Nashville SC midfielder Dax McCarty apologizes to RSL's Bode Davis following red card
By Chris Smith
Nashville SC midfielder Dax McCarty has apologized for the incident which saw him stamp on Real Salt Lake's Bode Davis on Saturday.
With the visitors 2-1 down in the closing moments of their trip to RSL, Davis attempted to shield the ball in the corner to run down the clock.
A mixture of frustration and desperation to get the ball back saw McCarty stamp on Davis, who had already gone to ground, in an outburst that earned him a red card and the disdain of the RSL faithful.
But McCarty has moved quickly to put things right, posting a video apology to Davis on social media on Sunday - the veteran midfielder even called Davis personally to apologize one-on-one.
"Just wanted to address the red card that occurred in Salt Lake last night," McCarty said. "I feel like some sort of vague, written apology wasn't going to cut it. Addressing this in a few weeks, or even staying silent. None of those options were on the table, especially considering the circumstances surrounding the red card.
“I need to apologize to everyone that was involved in that game yesterday, from the fans, to the players, my teammates, the Real Salt Lake coaching stuff, my coaching staff, the referees, but especially to Bode Davis, the guy that I put in a very bad situation with my actions.
"I reached out to Bode and let him know that I'm very sorry for what happened, hoped he wasn't injured. He was great. He seems like a really nice guy, and he accepted my apology, let me know that he was okay which is the most important thing to come out of all this.
"I let him know that I let my frustrations get the best of me, there's no other way to put it. It's obvious for everyone to see, I lose my head and my cool. In a moment of frustration and weakness, I make a bad decision.
An apology and an explanation. How do you balance apologizing and providing context while not making it sound like BS? I don’t know if I got it right but either way, what happened yesterday was unacceptable. That much is true. Here’s to being better in the future. pic.twitter.com/ghdczQFNKo
— Dax McCarty (@DaxMcCarty11) March 20, 2022
“When the ball is there and he’s lying on top of the ball, I don’t see a flag, I don’t hear a whistle. The ball looks like it’s inbounds to me, I tried to backheel it wildly, either off him out of bounds or to a teammate. To be quite honest, I don’t know what I was looking to accomplish. But it looks horrible, it turned out horrible.
"I wish I could let you guys into my head to let you know what my intent was. It was not to hurt anyone, kick anybody, not to step on anyone. But the video doesn't lie and it looks really bad. I have no arguments about the red card, if there's additional punishment coming my way, I'll accept it.
"There's not much more that needs to be said other than I need to hold myself to a higher standard. I'm a captain and consider myself a leader and, quite frankly, I let myself down yesterday and let down a lot of people. So no other arguments from me, I just want everyone involved in that game to know how sorry I am and I'll learn from it. I'll be better and it won't happen again."
Nashville have taken just four points from their opening four games of the 2022 MLS season so far. Gary Smith's side travel to the Columbus Crew on April 2 following an international break.