The incident that turned a second-tier soccer club into front-page news began with a disputed whistle.
San Diego Loyal midfielder Collin Martin began jawing with Phoenix Rising forward Junior Flemmings over a late first-half yellow card that resulted in a San Diego free kick.
“It got personal pretty fast,” Martin told Yahoo Sports. “He used some bad language toward me and it got to the point where I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is super disrespectful.’ ”
When Martin got upset, Flemmings allegedly escalated the argument. According to Martin, the Jamaican made a homophobic reference to the fact that Martin is openly gay.