Ballad of Henry Ring

I turn 24 this month. Throughout my time around peers, I’ve realized that I didn’t exactly grow up with the same cultural touchstones as everyone else. Like how in my television writing class a couple months ago I got yelled at for having never watched “Wizards of Waverly Place”. Never seen a single episode. That’s doubly so for video games, as it took until I was 10 to get my first console. So I hang out around nerds constantly and they talk about the games that shaped them. Nintendo games like Zelda and Mario, stuff like Sonic and Halo, and other games considered massively influential classics like Final Fantasy. I had fleeting interactions with some of them through childhood, but I’d never actually play any of them until maybe junior high and some of them (cough FFVII and Halo: Reach cough) I’ve still barely even touched. However, I did grow up with video games. Just in a different way. The two games that truly raised me were Madden 08, which is a different story, and FIFA 05.

I got FIFA 05 as a Christmas gift from one of my wealthier cousins. It was for PC, which I’d already had FIFA 02 and FIFA 03 for. Except, my dad wouldn’t let me play 03 too often since it was only installed onto the computer in his room. 05 would be on the family computer. And I played the absolute shit outta that game. I contend to this day that it had the best soundtrack in the series’ history. Franz Ferdinand, Flogging Molly, Morrissey’s one good solo song, and an unlockable track that was worth the effort: Blue Monday by New Order. There were even bands that I’d never heard of that. Eventually, I’d research and find really cool, like The Streets, The Sounds, and Scissor Sisters (who seem so incredibly out of place looking back on it). The gameplay itself was so cool back in the day. I would ping in free-kicks like no one’s business, and I mastered the “In-Swinging Near Post” corner (The trick is to choose the third option target and take three steps towards the center before breaking towards the post). As for what I spent the most time doing, it was the Career Mode, where you were given 15 seasons to build your managerial career. You were always forced to start low and build yourself up, but you could always start a career as the coach of the Chicago Fire, which brings me to this image that has been engraved into my head for my entire life since the first time I played this game.

I will admit: As a kid, I was just as confused. I asked the same question you’re probably asking: “Who is this galoomba and what has he done with Zach Thornton?” Thornton was my hero as a kid. He, along with Brianna Scurry, inspired my early attempts at becoming a goalkeeper. But as I got older, there was something about this “Ring” guy that always intrigued me. I have no actual memory of watching him play, he wasn’t someone whose name is written in the history books of this club. Yet here he is in my favorite game of all time, the game that shaped me as a child, on my favorite team. Not only that, but this guy is a real person who I can talk to. He’s not even some major superstar, he’s just some guy who no one probably even recognizes anymore. Every once in a while, I’d get this feeling that someday I wanted to talk to him about FIFA 05, about his 2004 season, and about what happened after that. I’d done my own research on it, but there’s only so much information about American soccer from back then.

Shortly after my Elliot Collier article, I visited the Chicago Fire’s offices for a meeting. I was offered a really quick tour around the place and as that happened, I spotted a specific jersey sitting in the smallest conference room I had ever seen. That whole morning, I was hearing from a bunch of people about how they wanted me to interview Collier, but I didn’t think he was the right guy to talk to. However, I had just realized who I should talk to. I took a picture of the jersey, sent it to the MIR97 Writers’ Room, and said, “This is my next article.”

People may think too many teams make the playoffs in 2023; but almost 20 years ago, only two teams out of 10 missed the playoffs. At the end of 2004, those two teams were the Dallas Burn and Chicago Fire. The Fire, who’d just come off of a Supporter Shield winning season and were finally moving back into a newly renovated Soldier Field, didn’t exactly play like the champions they were supposed to be. While a pivotal core of Chris Armas, C.J. Brown, and Andy Williams was around and healthy for this season, there were too many losses overall. Many of the biggest difference-makers from the early years had retired, and this was the point in which the Fire’s standout youngsters were getting picked up overseas. Carlos Bocanegra had left prior to the 2003 season, DaMarcus Beasley would be headed to PSV Eindhoven midseason, and pretty soon Damani Ralph was gonna be headed over to Rubin Kazan.

As for whose fault this season was, that’s kind of a mean thing to say. However, if I were to hang it on anyone, it would be the offense. With 36 goals on the season, only better than the Dallas Burn and a Colorado Rapids team that had decided to buy all in on parking the bus, it’s a number that stands out in the crowd much more than their 44 goals against. But they had a pretty decent excuse. Ante Razov had been fading a bit these years, and an ankle injury in late July that required season-ending surgery wasn’t going to help in any way. Nate Jaqua never truly got going while he was still with the Fire, especially since he was played out of position when he finally got the chance. The attack was pretty much the previously mentioned young Damani Ralph and his fellow Jamaican Andy Williams feeding him the ball. As we all know from recent Fire performances, just the two of them weren’t enough.

Anyway, while the offense struggled, there was only one man with all 2,700 minutes that season: defender Jim Curtin. Drafted in the third round of the 2001 MLS SuperDraft, he went on to become a legend for the club and a solid coach for the Philadelphia Union. But just below him at 2,520 minutes, only missing out on two starts, was another guy the Fire picked up in the 2001 MLS SuperDraft, just four picks after. His name is Henry Ring.

—

After weeks of email tag and waiting to talk to the man, I’ve finally got a Zoom call with Henry Ring, all prepped and ready to go. I personally use Zoom because that’s what my school uses for online classes, so I’m just familiar with the program. As soon as we got onto the call, we joked about it being Zoom, cause Henry was a bit late due to Zoom needing to update. His usual video call software of choice is Microsoft Teams, which I had just spent an entire hour trying and failing to help my Dad set up just a week prior to this, so I was not going to switch now. Besides, I was more worried about recovering from the night before at the Peter Wilt Derby where I simply had too much ice cream celebrating the game (and alcohol, but I blame the ice cream). The morning was a struggle, and the afternoon later, as I helped my dad with the plant sale at the Morton Arboretum, would probably be even worse, but I’m here now face to face with an icon. All I’ve gotta hope for is that Zoom doesn’t do anything weird again.

—

First things first: How the hell does anyone growing up in the 80s around Middle Tennessee get into soccer? Honestly? That is some deep college football territory where there wouldn’t be a real professional sports team in the entire state until at least the late 90s. The Fire will be playing against Nashville SC this Saturday, but they didn’t exist until 2017. Around 30 years prior to that, in 1989, there were the Nashville Metros who played in the PDL, but that wasn’t until Henry was just getting into high school. According to Henry, they really didn’t have that much of an effect on him. For him, it started where it did for a lot of other kids: AYSO.

Henry Ring was born in 1977 in Franklin, Tennessee, as the youngest of his family. Much of his youth was spent in rec league soccer like AYSO and in the Williamson County Soccer Association. While there was no real “club soccer” in the area, Ring was a part of a team that actually grew a bit big for Williamson County and would go up against Memphis FC fairly often, something that Ring notes in particular as having solid early MLS starters like Carey Talley, Ross Paule, and Richard Mulrooney. Further research also shows that Memphis FC also produced current USSF president Cindy Cone. But the main focus in those days wasn’t professional soccer, it was all about developing young players for the Olympics. When Henry made it to the regional camps, he started to move on up from future MLS starters to future MLS stars, particularly pointing out going up against Clint Mathis.

“ODP [Olympic Development Program], making the state team. And then going into Cocoa Beach, Florida. That was really the pinnacle of player identification at that point.”

Around 1995, your biggest option for continuing any sort of soccer career to the point where you can continue to get recognition from the US national team is to go to college. So, that’s what Henry did, picking out the University of South Carolina as the premier destination for him in college.

“I wanted to just play at the best place I could play with the best players. And we were top five in the country for several of the years I was there. Clint Mathis, Josh Wolf. Guys like Tony Soto… We were a very good independent team that can play the Dukes and the North Carolinas.”

So after impressing Mark Burton enough at a South Carolina camp, Henry turned down scholarships to play at other schools in favor of taking the chance and walking on with the Gamecocks. His major was Advertising within the Journalism school, and after a redshirt freshman season in 1996, he was ready to play. Henry would end up being a third-team All-American in both ‘98 and ‘00 and even ended up facing off against Carlos Bocanegra’s #1 UCLA team at one point.

In a question I ask every single player I speak to who has gone through college soccer prior to going pro, I asked Henry to speak a bit about its place in the modern soccer world.

“Yeah. It's complicated. You look at these legacy programs like Indiana and these guys that have a history of bringing players through, top players, into the league. And I know there's still value there, and there's still value in the education that happens there. And honestly, the growing up that happens through a year or two of college and having to become an adult on your own there, too. There's gonna be a place for it.”

—

One of the weirdest and most interesting in early MLS history was what I can only describe as the opposite of a curse in the third round of the MLS SuperDraft. Everyone always expects the first round to go well, but I honestly think that there are points where the third round was the most successful round, especially for goalkeepers. Back to the first College Draft in 1996, you had Jesse Marsch, Eddie Lewis, and Ante Razov picked up. Next year was Kevin Hartman to LA (later picked up by the Fire in the expansion draft and traded back for Jorge Campos and Chris Armas). Then in ‘98 it was Matt Reis to LA (a pick they got from the Fire). ‘99 was disappointing, but then again in 2000 we got Nick Rimando, Kerry Zavagnin, and Jon Conway. ‘02 was Dipsy Selowane to the Fire and both Alejandro Moreno and Cory Gibbs to the Galaxy. ‘03 was when the Fire got Logan Pause and… we’ll get to 2005.

For now, it’s 2001. And after Jim Curtin and Edson Buddle, two men who will go on to be legends within MLS, it’s time for Henry Ring to be taken with the 33rd pick of the draft. He is the first goalkeeper off the board, and he is… Waiting for a plane. He’d already left the draft and was actually in the airport when he got the call about being drafted. But, as he says, that’s just how it was at the time. The league he was drafted into was not healthy at all.

In 2001, the MLS folded. For about two days in November, it was effectively over. It took Lamar Hunt, the owner of two of the Fire’s biggest rivals within the league (KC Wizards and Columbus Crew) an entire 48 hours to get the other owners back on board to keep going. Things were dire in those days, but there was really one true haven from all of that turmoil. It was right here in Chicago, where Henry had found his way onto what very well may have been the best team in MLS history.

—

“I don't think, initially, you recognize how good you have it.”

The thing that I have never understood and probably will never understand is how we don’t constantly talk about how both dominant and influential the Fire were from 2001-2003. Maybe it’s because of the league itself being so absolutely dire, but Bob Bradley somehow created this pocket dimension in Chicago that was able to be a space for players to simply focus on playing the game and developing both as players and people. The players that came out of that environment have gone on to do amazing things both in their playing careers and as coaches. Just look at the post-playing careers of Jesse Marsch, Jim Curtin, Josh Wolff, Piotr Nowak, and even Chris Armas (you can’t deny that he was at Manchester United). While some weren’t exactly young when they first played under Bob, many still credit his influence. That includes Henry.

“I think most of the guys that go through his system really understand what he has done for not just the Fire and a lot of our careers, but US soccer in general. So we had a very stable, serious organization anchored by Bob Bradley.”

Bradley wasn’t the only part of being on the Fire that helped Henry develop. The Fire already had their legendary starter in Zach Thornton, and while some teams would feature weakened lineups in the U.S. Open Cup, that’s not something the Chicago Fire did (at least not in those days). So while he did get to see a couple of minutes here and there during his first three seasons with the Fire, much of his match experience was coming from playing for the Milwaukee Rampage.

The Rampage, as mentioned in my Open Cup history article, were an A-League team, which was the predecessor to the USL. While the Rampage had their own legendary starter in Dan Popik, Henry was given the chance to play once in a while to keep him match sharp. Sometimes the Fire would have a game on Saturday and the Rampage would have a game on Sunday, so with it being a fairly reasonable drive from Chicago to Milwaukee (just ask our CIO Eray) it was a great situation for the Fire and Henry. What wasn’t such a “great situation” was when Henry was placed on the other side as the Fire played against Milwaukee in the 2001 Open Cup. Surprisingly, it wasn’t actually awkward for Henry to be playing with teammates against teammates. It was just more awkward that they did end up losing the game.

—

At this point, you’ve heard me go on about the life of a forgotten Chicago Fire goalkeeper for long enough. But please stick around as I bring up another forgotten Fire goalkeeper that I would love to track down as well. When I brought up his name, Henry had a moment trying to figure out how he remembered it. Some people are bad with names, it’s understandable. But some really old fans with very good memories have very bad memories about this man. As someone who simply seeks a fun story while digging through trash bins, this moment in Fire history is perfect to dig into someday. So I’ll do a bit of that right now. We’re going on a side quest in search of the man known as Curtis Spiteri.

In early October 2003, Henry tore his labrum and needed surgery. So the Fire needed a new backup goalkeeper to close out this season in which they’ve already won the U.S. Open Cup and the Supporters’ Shield. Doesn’t need to be the best, but just enough to make sure that if Zach Thornton goes down, he can step up. The Fire landed on Spiteri, who had previously been with the club during the preseason and had a solid couple games. Spiteri ended up going out west to play with the A-League Portland Timbers, but when offered a shot with the Fire, he stepped right up. He’d actually been training with a 2. Bundesliga club as well as Aberdeen, but the Fire were giving him a chance to be in the top division in America. On October 26th, with coach Dave Sarachan’s eyes on the playoffs, Zach was pulled at halftime in Columbus with six saves and a 2-0 lead over the Crew.

“[Curtis Spiteri is] not a bad guy. He's actually a very nice guy. Probably too nice. And yeah, he got put in a tough situation. I think I do recall that. He did get demonized. It's a tough gig, man. You get stuck in the wrong situation and things can go south real quick.”

The Columbus Crew did not make the playoffs that season, finishing just a single point below DC United. However, for 45 minutes against Curtis Spiteri, they looked like they were ready to take on Arsenal. The Crew had started their own second-team squad in this one and at halftime they suddenly decided that they weren’t content to go into the offseason with a loss, dropping in midfielder Freddy Garcia and striker Jeff Cunningham to strengthen an attack already being run by Brian McBride and Edson Buddle. By the 55th minute, the lead was gone entirely thanks to McBride and Cunningham. Then another from McBride in the 67th. And another from Buddle. And another from Buddle. When Freddy Garcia scored in the 90th minute to make it 6-2, the verdict was already in. A user on BigSoccer said, “If Spiteri ever comes withing [sic] 2 yards of the field, someone please tackle him.”

While the Fire would have big losses and even had a big loss that season, nothing would really compare to the absolute collapse that was that second half. As a team, maybe it could be compared to the 5-2 decision day loss in 2013 to the Red Bulls or the 5-1 loss to the Earthquakes in 2014 where all the goals were in the second half (and was also against a team starting Jon Busch), but nothing really tops six goals in one half to drop a two goal lead. Even the 6-0 loss to the Sounders in the 2014 US Open Cup was spread out throughout the game. Maybe on an individual level, Spiteri’s performance could be compared to what I like to call the “any% speedrun for the worst game ever” from Johan Kappelhof in 2021 against Nashville SC where he passed the ball to a no-longer-with-the-Fire C.J. Sapong in the 9th minute, fumbled his mark in the 13th minute, and shoved Sapong in the 14th minute to be sent off as swiftly as possible, leading to Mukhtar’s third goal gifted to him by Kap.

I guess I just wanted to bring this up because I’ve heard about Spiteri’s game quite a few times from the old guys and just wanted to know if he was doing okay. What kind of man was he?

“I have no negative memory about Curtis in any form or fashion… Plenty of other guys, but not Curtis.”

I guess he was just a man that didn’t deserve what came to him that night in October.

—

In sports, there’s always this theme about “earning it.” What is “It”? Well, it’s a horror movie that was originally a Stephen King novel that they re-booted a few years back and then decided to make a sequel starring Bill Hader, for some reason. But in this specific instance, this is about earning the starting job on a team. Or maybe it’s about even making it into the league in the first place. For a guy like Henry, who’s up against one of the best American goalkeepers of all time in Zach Thornton and a solid MLS backup like Chris Snitko, that is definitely a hard task. But, one half can change everything for a keeper. For some, it can ruin a budding career. But for Henry, it was a single half of preseason soccer that got him his job and possibly ruined someone else’s job.

“[Ante] Razov said several times, I'm the reason that he got cut from the national team during that round.”

Preseason 2001, Henry was up against it. Not only is he fighting for a job against the previously mentioned Thornton and Snitko, but the Fire just happened to be doing their preseason training around the same area in Florida as the U.S. Men’s National Team. The USMNT were gearing up for the 2002 World Cup and since the Fire had plenty of guys on the national radar at the time, there was a friendly where certain players switched teams at the half. It was one of those “behind closed doors” games where there’s no reporting on it, so even if BigSoccer hadn’t burned down that one time, there was probably no record of it. But, this was the first real test for the young Henry and he was so completely outmatched on paper. He’s got prime Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan, and Ante Razov coming at him, among others that he didn’t even have time to mention to me. But somehow, Henry took on the challenge and beat the odds.

“That second half I stood on my head. I had maybe the best out of soccer I've ever played and was able to walk into the huddle afterwards acting like nothing happened while Bob had one of his few, you know, complimentary comments that came out. And I'm pretty sure that that game was what got me on the squad”

Prior to 2004, as mentioned in Spiteri’s story, Henry was coming off of surgery for his shoulder. After a surgery that was supposed to have a nine-month recovery time, Henry came back in six and was in for another absolute knife-fight in the goalkeeper position. Zach Thornton, whose value may have been raised by that whole “The team is nothing without him” moment, decided to try his luck in Portugal with Benfica. So, the spot was open. While you’d think Henry was the odds-on favorite to win the position, with Spiteri having been swiftly dropped after that 2003 season, that performance might’ve spurred on the Fire’s decision to pick up two new goalkeepers. First was D.J. Countess, who ended up on some historically bad teams like the 2001 MetroStars and the 2003 Dallas Burn, but still had a lot more experience starting in this league than Henry. Second was Matt Pickens, who the Fire drafted 19th overall in the second round in that year’s draft and is probably a fairly recognizable name to those who watched the Fire during the Blanco years. I’d like to mention at this moment that while Henry says he turned a nine-month turnaround into six months, it was more like five as he went from surgery in early October to starting in preseason in February.  But maybe it was another miracle that gave him this chance.

“My focus was on staying healthy and getting sharp as fast as possible. And the choice with that surgery is because I knew Zach was leaving, and there was an opportunity at that point for me to start. So, just to paint the picture, there's a lot going on mentally as you're trying to get healthy, you're trying to get going in preseason. And luckily that first time hitting the ground, there was no twinge or pain and I could build up and build up from there.”

Henry said that there was no specific moment where he knew he was starting, just that he knew that he had earned the job throughout that preseason. Maybe it wasn’t as dramatic as his entry onto the team, but maybe he didn’t need the drama as he stepped into a starting role.

—

While I mentioned earlier that the 2004 season was kinda trash for the Fire at the end, it’s not like you should go into a season expecting bad things to happen. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Fire started the season playing in the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup. Things did start a bit rough for Henry and the gang down in Trinidad and Tobago.

“So we went down there with a lot of first-time starters and young players in there, and we showed up into an environment with a poorly lit field. [We had] very soft Americans on an okay(?) surface. All of a sudden there's steel drums that sounds like it's in the entire place, just surrounded by steel drums and this player comes out and just torches us. Scores a hat trick.”

That team was San Juan Jabloteh and the player was Cornelius Glen. According to Henry, by the very next day Bob Bradley would immediately claim his MLS rights for the MetroStars after reading the report on the 5-2 loss. Glen, for his part, hopped around MLS for a few years before returning home, but he did almost score a game-winner against Sweden in the 2006 World Cup. Anyway, the Fire would come back with a 4-0 win back home at Soldier Field. It was the game against Costa Rican side Alajuelense in the next month that the Fire couldn’t come back from.

However, the MLS season actually started pretty great for Henry. He kicked it off with a shutout against the KC Wizards, even getting a jersey swap with Tony Meola. That shutout turned into four shutouts in five games, only broken up by a home opener loss to the Dallas Burn. However, the loss isn’t what stuck in Henry’s memory.

“My parents showed up and I heard my dad. I'm from Tennessee. There's a bit of some serious southern stuff. My dad walking out into Soldier Field and doing a hog call, which is a very loud- Basically it's a southern thing, but I could hear him from way up in the stadium when I was down warming up. And that was, that was definitely a very clear memory of that first introduction to the game at home.”

That solid stretch of five games turned into a solid stretch of six shutouts in ten games. Going into June, he was viewed as one of the top goalkeepers in the league. Maybe not the league, but at least in his conference. And that position was rewarded with a trip to the MLS All-Star game in RFK Stadium that year, where it was a classic game of East vs West. Starting in goal for the East, #13 Henry Ring. He was joined by teammates Jim Curtin, Chris Armas, and Damani Ralph. While he was replaced at halftime by Jon Busch, I think that a baseball scorekeeper would give the win to Henry as he ended the first half 2-1, while Busch did finish it off for a 3-2 win to the East. But stats don’t matter in the All-Star game. What matters is getting there, and Henry was THERE.

“Total surprise. Myself and Jimmy [Curtin]. Jimmy and I got drafted together. We lived together, came [onto the team together, although] he was starting pretty much off the bat, but making the All-Star game and getting to go to DC with him was really fun. It definitely felt like it was one of those situations where you're like, ‘Are you sure I'm here? This is what’s going on?”

The All-Star Game was played on July 31st. The next game back for the Fire on August 11th would be their first win since June 6th. They had gone almost all of June and July without a win. The season just sort of fell off the table. While there was a valiant effort in September, it was just too little too late. And for Henry, it was starting to get pretty late.

—

“I had seen Zach off the field. I think we got together at some point during the summer or during that wintertime as he was coming back. And he told me he was coming back at some point [while] just hanging out. I think we grabbed dinner or we were hanging out.”

There are some older fans who might look back on this moment in club history and say that Henry probably feels bitter about it. That he wanted to be the starter and that he must hold a grudge against Thornton. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Earlier in our conversation, without prompting, he was the one who called Thornton “one of the greatest US soccer goalkeepers of all time” and even said it could’ve been possible to call him “maybe the greatest goalkeeper of all time.” It makes complete sense that when the Fire were given the option between a fairly serviceable Henry, who had done well early on but wasn’t quite there down the stretch, and the legendary Zach Thornton, they chose the club legend. There wouldn’t even be a single moment of hesitation.

But what about Henry?

“It was tough. I will say this about that kind of time period… We were on rookie salaries. I didn't necessarily have an agent or somebody around me that I was talking to every day or, you know, once a week about how to handle the business side of things and asking me questions about what's important, what's not important. So there were probably some emotional decisions on my part about, like: ‘Okay. If you're gonna bring Zach back or if Zach's gonna be available, I'm okay to move on.” And in retrospect, certainly with some more guidance and counsel, I probably would've approached those conversations with management and with Dave Sarachan and some of those guys differently.”

This man is about 27, the age at which most athletes are hitting their prime, and he’s just barely broken into a starting role. He’s got a wonderful girlfriend that he’s thinking about marrying sometime soon. He wants stability and he deserves to know where he stands with the team that he’s been training with and playing for over the course of four seasons. If the Chicago Fire can’t provide that for him, then they can’t do it. But what other options would he even have? While rookie contracts weren’t the best back then, moving down a level would probably mean a pay-cut from even that amount. He has to ask for a trade.

Henry got his trade in January, getting sent to FC Dallas where he was up against veterans Scott Garlick and Jeff Cassar. He didn’t last long there. As a last-ditch effort, his old coach Bob Bradley brought him along with the MetroStars in their preseason camp in Ecuador. The most vivid thing Henry remembers from that camp was seeing Bob’s son Michael play for the first time and how much these professionals trusted this 17-year-old kid with the ball. Even though Henry believes that Bob wanted to bring him back with him to New York, Henry decided to call it there. He was ready to go back home to Chicago to finally marry his girlfriend and move on with his life.

“I joke and say it's the worst decision I ever made. Not [my wife], but saying I'm done playing before I think I was totally out of options. But it was the right decision at that point. And, you know, there's always the “What if?” But I left with still some chances and had some calls after that. But at that point, you make a decision. You do the best you can with it.”

—

So, the big question that has been living in my head for years is finally here: “What happened to Henry Ring?”

Well, the guy went out there and he actually used his college degree. He took some time off in Chicago to finally pop the question and get married and then he started to work in sports marketing with Adidas. His focus was mostly with soccer, working around college teams in the Midwest like Indiana and Akron. Then, around 2010, he and his wife moved out to NorCal where he’s still with Adidas. While he retired probably earlier than many of his teammates expected, Henry actually found himself watching more soccer now that he wasn’t playing.

“I'll admit, I grew up a pretty terrible sports fan. I was a player. If I was at a game, I was playing behind the bleachers… So I, I really wasn't a good fan until I got done with playing. And as I was getting out, I followed it pretty closely as far as really keeping track of what my old teammates were doing: Jesse Marsch, Jimmy Curtin. Those guys and what they were doing right afterwards. But obviously, following Carlos [Bocanegra] and the Americans overseas and always rooting- People always ask me if I have a team in England, and I've never had a team, I'm not gonna fake like I have a team. But I rooted for Fulham. I rooted for Man U when Tim Howard was doing his thing. You know, [Christian] Pulisic, we're pulling for him. And now, obviously, [Weston] McKennie, and [Brenden] Aaronson, and [Tyler] Adams at Leeds while Jesse was there, and still gotta root for them. We gotta keep the Americans up cause we want those guys to be successful.”

As I said earlier, there are some old fans who may think that Henry still has some bad blood with the club. Maybe that was true just a couple years ago, but the Fire have done a great job of reaching back out to some of these old players through the help of Henry’s old roommate: Evan Whitfield.

“This last year, having Evan bring in the alumni, that meant a whole lot to a lot of us. It was a really eye-opening experience to get to sit in the room with all these guys and not compare careers or compare what you're doing now. It was the same locker room as it was before. Making fun of everybody the way we used to make fun of them and take it as well.”

He said that he even got a chance to actually talk to Peter Wilt about the trade that sent him to Dallas. Actually, Henry even told me how he constantly misremembers how he got to Dallas, thinking it was through being picked in the Supplemental Draft. And while I could just leave it there, this trade has a whole story unto itself. So, I’ve gotta call another audible.

—

The afternoon before the interview, at the tailgate for that Chicago Fire v Chicago House game, I was talking to Peter Wilt about how I would be talking to Henry the next day. And I brought up the trade that had been plaguing my thoughts in the prep work for the interview. The actual contents of the trade seemed off, the results of this trade were so weird. But Wilt offered the story himself. Although he is still planning on telling a fuller version of it someday for his autobiography, I’ll give you the story through my lens for now.

Going into the 2005 Draft, the Fire were very aware of Chris Rolfe. He’d been lighting it up with the PDL team, they wanted him bad. And it probably wasn’t even going to be hard to actually get him. The dude went to Dayton College, no one is going to even notice. But, at the Combine, Rolfe can only be great and he balls out. Wilt is concerned, but he hopes that nobody notices. Except someone did notice. Walking behind a couple of San Jose Earthquakes staffers, Wilt hears then-Quakes GM Alexi Lalas say something like “That number 47 guy is pretty good. What’s his name?” Wilt knew that player’s name. It was Chris Rolfe.

Wilt is panicking. He knows that Rolfe’s draft stock is going up and it’s about to get a whole lot harder to draft him. Something needs to be done to solidify Chicago’s position in the draft. This is also around the time where Henry came to his conclusion that he can’t stay in Chicago. So while Wilt is looking for Henry’s landing spot, he’s also trying to make sure that his transformative striker can make it to Chicago without getting forced to take him too early. The Quakes want Rolfe and while the Fire did earn the natural 27th pick, they traded it away late last season to Dallas for the discovery rights to Andy Herron (a very important Fire player). The Fire did have possession of the 25th pick at some point, but that pick went on a whole adventure through MLS and ended up being involved in a trade that sent Diego Gutiérrez back to Chicago in 2006. Anyway, the important thing to know is that the Fire do not pick in the third round until #35. Meanwhile, Lalas and the Quakes have picks #29-32. They could take him at literally any point in there.

So here’s how this goes down. Dallas (who’d recently completed their rebrand from Dallas Burn to FC Dallas) completed a blockbuster trade with the Quakes early in the draft. The Quakes received Brad Davis, “an allocation”, and the 4th overall pick where they took Danny O’Rourke, an Indiana and Fire PDL alum who would spend most of his career in Columbus. Dallas received Richard Mulrooney (how did he make a comeback in this article?), Arturo Álvarez, the 29th pick, and the 6th overall pick where they took Drew Moor, a much more successful Indiana and Fire PDL alum who actually played a while for the team that drafted him. The important thing to know is that FC Dallas now has three picks in a row right before the Quakes’ remaining three picks in the third round. Wilt calls up the Dallas GM during the draft and basically asks him what he has to give him for one of those picks.

At this point, you will now see why I was confused by this trade. The Fire only received a single third-round pick: 29th overall, the last of Dallas’ picks in the third round and the pick that the Quakes had just sent to Dallas. In exchange, the Fire sent Henry Ring and a future second-round pick. The Fire ended up sending both a player and a second-rounder for a single third-rounder. But with this whole wild goose chase to get here, you understand that Wilt NEEDED this. Besides, that second-rounder turned out pretty good for the Fire as well, with FC Dallas selecting future Fire player (among many other MLS teams) Dominic Oduro with that pick. But it was Chris Rolfe, future Fire legend, who was taken in that third round just before the Quakes’ picks had hit.

As Wilt tells the story, the moment he makes the pick, his phone rings. He picks it up and looks out across the sea of tables in the draft hall. He spots Alexi Lalas at the San Jose Earthquakes table, also on his phone. And over the phone he hears him simply say, “Fuck you.”

RIVETING! What a story! So while it was sad that Henry’s career was resigned to end soon after this, at least it was done in service of pissing off Alexi Lalas. And that 35th pick the Fire had later in the round? They ended up taking Gonzalo Segares with it. Meanwhile, I’m just going to guess on the two players that don’t even have Wikipedia pages that all three Quakes picks never played a second for them.

—

But enough fun. What does this entire story mean? What does this say about soccer today?

The major point to note is that professional soccer players in America should be thankful for the amount of opportunities they have to build or continue their careers. In our conversation about college, Henry mentioned MLS Next Pro and we’ve all seen the growth of the USL as not just a developmental league, but as a professional league in its own right. I’m sure if Henry was faced with the same situation with the Fire, but with the options of today, he would’ve been able to safely move on to a team like Forward Madison or Indy Eleven.

Next, just really quick: Don’t beg for the old goalkeeper to come back just cause you like him more than the already solid keeper you have right now. I will say it again, Thornton is a club legend and there’s nothing that’s changing it. But I have seen some people grumbling about wanting Gaga Slonina back instead of Chris Brady, which seems way out of line and would also be an incredibly stupid move for all involved. Henry’s advice for really any young player is to make sure that they have a solid agent that they can trust and talk to about the business side of things and I’m sure that Brady has that in case the same thing happens to him.

And, as always, soccer is something that will always find a way to connect people. No matter how far apart people may seem, sport is one of those universal translators that don’t even need to transcend language to bring people together. By working with Adidas and staying in and around soccer after retirement, Henry has been able to maintain and grow new relationships within the soccer community. He’s even been given the chance to mend some of those relationships as well over the past year. While many younger fans may not recognize his face or name anymore, Henry hopes that the Chicago Fire can continue to connect to their history.

“[The anniversary party] was something I hope they keep up and I think the ownership, finding that important, is creating an environment that I think will exude out to the fan base as well. There will be a respect of the history on the field, what the players have done in the past, because that creates a legacy of what the club can be.”

—

But there is still one younger fan that remembers him. A soon-to-be 24-year-old fan who played a lot of one particular video game growing up. This was my moment to finally do it. I shared my screen and showed him that screenshot of him FIFA 05. This is well before I think anyone at EA Sports really cared about getting players’ faces right, so I didn’t need to get a shot of his face or anything. Just the back of that jersey on a goal kick is enough to stick with you for a lifetime. This was a chance for me to ask how Henry Ring felt about this image.

“You know, it's surreal. It's surreal, and you don't, you don't appreciate it. I think certainly in the moment you try and be yourself and be humble and be thankful for fans, but it's tough to have the perspective. And honestly, it means it means more now as a 46-year-old than it does then. A lot of the experiences that we had during those four years and during that season, they're even more fond as you get further away from the game. That's fantastic. So thank you very much and I'm glad it was a positive experience. It was a lot of fun.”

—

Shortly after this, Zoom kicked us off the call. Turns out, I don’t pay for Zoom, so I’m apparently not allowed to have a meeting for longer than 40 minutes. But while I could probably ask him more and more questions about legacy, I had gotten what I needed. What I think everyone needed. Just some closure on who this man was, who he is now, and what he means in the overall culture of the Chicago Fire. Which, when you consider his place in the history of MLS and American soccer, was a lot.

You know, all those other nerds probably did have better taste than me in video games as kids. But I’m the one who actually got to meet my favorite video game character.

(Now no one tell Henry that in a lot of my saves for a while I’d sell him and Countess so I could afford to buy Carlos Tevez)