NWSL becomes first U.S. pro league to return to action
Team sports are back in the U.S. with a dramatic opening scene.
The National Women’s Soccer League became the first North American pro sports league to return to action during the coronavirus pandemic when it kicked off the Challenge Cup in Herriman, Utah on Saturday.
But before the first kickoff, players made it clear there were more important things at stake than a soccer game. Both teams took the field wearing Black Lives Matter Tshirts. And then in a scene never seen before in pro team sports in the U.S., all players in the starting lineups for both teams — the North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns — took a knee during the playing of the national anthem.
“We took a knee today to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism against Black people and people of color in America,” the teams said in a joint statement released before the game. “We love our country and we have taken this opportunity to hold it to a higher standard.
“It is our duty to demand that the liberties and freedoms this nation was founded upon are extended to everyone.”
A substitute player, members of the coaching staff and the officials appeared to be the only ones to stand during the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner.” The players also wore “Black Lives Matter” armbands during the game.
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem during the 2016 NFL season to shine a spotlight on police brutality and racial injustice only to find himself effectively blackballed from the league a year later.
U.S. star Megan Rapinoe joined Kaepernick’s movement and took a knee while wearing a national team jersey; U.S. Soccer later forced all players to stand.
“You love to see it,” Rapinoe, who opted not to join her NWSL club (Reign) for the eight-team, month-long “bubble” tournament in Utah, said. “You love to see these women using their voice, demanding better for America, and for black people and people of color.”
But the recent killings of black people — including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville — at the hands of white officers have helped awaken a country to what Kaepernick was willing to sacrifice his football career for. It took four years, but even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Saints QB Drew Brees finally began to realize the national anthem protest movement was not about disrespecting the flag. Earlier this month U.S. Soccer even rescinded its anthem policy and apologized for having it in the first place.
That change in mindset was on full display at the start of the NWSL’s Challenge Cup. The league had said Friday that it would support the players in however they decided to use their platform to advocate for social justice.
Tennis icon and women’s sports pioneer Billie Jean King applauded the efforts of the two teams.
“This is how you use your platform for change,” King said.
“That was powerful,” Yael Averbuch West, the executive director of the NWSL players’ union wrote on Twitter. “Thank you @NWSL @CBSSports and @nwsl_players for drawing attention to what really matters.
“Very proud of this league.” Not everyone was on board with the decision to take a knee.
“Now it takes courage to actually stand for the national anthem,” former men’s national teamer and soccer pundit Alexi Lalas tweeted.
But Lalas quickly heard from one of the black stars of the USMNT.
“No. Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe had real courage,” Jozy Altidore fired back.
On the field, the NWSL’s eighth season got underway ahead of the other major