United States national team and FC Dallas defender Reggie Cannon blew up FCD fans after some booed their own players for protesting police brutality and systemic racism by taking a knee as the national anthem played for Wednesday the Major League Soccer game against Nashville SC.
Nearly 3,000 spectators attended the game in Frisco, Texas – making MLS the first major North American sports league to welcome fans back to its stadiums since the worldwide coronavirus pandemic began in March, and since the May 25 death of unarmed Minnesota man George Floyd while in police custody caused outrage and protests around the world.
Athletes from MLS, the National Women’s Soccer League, Major League Baseball and the NBA have all made public images of support for the Black Lives Matter movement since those leagues returned, all without fans present due to the ongoing health crisis. But with supporters in the seats for Wednesday’s game, some of those fans took focal exception to the display. And Cannon, who is black, took her exception.
“I think it was absolutely disgusting,” Cannon said after the game, which was won 1-0 by Nashville. “You have fans booing you for people who take a stand for what they believe in. Millions of other people support this cause and we discussed with all the other teams and the league what we will do and we have fans who fascinate us in our own stadium.How shame is that? Honestly, for lack of a better word it put me off.
“You can’t even have the support of your own fans in your own stadium,” Cannon added. “It baffles me.”
MLS said in June that it would back any player who decided to take a knee during the national anthem of the United States and / or Canada.
“Major League Soccer stands for the ideals of freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest that are the hallmarks of the United States and Canada,” the league said in a statement at the time. “If players or staff decide to stand, kneel or otherwise exercise their right to peaceful protest while playing the National Anthems for league matches, we support them.”
But Wednesday’s game marked the first time a national anthem had been heard for a league match since March; with no fans allowed at the recently concluded MLS is Back Tournament in Florida, anthems were not played. Cannon said players requested that the U.S. national anthem not be played on Wednesday as well. “They ignore our wishes,” he said. “We were going to kneel, though.”
FCD and Nashville, who were both forced to withdraw in the MLS’s Back Tour due to COVID-19 outbreaks within their respective teams, will meet again in Frisco on Sunday.
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