The Capital Football Association (CFA) Youth League in Pennsylvania may have missed the lesson that sports ought to offer children about courage and teamwork. The Seven Sorrows Eagles, an under-18 football team that had the nerve to report experiences of racist harassment, is finding that doing the right thing may sometimes end in a penalty flag of its own. It started when the Eagles played the Boiling Springs Bubblers last month. The game turned into an example of how racism persists in American fields and wasn’t just about passing the ball.
Security escorted off the parents who confronted the Bubblers’ coach because, apparently, protesting racism causes more havoc than racism itself. The team expected accountability when they told the CFA about what had happened.
Instead, what did the team receive? Very random rules and regulations. Instead of looking into or penalizing the Bubblers, the CFA suspended the Eagles for two games! The league then added another match as a precaution after an appeal. The seasons of over 220 young athletes (including cheerleaders and players) were suddenly cut short. For the rest of the season, Maple and his assistant, the coaches, were also expelled. Smith said it would be tough to ‘tell [his] son that his season’s over.’
One player from the Eagles team allegedly made “threats toward the organization as he left the stadium,” which happened in front of school officials, according to the CFA. The latter used this as grounds for the decision, as they kicked that player out. The irony is that there were no punishments for the players who made the monkey noises. The Eagles haven’t given up, though.
Smith said,
“The CFA can take our seats, but they can’t take our spirits.”
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In hopes of giving their children a chance to play, the team has since reached out to other nearby leagues for practice sessions. This issue is not unique to Pennsylvania. For many years, racism affected football, from youth leagues to the biggest stadiums in Europe. The history of the sport is overflowing with incidents: In 2013, Kevin-Prince Boateng, a Ghanaian player, famously left the field after Italian fans referred to him as an “animal.” Racist chants from the stands caused England’s 2020 match against Bulgaria to be stopped twice.
The goal (pun intended) of football, whether it be American or association, is to get people together. However, as scholars have noted, there is an “invisible centrality of whiteness” that influences who gets honored and who is targeted. “It’s more than just a scandal when an entire Pennsylvania youth team is punished for speaking out against racism instead of being protected from it.
Without bringing up the Eagles or the Bubblers, the CFA stated on September 28 that it pushed for inclusivity and called out racism. It’s difficult to celebrate progress when those who reported hate are still excluded, even though the message read like a PR win. The Eagles’ team’s story lives on as their season draws to a close. The struggle against racism is not over with token gestures or hashtags. It begins in the stands, on the field, and in the choices made by adults who are supposed to know better.
