It's just going to look wrong.
Matt Hedges, the FC legend, wearing the shirt of another MLS team.
It will be like seeing Emmitt Smith in an Arizona Cardinals jersey or, maybe if it goes better, Michael Finley representing the San Antonio Spurs, a jarring image of a DFW sports icon wearing a jersey other than the one supporters have seen him in for a decade.
That's what fans will be wrestling with, however, with Hedges headed to Toronto FC in free agency — according to MLSSoccer.com's reliable Tom Bogert, who tweeted out the news we're working to confirm with the club.
BREAKING: Toronto FC have reached an agreement with free agent defender Matt Hedges, per sources.
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) December 16, 2022
Hedges, 32, had spent entire career with FC Dallas, where he is the club's all-time appearance leader. Hedges joins as significant signing to improve TFC's defense. pic.twitter.com/HQZar9e2LJ
Hedges was never brash. He wasn't a trash-talker or even a vocal leader. Instead, he was quietly one of the best defenders in MLS year after year after year.
Drafted by FCD in 2012, Hedges soon earned the starting job and was the captain of the team not much later. He quickly became a rock in the middle of the back line, a significant reason FCD regularly had one of the best defenses in the Western Conference.
That was true in 2022. FCD goalkeeper Maarten Paes, who joined the team before the 2022 season, may have been the most important piece of the defensive unit that allowed fewer goals than all but one MLS team. Hedges was second. When he was out, his absence was tangible. When he was in, he provided strong individual defending and was tidier when starting attacks than his center-back partners.
Yet, sports continues to be a business, and FCD is moving on. The calculus for FCD is it doesn't value him enough to pay what he's asking for as long as he's asking. Hedges has now apparently found that value elsewhere.
It's sports, but it still hurts.
Plenty of FCD fans had fooled themselves into thinking this day would never come. And the evidence against it was there if you wanted to find it.
Even back in 2018, I was wondering if Hedges would be a 'one-club man' — the increasingly rare species in modern soccer.
"I'm always open to a move, but I'm not saying it's impossible to play my whole career in Dallas. I would like that," Hedges told me after he represented the MLS All-Star team against Juventus. "I would like to be the guy who plays my whole career at one place, winning trophies there and doing well."
In the end, the only trophies he would celebrate with FCD were the two he already lifted with the club in 2016. The Supporters' Shield and U.S. Open Cup that season are the only hardware he could add to FCD's case.
Maybe that's not worth the statue Hedges once felt destined to have built of him outside Toyota Stadium, but other than a lack of additional trophies - something an individual can only do so much to control in a sport with 10 other guys on the field — it's hard to poke holes in Hedges' resume. He leaves FCD with a career worthy of essentially any honor the club has available.
Truthfully, Hedges' ability to pursue another opportunity is progress. American sports already offer players much less control over their futures than the international game. But why shouldn't Hedges be able to move his growing family where he wants or try to earn as much as possible knowing he has a smaller and smaller number of years left when he'll be able to physically meet the demands put on a professional soccer player.
Most fans understand that. Barring a bizarre heel turn, Hedges will get a nice ovation when he returns to Toyota Stadium. The video team should get an NBA-style montage ready. When we look back on Hedges' career, we'll remember him with FCD's bull badge on his chest. He's fought for that shirt. Now he's putting on a different one.
It's sports. It's just how things work. But it doesn't make it any easier to see Hedges make his exit.