Sophie Cunningham, quickly becoming known as the “enforcer” for her Indiana Fever teammate Caitlin Clark, peeled back the curtain a bit on how WNBA teams try to get physical with the league’s top player.
Physical to the point of being a bit too much.
Cunningham made the revelations during her new podcast, “Show Me Something.”
And while it’s not exactly earth-shattering news – we’ve all seen how players deliberately act like the ‘Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons – it’s still something to hear that teams are actually game-planning to get tough with the face of the league. The Golden Goose.
Cunningham played for the Phoenix Mercury before being traded to Indiana, and she’s exposing how her former team went after Clark during her rookie season.
“You have seen players in our league try to, like, toughen up Caitlin,” she said. “Even when I wasn’t on her team, I know the talks that Phoenix had in the locker room, like ‘no, we’re going to show her what the W really is.'”
“And I get it to a certain extent, and every rookie coming into the league, that’s how you’re going to treat ’em, but there’s just more for her,” Cunningham admitted.
Sophie Cunningham talks about the targeting of Caitlin Clark. On this podcast, no
— CCFC- (@sohali2012) July 30, 2025
Lies were told. She let it all out. 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/3WmpSJcZ5R
Teams Are Trying to ‘Show’ Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark unquestionably received more than her fair share of flagrant fouls last season. Many of them were high-profile incidents due to their blatant and aggressive nature.
Seemingly jealous opponents took every opportunity they could during her rookie campaign to bump Clark all over the court. Cunningham saw it then, but now that they’re teammates, she thinks the attack plan is a little excessive.
“And now being on her team and seeing it, I’m like ‘what are people doing,’ actually, it’s just too much, it’s too much,” said Cunningham. “I’m over it, and if I think it’s too much, it’s probably too much.”
Injuries have marred Clark’s sophomore season, some of which fans and even her brother have suggested are a result of overly physical play being allowed by the WNBA referees.
RELATED: Dave Portnoy Goes Scorched Earth on WNBA Player After She Drops ‘Face of the League’ Caitlin Clark
Chipped Her Tooth
The refs have let players go after Caitlin Clark without leveling them with severe penalties for way too long.
Case in point – The incident with Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon, who had poked Clark in the eye during a game last month, which then prompted teammate Marina Mabrey to slam the league Rookie of the Year to the floor.
Mabrey initially wasn’t even hit with a flagrant foul call.
Cunningham opted to take matters into her own hands, delivering a hard foul to Sheldon in retaliation later in the game and getting herself ejected. It’s what put her on the map as Clark’s enforcer and even led to recent overtures from professional wrestling promotions.
Sophie revealed during her podcast that she got a chipped tooth during the altercation.
“Last second-intrusive thought, I was like ‘(expletive) it,'” she explained as to why she went after Sheldon. “She didn’t mean to do it, but she did chip my tooth. It’s a little discolored… we literally cracked teeth in the middle of the game, like, face-to-face.”
Clark must surely be relieved to have somebody like Cunningham on her side instead of on the opposing roster.
