Banner Spoke Up. Then He Was Punished for Being Thirsty.
The USMNT mascot issued a statement about Balogun's suspension being lifted. Twenty-four hours later, he was charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
WASHINGTON — Banner issued a statement. It was three sentences. He said the decision to lift Balogun’s one-match suspension was inconsistent with FIFA’s own rules, that the Royal Belgian Football Association had described it correctly, and that he found the precedent troubling. He was not asked his opinion. He gave it anyway.
That afternoon, he was outside in the heat. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is 2,030 feet long. Banner is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. He lapped at the reflecting pool water for exactly 10 seconds before the National Park Service became involved.
The charge is vandalism. Banner has reviewed this characterization. He disagrees with several of the words in it.
He has been the USMNT mascot since December. Before that: a simpler life. He had understood that sports was the part of human experience where the rules were written down and applied equally. He was in the process of revising this understanding when he arrived at the pool.
He remains thirsty. His statement about the suspension is now on the record.
Correction: A previous version of this article gave the length of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as 2,029 feet (it is 2,030 with presumably even more water to lap up without being noticed). And we referred to the Royal Belgian Football Federation; the correct name is the Royal Belgian Football Association. We regret both errors. Banner’s statement, accurately sourced, remains on the record.