Philadelphia Union’s return to action in the MLS is Back tournament was marked by a surprising and powerful statement from the team against police brutality and racism. In Orlando, Florida the Union walked on the field wearing Black Lives Matter shirts. Stripping off the shirts, they revealed jerseys with the names of African-American men, women, boys, and girls who were killed by police.
The team entered the field wearing masks, due to Major League Soccer’s COVID-19 pandemic protocols, and their training t-shirts which read ‘Black Lives Matter.’ After taking a group photo, each player removed their shirts to reveal their match jerseys.
Our players stand together. One name too many. pic.twitter.com/tPoR8DWveN
— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) July 9, 2020
Each Union player was wearing the name of a Black person killed by police: Michael Brown, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Na’Kia Crawford, Walter Scott, Tony Robinson, Alton Sterling, Breanna Taylor, MarioWoods. Ronell Foster, Philando Castile. India Kager, Terry Tillman, Freddie Gray, Corey Jones, Natasha McKenna, Justus Howell, Sandre Bland,John Crawford III.
“This is interesting. Those are not the names of those players,” commentator Taylor Twellman said. “Those are the names of African-American people who were killed from police brutality.”He called it, “extremely powerful.”
The commentators said MLS had told them about patches both teams would be wearing, but the jerseys came as a surprise.
It was Philadelphia Union’s first match since MLS and the rest of the sports world shut down in March because of the pandemic. It was also their first match since the death of George Floyd while in the custody of police in Minnesota.
The names were accompanied by messages on the bottoms of the jerseys, including “One name too many” and “Todos somos iguales”,(“We are all equals”.)
Union captain Alejandro Bedoya was wearing a custom armband showing the victims’ full names.
Our players joined together to create a custom armband for #MLSisBack that our Captain @AleBedoya17 will be wearing for the tournament.#SayTheirNames pic.twitter.com/ZZe4Ev2RCJ
— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) July 9, 2020
The Philadelphia Union defeated New York City FC 1-0.
The names were accompanied by messages on the bottoms of the jerseys, including “One name too many.” Photo taken from NBC Sports
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