC.
He’s still the owner of Scardello. He’s still “the cheese guy.” He still spends long after the final whistle talking through every pass, every substitution and every result with anyone willing to join the conversation. He found something many supporters hope to find but can’t force, a club that, to him, feels like home, and fans that keep giving him a reason to come back every week.
