Mike Petke is Now My Leader

New York Red Bulls defender Mike Petke has received a two-match band and a$500 fine for…drum roll please…mouthing off to officials. Are you kidding me? Mouthing off? Really? Two matches for dissent? What in the name of Donald Trump’s bar hair piece is going here?

What…oh wait, Jair Marrufo is involved.

Did Mike Petke tell Marrufo he should have offered him his jersey to get a call? Did he accuse Greg Barkey and Nate Clement of being out-of-shape and being unable to keep up with the pace of play? I mean, we all know that never happens with MLS linesman.

To be honest, I really don’t care what Petke told Maruffo because this disciplinary action seems like little more than a reaction to Petke’s past transgressions. Nothing he could have said to the referees warrants a two-match ban…these are professional officials, they have heard EVERYTHING. Unless he punched Maruffo in the tunnel…and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to do that, then this reeks of punishing a player because he’s ruffled some feathers in the past.

I could be wrong, I could be WAY off base about this, but either way, I’m officially declaring Mike Petke as my new leader. Why? Because Petke has a penchant for speaking his mind and he’s not afraid to be honest about his perceptions. Look now farther than his brilliant ESPN Soccernet blog post from back in March after the MLS Season Opener in Seattle.

Wednesday, March 18, at the lobby elevator of the Hyatt in downtown Seattle — here’s how it went down. I just checked into the hotel and was heading up to my room. As I entered the elevator, I held the door open for an elderly couple who happened to be wearing Seattle Sounders shirts. On our way up, I asked them, “Are you here for the game tomorrow night?” They both put on huge smiles and said they were, at which point the lovely lady says, “The Sounders are the best team in the A-League!”

Now, I wish there had been a microphone in my thought process to catch the split second that it took me to decide whether I should let this one go. Too much potential, so I got right into it. I asked them whether they knew who the Sounders were playing. (No, they didn’t.) I told them they were playing my team, Manchester United, at which point the nice man raised an eyebrow and said, “I thought they were from Europe or Asia somewhere.”

Greatness. Pure greatness. Hate me, send me mean e-mails, I don’t care. We need more players in MLS who are willing to open up and stir the pot a little.

Bottom line, yes Petke has a history of pushing buttons, but this most recent suspension seems like nothing more than another ridiculous decision by the MLS Disciplinary Committee in which the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

Just my opinion.