'Disgraceful': Pro Soccer Player Blasts the Crowd for Boos Over Kneeling...As If the Players Are 'the Ignorant Ones'

(AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
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New York City FC’s Ronald Matarrita, right, fights for the ball against Atlanta United FC’s Jeff Larentowicz during an Eastern Conference MLS soccer semifinal matchup Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
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Soccer player Reggie Cannons is disgusted.

We’re going through some national changes — masks are the new normal, violent riots are the new “peaceful protests,” and kneeling is the new standing.

But as for that last one, not all sports fans are down with the New America.

Hence, in Frisco, Texas Wednesday night — as the FC Dallas soccer team prepared to take on the Nashville SC — the crowd had a less-than-supportive response when players took to the ground as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played.

And here’s the kicker: As noted by The Daily Wire — they requested ahead of time that the National Anthem not even be played. But perhaps not for the reason you would assume.

That petition got a stamp of disapproval, so the music resounded, the knees hit the ground, and the audience booed.

During a press conference afterward, Dallas defender Reggie Cannon commented on the stadium-sized nay-saying.

Turns out he wasn’t thrilled:

“I think it was disgusting. I think it was absolutely disgusting. You got fans booing you for people taking a stand for what they believe in when millions of other people support this cause. And we’ve discussed with every other team, and the league, what we’re gonna do.”

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What do they believe in? If I may say so, that seems central to the issue — there’s no clear statement. Did the players kneel because they believe, as was touted in the early days of NFL protest, that cops are targeting black Americans en masse? Were they kneeling because they’re convinced the country is rife with systemic racism? Were they kneeling in simpatico with Marxist-led organization Black Lives Matter™?

For a moment, it appeared he might explain, but — alas — no dice:

“[W]e had someone chanting, ‘U.S.A!’ When they don’t understand what kneeling means. They don’t understand why we’re kneeling. They can’t see the reason. They just think we’re the ignorant ones. And it’s incredibly frustrating.”

To Reggie’s dismay, even the hometown crowd is peeved:

“[W]e got fans booing us in our own stadium. How disgraceful is that? Honestly, it — for lack of a better word — pissed me off. We discussed that prior to what we were doing. We discussed it with Nashville. Everyone from Nashville was on board. Everyone across the league was on board [with what we were going to] do.”

Reggie indicated an attempt to dodge a band-accompanied bullet, but it sounds as if they were going to otherwise kneel in silence:

“We asked for no Anthem, because we don’t feel it was right for the Anthem to be played at this moment. They ignored our wishes. So we were gonna kneel, regardless, if the Anthem was played or not. Unfortunately, it was played during these times where we asked for an anthem not to be played…”

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Bottom line:

“[I]t pisses me off that you can’t even have support from your own fans in your own stadium.”

I’d guess the feeling was mutual among those who booed.

On the bright side, the uproar over the Anthem may have been the most exciting part of the game — Nashville won, 1-0.

-ALEX

 

See more pieces from me:

Hilarious: Customer Assaults Mild-Mannered Hotel Clerk Over Having His Temperature Taken, Gets Beaten Like a Drum

Herschel Walker Offers to Fly Everyone Who Doesn’t Want Police to Places Where There Aren’t Any

Terry Crews Declares He’ll ‘Die on This Hill,’ Uniting With ‘Good People, No Matter the Race, Creed or Ideology’

Find all my RedState work here.

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