The Union’s Ray Gaddis, the team’s longest-tenured player, retires

Ray Gaddis, the Union’s longest-tenured player and a powerful force in the locker room, announced his retirement from playing on Thursday.

Gaddis hangs up his cleats after playing 21,235 minutes over 248 games across nine seasons. Every one of those minutes was played for the Union, the team that drafted him No. 35 overall in 2012 out of West Virginia — making him an increasingly rare one-club player in Major League Soccer.

He set the minutes-played record in 2018, and his lead atop the chart is so vast that the No. 2 active player, Andre Blake, has nearly 7,000 minutes to go to catch him.

A 31-year-old Indianapolis native, Gaddis made his career at right back, and also played some left back when the team had no one who could play that position well. He had a caucus of critics who didn’t like his lack of contributions to the attack, symbolized by his never having scored a goal as a player. But his outstanding defensive work silenced them time and again.

The capstone came in what proved to be Gaddis’ penultimate game in a Union jersey: a command performance in last year’s regular-season finale that helped clinch the Supporters’ Shield, the team’s first trophy.

» READ MORE: In the Union’s finest moment, of course it was Ray Gaddis leading the way

Just as Gaddis was the Union’s all-time leader in minutes played on the field, he was their all-time leader in selfless service off it. He threw himself into community efforts, especially when they could benefit Black boys and young men who, like him, grew up facing racism and other injustices.

“Everybody wants credit for everything, and they want it instantly, and they want it publicized, and they want to do it in front of the TV or they want all the attention — Ray did his talking on the field, and Ray led by example,” manager Jim Curtin said. “He did a lot of things that none of you guys got to see, whether it be, you know, visiting hospitals, visiting community centers, taking care of different things throughout the city of Chester and Philadelphia. He didn’t need the spotlight, which is what the real ones do.”

MLS commissioner Don Garber also saluted Gaddis with a message on Twitter.

“Ray Gaddis leaves a remarkable legacy with @PhilaUnion as an exceptional player, club record-holder, fan favorite, community leader, activist, and founding member of @BPCMLS,” Garber wrote, tagging the Black Players for Change group that Gaddis helps lead. “Ray: Congratulations on a great career, and thank you for all you’ve done for @MLS on and off the field.

The people Gaddis got to know saw proof of what soccer could do for inner-city communities that haven’t always paid the sport much attention. And at the same time, he sent a message to a sport that in America has historically been overwhelmingly white.

In recent months, Gaddis took that work to another level, joining anti-racism protests in his hometown and helping to lead campaigns in the league.

“I just really think that the Lord allowed me to use my voice, and for me, a lot can be said in what you do on the field, but also off the field,” he said. “It’s not something that I’ll look at, you know, tied toward legacy, but just more or less my duty with the platform given to me. … It’s not beneficial if I’m the only one benefiting, from my demographic.”

Gaddis said he decided to retire now for family reasons that necessitated a move back to Indianapolis.

“I just think that this is the right time to tend to some things here on the home front,” he said, noting that some of those things came up during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I can just honestly say that I always gave my very best for the Philadelphia Union and left it all out on the line,” Gaddis continued. “And when you do that, you don’t take for granted, or you don’t have any regrets about decisions being made. … It’s not an easy decision, but it was a little bit easier.”

His decision came as a surprise to the public, and Union sporting director Ernst Tanner said it surprised the organization too when Gaddis told the team last week.

“We will really miss him as a master example for a professional soccer player, and a real good guy and teammate, and a real valuable piece of our roster,” Tanner said.

The reaction from fellow players was just as strong, especially the young products of the Union academy whom Gaddis mentored over the years.

“I think that they were just very appreciative of lessons learned in how to be professional,” Gaddis said. “Sometimes you don’t know how you really impacted someone’s life until they tell you.”

Gaddis took time to know people in the Union organization beyond the locker room and the training field. He made a point of thanking “all the people behind the scenes — the staff protecting us at games, the parking lot attendants, the concession workers. I’ve had relationships with each and every one of you.”

As Gaddis spoke from home, he said he hopes to return to Philadelphia in the future. He has been taking coaching license courses, and in the fall of 2019 studied in a Harvard Business School program for pro athletes who want to be involved in sports after playing. Tanner and Curtin said they’d be thrilled to have him back when he’s ready.

It will be especially resonant if Gaddis decides to go into coaching. There has never been a Black American manager in Major League Soccer history, and has Gaddis recently told The Inquirer, opportunities to enter the league’s coaching ranks quickly have been extended to white ex-players far more often than Black counterparts.

» READ MORE: Union’s Ray Gaddis sees progress in MLS front office diversity efforts, but knows a lot more is needed

Indeed, there haven’t been many Black head coaches in American soccer generally. Union reserve team head coach Marlon LeBlanc, who was Gaddis’ college coach, is one of the few currently on the landscape. Gaddis took a moment Thursday to praise the Union for hiring LeBlanc last year, calling it “evidence of what the club is doing, and you know, not only talking about it with making change, but actually hiring the most qualified person.”

Gaddis hasn’t made a decision about his long-term future yet, but he knows the path that’s before him.

“At this time, I’m just taking the time to digest everything — I think that’s what’s in order,” he said. “When the time presents itself, if it’s the right opportunity for all parties I just think that it’d be great … And if it’s with coach Curtin, I’ve learned a lot as a player, but to be an understudy and go through the ranks, that would be even more special for me.”

Surely, too, he is destined for the Union’s ring of honor. That should be just a matter of waiting until the crowd at Subaru Park can be big enough to give him the salute he deserves.

“I hope I’m an adopted Philadelphian at this point,” he said, and there should be no doubt that he is.