In its return to competition through the MLS is Back Tournament, Major League Soccer found another profound means of expressing support for minority citizens in their fight for equality.
During Thursday morning’s game between the Philadelphia Union and New York City FC, all members of the Union wore jerseys with names and numbers on the back of people who were killed by police or considered to be victims of police brutality, among them: Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Philando Castile. Captain Alejandro Bedoya, a U.S. World Cup veteran, wore an armband with more than 30 such names printed upon it.
MORE: MLB is Back Tournament schedule, TV channels
Under each player’s jersey number were the words: “One name, too many”.
Veteran defender Ramon Gaddis wore a jersey with “Taylor” across the back shoulders, in honor of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who was killed in Louisville when police executed a no-knock warrant at her home on March 13. One officer who was part of that operation since has been fired. There have been no arrests related to her death.
As has become common in major soccer leagues since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police May 25, the Union and NYCFC players kneeled around the center circle in advance of the game.
Before Wednesday night’s MLS is Back opener between Inter Miami and Orlando City, the league’s black players kneeled on the field for 8 minutes, 46 seconds — the amount of time police officer Derek Chauvin (since fired and indicted for second-degree murder) kept a knee on Floyd’s neck as he expressed his distress, his struggle to breathe and, ultimately, called out for his dead mother.
Goalkeeper Andre Blake wore Floyd’s name on his jersey.
