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“I’m incredibly impressed by what Boston has accomplished with their sponsorship business,” National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner Jessica Berman told Sports Business Journal earlier this week. With her comments, Berman was referring to Boston Legacy FC, one of two new expansion teams joining the league for the 2026 season.

The Legacy have entered the NWSL with a high-profile ownership team and big-name sponsors that include TJ Maxx as their front-of-kit sponsor, Hyundai as their sleeve sponsor, and Voya Financial as their back-of-kit sponsor. Their attempts to establish the Legacy brand come after a disastrous initial roll out that included a commercial featuring the biggest names in Boston men’s sports and the tagline “too many balls” (yes, really).

Now, a newly announced partnership for the Legacy’s sensory room for neurodivergent fans is sparking criticism. The sensory room is sponsored by Collegium Pharmaceuticals, and will be available at Gillette Stadium and Centreville Bank Stadium—where the Legacy will play games during their inaugural season—and, eventually, White Stadium, which will be the team’s permanent home.

“Through this collaboration, Boston Legacy FC and Collegium are working together to ensure that the club’s home games are welcoming and sensory-inclusive for all fans,” reads a press release from late last month. 

“Sensory sensitivities or challenges with sensory regulation are commonly experienced by individuals with ADHD, autism, dementia, PTSD, and other conditions. Large-scale sporting events can present barriers for these individuals due to heightened noise levels, crowds, and visual stimulation. The Collegium Sensory Room is designed to help remove those barriers and make matchday accessible to more fans and families.”

Both Gillette and Centreville have existing sensory rooms. Gillette’s opened in 2024, while Centreville’s debuted in 2025. Both sensory rooms were built and certified by KultureCity, one of the nation’s leading non-profits on sensory accessibility. Centreville’s was designed in collaboration with The Groden Network, a Rhode Island-based autism organization. The Legacy’s sensory room, while available for people with an assortment of sensory needs, was created with input from Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), likely to highlight the ADHD medication in Collegium’s drug portfolio. 

Sensory rooms are important accessibility tools for neurodivergent and sensory sensitive fans. Ensuring that those fans can attend Legacy games by making accommodations available is unequivocally a good thing. The concern from fans and some people associated with the league has been around the Legacy’s choice of sponsor for their sensory room (neither the Boston Legacy nor the NWSL returned multiple requests for comment).

Collegium Pharmaceuticals was sued by the state of Massachusetts for unfair and deceptive practices regarding the marketing of their opioid medication, Xtampza. In 2021, the company settled with nearly 30 U.S. cities and counties regarding claims of misleading marketing to physicians and consumers about the addictive nature of their drug. As part of the settlement, Collegium agreed to pay $185,000 and to stop in-person marketing of Xtampza to health care professionals.

While many people find opioids to be a necessary tool for dealing with chronic pain, deceptive marketing of these highly addictive drugs—like the kind that Collegium engaged in—played a large role in the opioid epidemic that has taken the lives of millions of Americans. And while the numbers have seen a sharp decline in Massachusetts in recent years, the state saw rates of opioid-related deaths at nearly twice the national average over the course of the nationwide epidemic.

Collegium’s current drug portfolio includes two opioid medications—Xtampza and Nucynta—as well as Belbuca, a drug designed to treat opioid use disorder. Yes, Collegium manufactures medications that can cause life-threatening addiction and also a drug meant to treat the addiction to that medication. Following the settlement for deceptive marketing, in 2024 Collegium expanded its portfolio by acquiring Ironshore Therapeutics, the makers of Jornay PM, a stimulant medication used for treating ADHD. That acquisition “establish[ed] Collegium’s Presence in Neurology,” according to the company’s own press release.

Leaning into the neurodivergence market through ADHD medication has paid off for Collegium. Just days after announcing their partnership with the Legacy, the company released its 2025 financial report. It showed that the company’s total net revenue was up 24% year-over-year, while revenue for Jornay PM was up 48% year-over-year, reaching $148.9 million.

To continue growing its presence in the neurodiversity space, Collegium has entered 2026 with two high-profile partnerships centered around Jornay PM and the ADHD market. In addition to its partnership with the Legacy, which was announced at the end of February, Collegium launched a new Jornay PM campaign featuring Paris Hilton, who has opened up about her own ADHD diagnosis.

In some ways, targeting women via a sponsorship with a women’s sports team and a celebrity like Hilton is positive. ADHD is often missed in women and girls, and recent years have seen an increase in women being diagnosed later in life. Raising awareness of ADHD symptoms and how they may present differently in women and girls is a good thing. 

But when a company appears to be seeking cover for past misdeeds via associations with a women’s sports league, it invites an element of cynicism. Brands with fraught reputations have all the incentive in the world to use women’s sports to influence public perception. As I’ve previously reported, research has found that women’s sports can “enhance a brand’s image by demonstrating its commitment to social responsibility, gender equality, and empowerment.” When a company advertises with one of these leagues, those values become associated with their brand, too.

Collegium isn’t the only company implicated in the opioid crisis to be attempting image rehab through the NWSL. CVS was announced last month as the newest “health and wellness partner” of the league. As part of that role, the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, will have a seat on the NWSL’s brand new Health Advisory Council. Via their seat on the council, “CVS Health will collaborate with other Council members and league leadership to advise, plan and help shape strategy around overall wellness initiatives,” according to a press release from this past Tuesday. CVS has been the front-of-kit sponsor for the Washington Spirit since 2021, and last year the team announced a three-year renewal of the partnership “represent[ing] a multimillion-dollar investment in the club and women’s sports, ranking among the most valuable deals in the National Women’s Soccer League.”

Meanwhile, CVS has been the subject of multiple lawsuits for their role in the opioid crisis. In 2022, the company reached a nationwide settlement agreement that saw them pay nearly $5 billion in damages for their handling of opioid prescriptions. In 2024, the federal government sued CVS for “aiding and abetting” the opioid epidemic.

“Our complaint alleges that CVS repeatedly filled controlled substance prescriptions that were unlawful and pressured its pharmacists to fill such prescriptions without taking the time needed to confirm their validity,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “The practices alleged contributed to the opioid crisis and opioid-related deaths, and today’s complaint seeks to hold CVS accountable for its misconduct.”

The partnerships with companies complicit in the opioid crisis is even more concerning when you consider the way elite and professional athletes have been impacted by these medications. Athletes are under large amounts of social and economic pressure to play through pain and injury, and this sometimes applies doubly to female athletes for whom sexist beliefs regarding women’s weakness can push them to continue playing while injured. This can lead to being prescribed opiates for pain management by doctors.

A 2020 study found that orthopedic surgeons prescribed 64% more opioids following arthroscopic knee surgeries. In women’s soccer, knee injuries are incredibly common. Between 2013 and 2020, 30 NWSL players underwent ACL reconstruction surgery, and female soccer players experience ACL injuries at a rate of 2.8 times higher than their male counterparts.

While capitalism requires teams and leagues to enter into partnerships in order to increase funding and revenue, many women’s leagues like the NWSL are at a critical juncture regarding the future of their sports. Increased investment and bigger audiences have brought interest from brands in record numbers, and many franchises are jumping at any opportunity to bring in sponsorship dollars. The problem for many longtime fans is that women’s leagues have historically been seen as having progressive values, and the companies that leagues like the NWSL are choosing to partner with are often at-odds with those values.

The idea that brands with checkered or controversial pasts can rehabilitate their image using women, and women’s sports, specifically, is one that the NWSL seems all too happy to facilitate. The Boston Legacy may be the newest team on the block, but if their Collegium partnership is any indication, they’ll fit right in with the girlbosses who believe corporate sponsorships will somehow save women’s sports. 

Fans deserve better, especially the neurodivergent community members who will be using the sensory room at Legacy games. Neurodivergent people should be able to access accommodations without having their needs used as a means of repair for a company with a tarnished reputation.