When referee Silviu Petrescu blew his whistle for the final time on Saturday afternoon at BMO Field, Toronto FC forward Dwayne De Rosario jogged over to the south stands to salute the passionate fans who frequent that section of the stadium.
The Toronto home boy then wrapped a black and white flag around his shoulders — a gift from one of the TFC faithful — and wore it back to the dressing room, all the while his teammates acknowledged the 20,086 on hand who had braved the freezing winds blowing off Lake Ontario.
The above passage – and the inference contained within it – caused a bit of an uproar of the Red Patch forums this week. The suggestion that DeRo was protesting by draping the banner over his back and later not being available for the media did not sit well when you consider what he was really doing.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
As I detailed on MLSsoccer today, he was getting a memorial banner to Red Patch member Rodrigo Novoa, who died suddenly last week, signed. However, rather than take the time to find that out the reporter made an assumption. When pushed on the issue the reporter was said it was unreasonable for him to know what the banner said or meant.
Ok, then...
The Sun is refusing to run a retraction, which is troublesome. The story that was written didn’t need to make a reference to the banner. Other than to set-up a colourful anecdotal lead, there was no reason to mention it if they didn’t know what De Rosario was doing with it.
I will put some blame on the club, however. MLS rules say that the dressing room must be opened 10 minutes after the final whistle. For two games running TFC has refused access. In Vancouver reporters had to scrum outside and on Saturday they were directed to the team gym. If, as is required by MLS rules, the reporters were in the room it would have been clear what De Rosario was doing and this misunderstanding would not have happened.
Access matters. It allows reporters to do their job, which, in turn, give fans the information they deserve. When clubs shut the media out of the room they are really shutting the fan out. And considering that without fans the clubs are irrelevant it’s more than a little short-sighted to do so.