More than 100 MLS players had just completed the call with commissioner Don Garber, league executives, D.C. United owner Steve Kaplan and Vancouver Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot on April 21st. On that call, around 50 players expressed concern with what they saw as a rushed plan to return to play, voicing their opinions to Garber and the owners in tones that ranged from pleading to angry, from cool and logical to viscerally fired up.
After the end of the call, though, the discussion wasn’t as much about what was said as who said it — and how vehemently they did so. In a player pool that traditionally ranges from teenaged homegrown players on small contracts to superstars making millions, it’s most often been middle-salaried Americans who take the biggest role in the MLS Players Association (MLSPA). The big stars often sit on the sidelines.
Not this time.
On this April call, some of the league’s biggest names — Nani, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez among them — expressed their reservations about the plan directly to Garber, Kerfoot and Kaplan.
That those big voices were on the call, and that they were willing to emotionally stand up to league executives who some players believe have long pushed the player pool around, felt like a transformative moment that would alter the rest of the discussions.
“For guys who don’t make a lot of money, it’s invaluable to see a guy like Chicharito or Nani or Michael Bradley or Jozy go to bat for you,” said Nashville SC defender Eric Miller, a member of the MLSPA executive board. “For those guys to show up in a big moment … it showed how united our player pool was.”