What initially appeared to be a standard USL match between the Tulsa Roughnecks and the Oklahoma City Energy quickly became more significant in the aftermath. As the Energy were on their team bus, Atiba Harris tweeted out that he was the subject of verbal abuse multiple times from a Roughnecks player, specifically citing that he was called the n-word.



That tweet kicked off an intense investigation by members of both clubs and the USL, one that resulted in the immediate termination of Tulsa winger Fabián Bastidas’ contract less than 24 hours after the final whistle.



The process was put into motion just before Harris sent the above tweet, when he and goalkeeper Cody Laurendi notified Energy head coach Steve Cooke of the incidents. The player was soon identified as Bastidas, a Brooklyn-born winger who had previously played in Uruguay and Portugal.



Within an hour, Cooke took the complaint to Energy co-owner Bob Funk, Jr, asking if he could report...