Every four years, the world’s best athletes come together for the Olympics. The best of the best stand on the podium, their flags waving over their heads, with respective national anthems playing for the world to hear as they receive their medals.
The regality of the Olympics makes hearing a national anthem a special moment. It represents a moment to be proud of your nation.
Like many other things, hearing the national anthem too often makes it lose its prowess. You’ve heard the saying, “Too much of a good thing…”
The national anthem is played before every single game in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and any other professional sports league in the United States.
Before I get to the history of the anthem being played, the national anthem being played before sporting events is just plain weird.
I like soccer, so I’ll start there. The anthem is played before MLS matches, and players stand on the field for it. This weekend Atlanta United played the Montreal Impact, and 22 players stood while the anthem played. Only six of those players were American.
In hockey, the Pittsburgh Penguins were congratulated by Donald Trump for being willing to visit the White House. Only 15 of the 39 players are American; Sixteen are Canadian.
Even in the NFL, 23 of the 32 teams have a player born outside the United States on their team. These players stand during the national anthem before games, but that anthem isn’t theirs.
America prides itself on its diversity and openness. Why then do we play the national anthem before sporting events that don’t have any meaning to a significant portion of the athletes that compete in our country?
The tradition began during World War II during MLB games. As some players were drafted into the war, their team played the national anthem to show their patriotism.
But in 2017, what’s the point? The draft stopped in 1973, so athletes are no longer being drafted into the Army. Playing a song before a sporting event today doesn’t prove someone’s patriotism. And kneeling during the national anthem doesn’t prove someone is unpatriotic.
Donald Trump disagrees with me. Shocker. To him, a player kneeling or sitting during the anthem is a direct attack on the anthem and the flag and shows the player doesn’t respect military veterans or their service to the country.
Veterans and active-duty military don’t fight for the flag or the national anthem. They fight for the United States to remain free. One of those freedoms is freedom of speech, which also protects symbolic speech.
Symbolic speech is making a statement using actions, not words. Kneeling is an action, and the players doing so are making a statement. Last season, the NFL made a statement saying players are “encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem.”
Now I’m not suggesting kneeling during the national anthem is a legal issue. However, players who choose to demonstrate are not disrespecting the military. They’re using their freedom of speech the military fights to protect.
Trump’s other issue with kneeling during the anthem is that it is disrespectful to the flag and the anthem itself for players to kneel, a topic he’s tweeted about more than 20 times this past weekend. His comments just show his ignorance regarding why players are doingwhat they are doing.
Colin Kaepernick has made it abundantly clear that he does not stand for the national anthem because the United States continues to oppress people of color, and he cannot support the flag of this country.
So yes, Donald Trump, the protest has to do with race. It’s not people being upset by a song or by a flag. It’s people being upset that they feel unsafe and discriminated against in the United States.
The entire point of this past weekend’s actions around the NFL was to raise awareness for police brutality and the oppression of people of color. The national anthem had nothing to do with it.
Oftentimes, when professional athletes make comments on current events and social issues, they are told to stick to sports and stay out of politics. If athletes need to stay out of politics, maybe Donald Trump should stay out of sports and stick to being a reality TV host – I mean, stick to tweeting about politics.
signoraa15@bonaventure.edu
