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Nick Rogers, a Liverpool fan, had a cringe-worthy experience when his North American Soccer League team was relaunched, rebranded and renamed Minnesota United.

“It gave me heartburn changing the name to include the word United as a Liverpool fan,” Rogers, the Minnesota club’s president, said in a telephone interview from his home in Wayzata, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis.

Part of the new club’s portfolio, Rogers said, is a commitment to inclusion and “tolerance in sports” that led him and the Minnesota United players to a sign a pledge promoted by the nonprofit Athlete Ally, which promotes anti-homophobia in sports. Part of the pledge is to “respect and welcome anyone of any sexual orientation.”

The club will announce this week that its owners, coaching staff and — perhaps most important — players have signed the pledge. The issue of tolerance and anti-homophobia in sports has, obviously, been in the news lately. From major sports leagues, like the N.H.L and Major League Soccer, to individuals like the player Robbie Rogers (no relation to Nick) and Brendon Ayanbadejo, the issue has gained currency and attention.

Minnesota United is probably the first pro soccer team to support the pledge as an organization. Nick Rogers, who attended the University of Maryland, as did Athlete Ally’s founder and executive director, Hunter Taylor, is on the organization’s advisory board, as are Ayanbadejo, who won the Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens earlier this year; the former major league baseball player Billy Bean; and others.

“This is something I brought to our coaching staff, and I think first and foremost I didn’t want to do anything that would cause a problem in the locker room and make the players feel like they had to take sides on a controversial issue,” Rogers said. “Athlete Ally is not advocating a viewpoint; it is just saying that on the field of play the only thing that matters is the competition. That resonated with the guys.”

(The use of the word United in the team name is accurate. The previous club, the Stars, had been operated by the league before new ownership was found. Part of the rebranding is an effort to bring together the heritage of the Kicks, Thunder and Stars.)

Rogers was able to get an accurate reading of the response from the club’s players, athletes from around the United States and around the world, via Kevin Friedland, a defender and assistant coach from California who played on the 2005 United States Maccabiah team with Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein. “He was a good conduit,” Rogers said.

As the team gathered last week to take photographs for the club’s media guide and Web site, Rogers said he had an opportunity to sit down, one on one, with each player to discuss their views on signing the Athlete Ally pledge, either supportive or otherwise.

“There was one player who had some questions about showering with a gay teammate,” Rogers said. “He said it seemed a little weird. My response was that your reality as a professional athlete is that you’re going to be be showering with gay athletes and you have to ask yourself if forcing him to keep his identity secret is going to change that, or are you going to be forcing someone to hide who they really are? It’s not going to change the fact that you’re going to shower with gay athletes. It was good to see him going through the process and thinking about this.”

“I think it’s fair to say there’s a very progressive culture in Minnesota, but that’s not what this is about,” Rogers said. “A big part was when I looked at situation encountered by Robbie Rogers. How terrible it must have been to be in the middle of your season and have to say I can’t do this anymore because of who I am. That’s why we want people to feel comfortable. If you have the talent on the field you shouldn’t have to stop doing what they love. It just seemed like right thing to do.”

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