“It Shows We Are On the Verge of Change” – Sacramento Republic FC’s Mark Briggs & Jordan McCrary Speak on Recent San Diego Loyal Incident
Oct 2, 2020, 1:07 PM | Updated: 1:07 pm
Wednesday night, the San Diego Loyal, founded & coached by USA soccer legend Landon Donovan, walked off the pitch in solidarity after Collin Martin, an openly gay Loyal player, was allegedly targeted by homophobic slurs from a Phoenix Rising FC player.
The Sacramento Republic FC have been on the front lines of the USL Championship’s battle to remove racism, hate speech, and social inequality from the game of soccer and the world. Not afraid to use their platforms to promote positive change, Republic head coach Mark Briggs & defender Jordan McCrary spoke on the incident in San Diego.
“I think it was a very powerful statement made by Landon and that franchise,” said Briggs, “It speaks to what we all think. There’s no place in sports, in our game, in any other game, for homophobic slurs or racial slurs, for any bigotry. There’s no place for that. To make that much of a powerful statement, it shows that we are on the verge of change. We have to continue to make powerful statements.”
McCrary, one of Sacramento’s most vocal leaders, added, “It makes me proud. It’s good to see Landon saying exactly what he’s been saying the whole time – he said it to the (officials) then. It’s spread across their whole stadium what they live by and they’ve shown it. They don’t want to hear anything, don’t want to deal with the outside noise and distractions that shouldn’t be in the game – applause to (Donovan for stepping) up, taking that onto him, and really trying to make a difference. If no one does speak up then it’s just something that continues and continues, and that’s a problem.”
The Republic are likely to face Phoenix in the opening round of the USL playoffs next Saturday. They wrap up their regular season at Papa Murphys Park this Saturday night against Portland Timbers II.