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Under better circumstances this is a story about unity and the bonds that connect the American soccer community.
But instead, it’s about how a series of American tragedies has connected supporters groups across the country in the worst possible way.
As gun violence continues to ravage the nation, supporters groups are now sharing the same set of tifos across cities, emblazoned with the message that enough is enough.
On March 27th, Nashville became the latest American city rocked by gun violence, when a former student killed 3 children and 3 adults at the Covenant School.
The events hit the Nashville SC community hard.
“You don't have to go far to know someone who was personally and directly affected by this tragedy,” said Mark Dancer, the brand director of The Roadies, a Nashville SC supporters group. “There are immediate connections to victims throughout The Backline.”
The Backline, Nashville SC’s umbrella supporter collective, is comprised of 7 different supporters groups, The Roadies, The Assembly, Eastern Front, Music City Heaters, La Brigada de Oro, Mixtape 615 and FUBAR Supporters Group. In the aftermath of the shooting, as the club’s next home game approached, all 7 groups knew they had to do something in tandem to honor the victims.
“Coordinating anything between 7 different supporters groups can be challenging, even under the most pleasant of circumstances,” said Dancer. “Trying to coordinate a response to a tragedy that hits so many of us personally - days after it happened - is nearly impossible. Every individual has their own opinions on what should be done and how it should be executed, and that's compounded by trying to make those decisions across seven different organizations, while people are grieving.”
A little more than 850 miles away in Austin, Texas, members of Los Verdes, an Austin FC supporters group, saw the news and recognized the grief.
Ten months earlier, in Uvalde, Texas, a former student of Robb Elementary School fatally shot 19 students and 2 teachers at the school.
In the wake of the tragedy, members of Los Verdes did the things they knew how to do best.
First they tapped into their community, starting a GoFundMe that tallied more than $250,000 in donations.
Then they made art.
The group created two huge banners, proclaiming ‘Ya Basta! Enough!’ and ‘End Gun Violence.’
“We find that making banners and painting tifos brings people together,” said Mateo Clarke a member of Los Verdes and La Murga de Austin. “Our community was hurt and scared so designing a tribute to the victims felt like the best thing we could do to honor them and lift their names. But we also wanted to send a message as an echo of Alejandro Bedoya's words in protest of gun violence in 2019, "Ya Basta, Enough!"
“We did this action during the national anthem because it was our message to our leaders in government, "End Gun Violence,” said Clarke. “After the national anthem finished playing, our band, La Murga de Austin, played "Somewhere over the Rainbow" as a sweet but sober hymn that buoyantly dreamed of a world where gun violence isn't the leading cause of death for children.”
So on March 27th, when Clarke saw the news about Covenant, he reached out to members of the Backline, specifically Roadies president Stephen Robinson who handled much of the coordination on Nashville's end, and offered up the banners that Los Verdes created after Uvalde.
“We felt connected to their grief,” said Clarke. “Everyone involved with Los Verdes' Team Tifo thought the gift of our banners would be a nice gesture of solidarity and could demonstrate the collective voice of supporters for social change.”
They pulled the banners out of storage and shipped them off to Nashville the next day.
With the banners en route, the details of the Backline’s tribute began to come together. On April 8th, during the club’s home match against Toronto FC, supporters would observe 6 minutes of silence between the 6th and 12th minutes to honor the 6 victims, followed by the singing of “This Little Light of Mine” before continuing into standard matchday chants.
The final piece of the puzzle would be controlling a section of rowdy supporters and fans.
“On matchday, we had to ask the top few rows of folks to crouch down during the 6 minutes of silence so the upper banner could be seen,” said Dancer. “Everyone was extremely respectful and eager to participate. You don't have to be a member of a supporters group to stand in the supporters section, so we're talking about non-affiliated fans who immediately wanted to jump in and help make sure our message was heard. Individuals have their own opinions on specific gun laws, but the message of ending gun violence is pretty universally agreed upon.”
You could hear a pin drop, as the tribute rippled out from the supporters section throughout the rest of the stadium.
“Everyone was very respectful, and it was a moving tribute to the lives lost, and the need for change,” he said. “There were adult men and women in tears, as the weight of the silence hit us all. There are homes in our community that will forever be quieter, as family members will never return home from a day at school or work.”
The moment itself was powerful and overwhelming. The presence of the banners from Texas added an extra layer of meaning, in an already tangled night of emotion.
“The special thing about soccer in the US is the bond supporters groups share,” said Dancer. “We all recognize the work involved in running these organizations, and the commitment required to be successful. Unfortunately, those connections sometimes also need to be used to work together to fight for human rights.”
“When we can connect our fandom across cities and focus our solidarity on causes, we lift up our communities collectively and increase the role of soccer in the culture,” said Clarke. “It's about more than a game.”
If you’re reading this on Saturday morning, Dancer is currently making the two and a half hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky to deliver the banners to another community reeling from gun violence after a former employee at the Old National Bank in Louisville killed five people earlier this week.
He’ll pass them off to members of the Louisville Coopers, to be displayed at tonight’s Louisville City match, and then the Lavender Legion, an SG for the NWSL’s Racing Louisville, will display them at their April 29th match.
There’s now a running list on the back of one of the banners, marking each tragedy in each city. Clarke knew that once he sent the banners to Nashville they’d likely be passed on. He knew that Robinson, Dancer and the rest of the Backline would now carry the incomprehensible burden of recognizing that same grief in another group of people in another city, and feel called to help. He just didn’t think it would be so soon.
“It's so tragic that the banners are traveling to Louisville and so quickly,” he said.
Clarke’s ultimate hope is that the government takes meaningful action to protect people from preventable gun violence, rendering the banners useless.
The dream is to destroy them.