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Why Nick Rimando loan to Montreal talk was first-rate nonsense

By Matt Montgomery
Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

A weird thing happened today. Over the span of an hour, MLS twitter entered a Twilight Zone-esque state when rumors somehow started floating that Nick Rimando (yes, our Nick Rimando) could be on his way to Montreal Impact on a short-term loan.

The circumstances were ripe for rumor: Evan Bush, Impact goalkeeper, is suspended for the team's second-leg match in the CONCACAF Champions League final. He picked up a yellow card for who-knows-what (and it looks like genuinely nothing substantial, to which I say loudly, KYLE BECKERMAN and weep silently to myself about 2011) and now his team's in a difficult spot. They've appealed his yellow card that sees him suspended, but if they haven't — and this is where the rumors got weird — Nick Rimando could be on his way to Montreal.

While we're very much in favor of Nick Rimando playing in a CONCACAF Champions League final, we'd much rather it was in 2017 than in 2015 for another team. It was unclear from the rumors if an intra-league loan would cover it, but we're inclined to think it wouldn't.

That on its own is no reason to reject the rumor, of course. MLS rules are as rigid as Silly Putty, and if the league really wanted Rimando to play for Montreal Impact for a game, they might be able to swing it. It would be weird, and it might violate some arcane FIFA rule, but those sorts of things have happened before.

Watching the life of a rumor is simultaneously far more fun than you'd expect, and a lot more distressing than it needs to be. In the interest of science (and journalism, and blogging, and soccer, and, well, whatever else it's really in the interest of), let's take a walk through the rumors.

This morning, Rimando responded to a tweet from somebody asking if he'd help first-choice-keeperless Montreal.

Pretty innocuous, right?

Then, people started suggesting that Rimando should play goal for Montreal.

That's innocent enough. A fun little campaign, but nothing more than that, right?

Then apparently someone from Journal de Montreal, a daily tabloid that Wikipedia says is "famous for its sensationalism", reported that it was actually possible.

And there we have it. That made its way to Reddit, and a club source confirmed to Dan Dickinson, a moderator on /r/mls, that it was basically meaningless.

Comment from discussion IMFC reached out to RSL to have Rimando play the CCL final.

So — there we have it. The life of a rumor. Some Montreal fans admire a goalkeeper, a journalist stokes the fire, and the rumor gets denied. Wouldn't this be simpler if people didn't say such strange things? Probably.

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