Just when it seems like Major League Soccer is learning, something happens to remind us that it’s still a work in progress. Just when MLS appears to be getting the importance of supporters and fostering a good relationship with its most passionate fans, an MLS original falls flat on its face while trying to make their stadium more “family friendly.”

At Saturday’s New England Revolution-Chicago Fire game, everything was business usual. The small but vocal supporters section – made up of several groups, most notably the Midnight Riders and The Rebellion – were doing their usual business of being as loud as possible in support of their beloved Revs.

Then, trouble. Trouble wearing security company gear to be more precise.

From Revs blog The Bent Musket:

Fans made note of the increased presence of police and TeamOps staff around the Fort early in the match, but it wasn’t until later that the situation escalated. Monty Rodrigues, former long-time president of the Midnight Riders, was verbally abused by TeamOps staff while standing as capo in the second half. After being twice berated – with profane language, mind you – by security/TeamOps representatives and being accused of leading offensive chants and inciting a riot, Monty threw up his hands and walked out of the Fort.

Keep in mind that capos are told in no uncertain terms not to swear, because otherwise the megaphone will be taken from them. I’ve been to games, I’ve sat in the Fort, and I don’t remember Monty swearing or leading chants with profanity, unless it was added by the supporters.

At that point, TeamOps, security and police descended on the Fort with what seemed to be extreme prejudice. This is stuff you can see in the TV broadcast of the match. “They came down like they’d had a pep talk from Knute Rockne,” recalled Santos. Fans were removed forcefully from the Fort, and even those who peacefully and unassumingly followed Monty out in protest were randomly grabbed and, in some cases, arrested for it. In the video below provided by a supporter in the area, you can clearly see a fan offering no resistance as he is arrested for, to quote the Foxborough police officer cuffing him, “being a f*****g dickhead.”

The incident just reinforces the notion of the Revolution as an organization stuck in old thinking. “You Suck Asshole” is not good chant. In fact, it’s a very poor chant that should be eradicated from MLS if for no other reason than it shows a supreme lack of creativity. If the club wanted to put an end to the chant, we support them in that effort. But not at the expense of alienating their best fans and definitely not in a way that ends with anyone in handcuffs.

TeamOps, the security company responsible for gameday security at Revs games, is owned by the same man that owns the team, Robert Kraft. There doesn’t seem to be much separation between the actions of the security detail and the club itself. For all intents and purposes, they’re one and the same.

But team president Brian Bilello said on his Facebook page that it wasn’t security that initiated the crackdown.

This was not a security issue. While some members of the supporters groups and fort tried to help the situation, others took this as an opportunity to escalate the situation. I will not get into an online debate with people who may or may not have been at the stadium last night, nor will I allow this to be presented as an example of how this organization doesn’t care about our fans or our supporters. Again, we will be reaching our soon to the supporters groups to discuss last night and how to create a better atmosphere moving forward.

No matter who is in the right, the Revs have now have a heaping helping of egg on their face. The supporters group leadership can only do so much. Holding individuals like Monty responsible for the actions of hundreds of other people is ridiculous, no matter which way you cut it.

And involving police in what boils down to one fairly innocuous bad word yelled out by the Revolution’s most committed fans is downright ridiculous.

C’mon, Revs. Why you gotta do your fans like that?

Get with the modern MLS program.

Everyone else, knock it off with “You Suck Asshole.”