Good Friday morning Caps fans.

Or perhaps not a good Friday morning; it’s been a rough week for the Caps and it was both self inflicted and caused by turmoil off the pitch.

Coming on top of continued allegations that the club covered up sexual harassment of players in its women’s program, 1130news uncovered a racist past for one of coaches in the club’s youth program. Caleb Wilkins gives us the rundown:

[Coach Brett] Adams and his colleague Lee Broster quit their jobs at Notts County before the club could complete an investigation into allegations by “eight or nine” youth players. The players told investigators they feared reprisal for speaking out. Adams was alleged to have thrown a banana at a black player and told him to “fuck off and eat it.” Broster, who worked closely with Adams, was alleged to have turned off all of the lights in a room and asked the black players to smile so he could see their teeth and to have said to players who were listening to hip hop “No wonder you black lads always go around stabbing people when you listen to music like that.”

The worst part is these allegations not only drew investigation from Notts County and local police but that they’re so well documented, a simple Google search of “Brett Adams” brings them quickly to your attention. This means the club either was too incompetent to dig into Adams’ past or didn’t care about the racism. And this isn’t just one instance of racism. Nor is it the kind of thing that I believe someone can become educated about and move on from. No, this is deep seated bigotry.

if you’re reading this, you’re almost certainly up to date on all of this. The question I’m more interested in (and I’m sure most fans are as well) is what to do.

It isn’t a state secret that I’ve found the club’s handling of the allegations against its women’s program disgusting. One boilerplate statement (which was apparently not even entirely accurate) is simply abysmal. Now the incompetence and ignorance exhibited by the club to back the hiring of a man with a clear history of racism has made me question whether this is the team I want to support going forward.

I’m not alone, obviously. The Southsiders walked out of the LAFC match and many members are questioning renewing season tickets. Some have actually done so:

A thread: Hey @WhitecapsFC I want you to know that a few months ago when I booked this trip to New York I booked a flight home that has me rising at 330am ET on Saturday to fly LGA to YYZ to YVR in time to watch the Whitecaps play the Union at 2pm — Chris (@salishsea86) April 24, 2019

At the end of the day, however, the failings of the club’s front office are not the fault of the players on the field, nor the current first team coaching staff. So I think most fans, myself included, have opted to stick around because we do not wish to punish a group of players who both need our support and have not created the cesspool of off-the-field trouble.

But my plans to purchase a hoop kit have been put on hold indefinitely. If I had season tickets, I would cancel them as well (living in Pennsylvania makes me immune to those types of decisions unless the Caps are playing the Union). And I only will watch matches because I want to continue this website’s solid coverage going forward, not because I wish to tacitly bolster the TV rights of the club going forward.

I’m curious how you all are considering your support of the club in these trying times. Are you, like me, launching a boycott? Do you think these protests will even do any good? Let us know in the comments.

And with that, let’s get onto the links:

Shameless Self Promotion

Our fearless leader AtlantisB grappled with the above issue in a well-done column that you can read here

Somewhat mercifully, there is a match this weekend. Get your lineup predictions in!

And learn more about the Philadelphia Union from our friends over at Brotherly Game

Best of the Rest

Will Ali Adnan stay past the end of June? MDS says the club will do everything they can to make it happen

A nice look at the latest up-and-coming Academy prospects: the Afghan/Uzbek/Canadian brothers Massud and Kamron Habibullah

Kaku got a shockingly light (IMO) three match ban for walloping a ball into an unsuspecting crowd during a match in Kansas City earlier this month

A man Cascadia fans love to hate, Merritt Paulsen, had an interesting sit down with The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio

Montreal Impact went through travel hell for their midweek match with New England Revolution, causing everyone to revisit why the hell MLS caps charter flights