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  4. Julie Ertz and US women's national team, Chicago Red Stars teammate Casey Short took a knee, held each other, and cried during the national anthem at their first game in 8 months

Julie Ertz and US women's national team, Chicago Red Stars teammate Casey Short took a knee, held each other, and cried during the national anthem at their first game in 8 months

Meredith Cash   

Julie Ertz and US women's national team, Chicago Red Stars teammate Casey Short took a knee, held each other, and cried during the national anthem at their first game in 8 months
  • USWNT stars and Chicago Red Stars teammates Julie Ertz and Casey Short shared a touching moment before their first game in the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup Saturday night.
  • Ertz and Short cried and held each other as they kneeled during the playing of the national anthem.
  • The powerful scene came hours after all of the players on the Portland Thorns and NC Courage kneeled during the anthem at the first professional contact sports game in the US since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor have fueled a discussion about police brutality and race relations in America.

And, as often is the case, the sports world has found a way to reflect the public discourse.

While the national anthem played prior to the Chicago Red Stars' 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup match against the Washington Spirit Saturday night, some players from both sides of the second game of the day knelt while the national anthem played. Red Stars teammates Julie Ertz and Casey Short were amongst those taking a knee, and the emotional reaction of the two USWNT stars caught the attention of all tuning into the broadcast.

Short, who is one of two Black players on Chicago's roster, sobbed into Ertz's arms while the anthem reverberated through the empty Zion's Bank Stadium. Ertz, who is one of the most recognizable figures on the USWNT and the reigning US Soccer Female Player of the Year, held her teammate and cried along with her for the duration of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

As the anthem finished playing, broadcaster Mike Watts said that in his five years calling games for the league, "I don't think there has been a more striking singular image than Casey Short and Julie Ertz in that moment."

During a press conference before Saturday's matches, Red Stars head coach Rory Dames told members of the media that the team had had "conversations internally amongst our group... specifically supporting the Black players on our team, educating ourselves, trying to become part of the solution and not part of the problem, and some hard, uncomfortable conversations, but those are the only real conversations that matter."

"As far as anything the team may or may not do, we've left that to the team, because we have some players on the team that have very big platforms," Dames added. "They would be the ones that have the most eyes on them and have the most visibility, and they're the ones who need to be comfortable — specifically along with Casey [Short] and Sarah [Gorden] — with anything that we are going to do. I'm sure at some course throughout some point of the event that our group will do something, but we have not had any specific conversations about what that will or will not be. ... Whatever the team decides they feel is appropriate for them to make any statement they want to make, as a coaching staff we'll fully support them and participate if asked."

Many viewers described the moment as "touching" and "beautiful" on social media, but others felt as though the league had capitalized on Short's grief and called for the NWSL to stop playing the anthem before games.

Hours before the emotional moment between Short and Ertz, the NWSL became the first American professional contact sports league to return since the coronavirus pandemic began with the Challenge Cup opener between the North Carolina Courage and Portland Thorns. Prior to kickoff of that matchup, all starting players kneeled while the national anthem played.

The two clubs issued a joint statement explaining that they kneeled "to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and systemic racism against Black people and people of color in America."

But since Saturday's games, the NWSL is reportedly considering adjusting "how/when the national anthem will be played the rest of this tournament," according to Equalizer Soccer's Dan Lauletta.

It remains to be seen whether or not the league will implement such changes prior to its second bout of Challenge Cup games on Tuesday. The hometown Utah Royals will take on the Houston Dash at 12:30 p.m. EDT before the OL Reign and Sky Blue FC face off at 10 p.m. EDT.

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