After the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers on Thursday, their bench coach, Ryan Christenson, raised his arm to form what he later said was an attempt at a properly socially distanced high five. What it really looked like, as at least one player immediately realized, was a Nazi salute. Closer Liam Hendriks pushed Christenson’s arm down, and the coach was filmed laughing and raising his arm again.
After footage of the pair of gestures circulated on social media, Christenson issued a statement through the team, saying, “I made a mistake and will not deny it.
“Today in the dugout I greeted players with a gesture that was offensive. In the world today of COVID, I adapted our elbow bump, which we do after wins, to create some distance with the players,” he continued. “My gesture unintentionally resulted in a racist and horrible salute that I do not believe in. What I did is unacceptable and I deeply apologize.”
“We do not support or condone this gesture or the racist sentiment behind it,” the team added. “This is incredibly offensive, especially in these times when we as a club and so many others are working to expose and address racial inequities in our country. We are deeply sorry that this happened on our playing field.”
Christenson also told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser that when he made the seeming salute, Hendriks said, “No, no, no straight arm!” and that it took him a moment to realize what Hendriks meant. “Obviously I wasn’t doing that intentionally,” he said. “I just blacked out. My mind wasn’t there and I spaced out. I’m sure it looks terrible. I did it, but it was not intentional. I don’t know what more to say.”
Christenson isn’t the first person in the sports world to make this very specific claim in the last couple of years. In January 2019, Wayne Hennessey, a goalkeeper for the English soccer club Crystal Palace, was photographed with his right arm raised and his left hand across his mouth during a team meal. He said afterwards that he was trying to get the attention of a waiter, who took the photograph, and that he didn’t know what a Nazi salute was. England’s Football Association cleared Hennessey of wrongdoing, and no disciplinary action against Christenson has been announced.
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