Union athletic trainer Paul Rushing suspended an extra game for role in brawl with NYCFC

Rushing had come on to the field in the 76th minute, after referee Armando Villarreal stopped the game due to a potential head injury to the Union’s Julián Carranza.

Union athletic trainer Paul Rushing (third from right) is held back by team members during the altercation with New York City FC on Sunday.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published June 28, 2022, 7:28 p.m. ET

Major League Soccer’s disciplinary committee handed down a raft of punishments on Tuesday for the brawl late in the Union’s 2-1 win over New York City FC on Sunday at Subaru Park.

Atop the list is an extra game’s suspension and an undisclosed fine for Union athletic trainer Paul Rushing, who was at the center of the fracas. Rushing had come on to the field in the 76th minute, after referee Armando Villarreal stopped the game due to a potential head injury to the Union’s Julián Carranza.

A few New York players thought Carranza was embellishing, most notably Nicolás Acevedo. He confronted Rushing, who pushed Acevedo back twice and offered a few choice words. Acevedo then gestured toward Rushing, Valentín Castellanos gave Rushing a shove, and the fracas erupted from there.

At one point, the Union’s Jakob Glesnes had to restrain Rushing with a bear hug.

Eventually, Rushing was able to attend to Carranza, then leave the field. As he was walking away, Villarreal showed him a red card. Rushing got a standing ovation from the crowd as he headed to the tunnel, and promptly went viral on social media.

Rushing will miss the Union’s games at Chicago on Wednesday (8 p.m., PHL17) and at Columbus on Sunday (7:30 p.m., PHL17). His first game back on the bench will be the Union’s home contest against D.C. United on July 8, which happens to be nationally televised (7:30 p.m., ESPN, ESPN Deportes).

No players were suspended, but a lot were fined undisclosed amounts. The list:

Acevedo and the Union’s Dániel Gazdag and José Andrés Martinéz, for “inciting and/or escalating a mass confrontation.”
Martínez was also fined a second time for an obscene gesture toward the visiting fan section after the game. A photo of the gesture made the rounds on social media Sunday night.
Both teams were fined for their second mass confrontation violation of the year, and Union manager Jim Curtin was fined individually. New York manager Nick Cushing was only warned, because he was not in charge when the club had its first violation.

Coincidentally — or perhaps not at this point — both teams’ first violations happened in the Union’s visit to NYCFC in March, when they won at Yankee Stadium for the first time.