Grant Wahl of SI - The LA Galaxy went viral on Monday with an admittedly hilarious video showing Portland's Diego Chara and David Guzman diving from Sunday's game to a soundtrack in various iconic scenes.
The video was more pointedly in response to Jelle Van Damme being sent off after Chara and Guzman appeared to dive in a succession of plays that wound up as yellow-card offenses, with LA being forced to play the final 55 minutes of the 1-0 loss with 10 men.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the video has had more than 24,000 retweets (and counting), but not everyone is laughing. An MLS league source says: "The league office is going to address it" with the Galaxy.
PRO referees chief Peter Walton says he had seen the video and didn't want to be involved. A Galaxy spokesperson, meanwhile, said the intent was to put together a fun piece of content for social media purposes. (Portland owner Merritt Paulson emphasized that the Timbers did not complain to the league.)
Bottom line: Sadly, we may not see any more videos quite like this from MLS clubs in the future.
What an awful look for the MLS if they actually come down and either punish or put limitations on their clubs for creative social media messages. One of the single best parts of twitter is the way franchises and players that we care about enough to both watch live on television and follow in our free time on the internet interact with one another and talk trash. It's brought new light to the way athletes rip on each other.
This is just an example of actual creative genius on the part of the social media team in Los Angeles and should be commended for both its timeliness and hilarious editing, not scolded by a league who struggles for national attention and recognition in the sports world.
You want to grow your brand? How about allowing creative and talented people in your business to do their damn job and not face repercussions from the big bad man upstairs for generating over a million views on a team account.
I would say 'grow up' but in this case, the correct thing to tell the MLS is to just lighten the F up.