Bedoya continues emotional appeal to end gun violence
There was little mystery as to what occupied Alejandro Bedoya’s thoughts most of this week, just as there’s little risk that the Philadelphia Union captain will shy away from making known his feelings.
Tuesday, when Bedoya came home from training, his wife shared the news with him of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, compounding the sadness from the rampage 10 days earlier targeting Black people in Buffalo. Together they cried, prayed for the 19 children and two teachers lost to the latest instance of this country’s affliction of gun violence, and hugged their young children tightly.
Like Bedoya has, time and again, as a leader in the Union’s locker room, he resolved to do something. And so Saturday, the team warmed up for its game against the New England Revolution in bright orange t-shirts bearing the message, “END GUN VIOLENCE.”
For Bedoya and a Union culture that has never shied away from commenting on the issues on the minds of the socially conscious players that inhabit the locker room, there was little question that the team would go beyond thoughts and prayers as a response.
“There’s so many initiatives that we can support and get behind and get to people in power, and that’s what we can do with this kind of statement,” Bedoya said after the 1-1 draw, speaking to the media nearly interrupted for 12 emotionally raw minutes. “We have a locker room full of international players, my teammates … they come to here and they can’t fathom, they don’t understand the obsession with guns and why these types of mass shootings happen in this country, why we have to live like this.”
Bedoya has never shied away from this topic in particular. During a game in August 2019 at D.C. United, he grabbed a field mic during a national broadcast to yell, “Congress, do something now. End gun violence! Let’s go!” That particular stand was motivated by a deadly weekend, with a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that killed nine people and at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Bedoya had also shown solidarity with Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed in a 2018 school shooting; the native of
Weston had played games as a visitor at Stoneman Douglas High School.
The Union have also showed support for big causes. The organization held voting registration drives before the 2020 presidential election. In their first game after the 2020 COVID-19 pause, the team changed the names on the back of their jerseys to represent Black people killed by law enforcement, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. It has set the precedent that players with big topics on their minds — things that are clearly “bigger than sports, bigger than soccer” — have a safe space to share them, within the room and externally.
So last week, with Bedoya’s hurting heart on his sleeve, he worked with the club’s public relations team and kit man Brandon Comisky to print up the shirts to accompany a captain’s armband that bore the same message.
“When we talk about American exceptionalism, is this really what it looks like?,” Bedoya said. “The statement is maybe hyperbole because you’re never going to end it (entirely), but there needs to be something done about this. We can’t stand idly by, just sending thoughts and prayers and words. I’m sure they would’ve much rather had their kids than prayers.”
Bedoya, 35, has seen America inside and out. He played professionally in Sweden, Scotland and France before being acquired by the Union in 2016. A proud ColombianAmerican, he represented the United States from 2010-17, winning 66 caps and taking part in the 2014 World Cup.
His wife, Bea, hails from Norway, which experienced a mass shooting in 2011 that killed 77 people. The country changed its gun control laws, despite having high gun ownership by European standards, which has prevented such a tragedy from recurring.
Bedoya’s protests, now and in 2019, come with tangible action items: Funding community gun violence intervention, passage of the bipartisan House Resolution 8 (introduced in 2019 and re-introduced in 2021) to expand background checks, closing the “Charleston loophole” that waives waiting periods and federal red flag laws.
Many of the demands Bedoya laid out Sunday mirror the ones expressed in 2019. That he’s still forced to hit the same talking points three
years on is a test of his persistence and his optimism. But as a father who has to send kids into the world, he doesn’t allow his hopefulness to waver.
“You have to stay optimistic,” Bedoya said. “I’m always going to continue to use my platform. If you have any heart or any humanity, how does this not hit you so hard, what’s happened the last couple of weeks and beyond.”
He’s heartened that other teams have made similar gestures, though few have taken it as far as the Union. (Austin FC, the closest team to Uvalde, has stepped up to raise funds for victims and their families.) MLS players form a receptive audience to using their platforms. For the many young adults and new parents in locker rooms, Bedoya finds it hard to believe this wasn’t a topic of conversation this week.
“There’s people that tell us to shut up and dribble or stick to soccer,” Bedoya said. “These things are bigger than sports, than soccer. We’re talking
about coming off a week where we saw 19 children gunned down, two teachers. It’s disgusting. It’s awful, terrible. So the human side of us just takes over, right? It’s normal to have this type of reaction, and I support all my fellow players — I guess you could call it a brotherhood in this league.”
Bedoya’s objections come from a deep affection for his home. He has represented this country on the world stage, bringing some of his highest highs as an athlete. That abiding love — and its flipside, the chasm of grief opened up by repeated loss of young, innocent lives — is why he wants America to become the best version of itself.
This, though, is not it.
“It’s not right,” he said. “This isn’t American exceptionalism. It ain’t freedom, that we have to look over our shoulders all the time. … As great as a country that America is, there’s a lot of things that need to improve, and this is a massive, massive issue.”