Enough of this patriotic pissing contest going on between Donald Trump and his minions and the National Football League. It’s time to put it to rest.
But it won’t happen anytime soon.
The bond between the National Anthem and sports has become what writers Luke Cyphers and Ethan Trex years ago described as “a nearly indissoluble marriage.”
“Hatched during one war, institutionalized during another,” they wrote, “this song has become so entrenched in our sports identity that it’s almost impossible to think of one without the other.”
Little wonder conservatives love it. The Anthem is a battle song, fitting perfectly into how Americans think of both war and sports.
As Cyphers and Trex put it: “Our nation honors war. Our nation loves sports. Our nation glorifies winning. Our national anthem strikes all three chords at the same time.” (article in ESPN’s The Mag, September 19, 2011).
Yet the history of playing or singing the National Anthem before sporting events shows that it has nothing to do with patriotism.
It all started with what used to be America’s great pastime, baseball.
For many years a recording of the anthem was played once in a while at baseball games, but everything changed after the 1918 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.
As the series started in Chicago, it was wartime, the crowd was small, and the mood was somber. A military band in attendance struck up the National Anthem just as everyone was standing for the traditional “seventh inning stretch.”
Red Sox third baseman, Fred Thomas, who was on furlough from the Navy at the time and had been given permission to play in the series, immediately snapped to attention, turned to face the flag, and saluted.
Most of the players on the field followed suit, along with some fans in the stands.
From that point on the anthem was played for special occasions such as the World Series and games on holidays, and, as they say, the rest is history.
That history leaves little doubt that the current controversy Trump initiated and his clueless supporters won’t let go of is as phony as the so-called war on Christmas.
Anytime somebody starts complaining about someone else not showing respect for the flag, you know then and there you’re in a pissing contest you can’t win.
So I have a solution to the problem that will put this whole thing to rest immediately.
JUST STOP PLAYING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AT ALL GAMES.
The nation survived before the tradition started. I am quite sure we can survive without it now. It wasn’t until 1931 that Congress adopted it as the nation’s song anyway.
Having it played or sung at games is a pointless exercise that has no meaning because it is an inappropriate venue for it in the first place.
Saluting the flag and singing the National Anthem have their place, but a ball game is not one of them.
When it happens it trivializes patriotism. The whole thing becomes perfunctory, a habit with no meaning or purpose being done only because it always has been (which is actually not true anyway).
If the National Anthem at a ballgame is such a sacred moment, no one should be allowed to go to the bathroom, buy a hot dog or beer, or do anything else while it’s being played or sung.
And everyone watching the game on television should have to stand in silence as well.
But, of course, we all know none of that is going to happen because it would be ridiculous, which pretty much sums up this whole controversy.
So let’s just stop it altogether, and dissolve “the indissoluble marriage.”
Who knows, that might help our nation refocus its attention to the real stuff of patriotism, you know, principles like liberty and justice for all on which this nation was founded and which were intended to serve as guides for the laws we make and the policies we endorse today.
But I’m guessing the idea of not playing the National Anthem at NFL games will not be discussed when the team owners meet next week.
Instead, they will likely make a decision about what to do based on the passionate appeal of the likes of Jerry Jones, the pseudo patriot of the Dallas Cowboys.
linnposts.com 