A former teammate of Sophie Cunningham's with the Indiana Fever wasn't exactly upset by seeing the WNBA star be left with a bloody mouth after taking a forearm to the face by Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington.
Sydney Colson, who spent the 2025 WNBA season playing alongside Cunningham in Indiana, reacted to Carrington's hard foul on her former teammate and eventual ejection from the game by writing "I love a trans foul" on her Instagram Threads account on Saturday evening.
Colson's post is a play on words. Not only did Carrington's flagrant foul on Cunningham come on a transition play with the Fever star attempting a layup, but it also comes amid Cunningham making headlines after recently voicing her opinion that transgender athletes do not belong in women's sports.
With two minutes remaining in the first quarter of the Fever's eventual 90-86 win, Carrington delivered a very hard foul on Cunningham underneath the basket. The foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 after a review, resulting in Carrington's ejection from the contest.
Colson was not the only person with very close ties to Cunningham who didn't exactly disapprove of the play.
Stephanie White, head coach of the Fever, actually defended Carrington during her postgame press conference. According to White, it was just a hard foul with no intention behind it.
"Yeah, I mean, look, it was a hard foul. I don't think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did. But it did happen, and I thought it was the right call," White said, but she wasn't done backing up Carrington.
"You know, one of the things about Nay is that she's gonna play her butt off, man. She's gonna compete. Nobody's gonna go walking in for a layup. And so, I don't oppose the hard foul. But I also don't think that she intentionally went for the neck."
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Cunningham has received pushback after stating in an ESPN story published on July 21 that she does not believe women should have to compete against biological men.
"I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I'm like, 'I never once said that,'" Cunningham told the outlet. "I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men."
"I'm very much in the middle. I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides," Cunningham continued. "And that's all I've ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume."
A New York Times poll conducted in March 2025 found that 79% of Americans believe that men should be barred from competing in women's sports.
Cunningham, for sharing an opinion the majority of Americans share, has divided the sports world, does not appear to have total support from her own head coach, and now has a former teammate appearing to applaud her taking a cheap shot under the basket.
