Like virtually every other aspect of our daily lives, America seems to be split in half over some athletes taking a knee during the national anthem. This of course famously began with Colin Kaepernick in 2016 protesting the police shooting of Mario Woods. It cost Kaepernick his career, a pretty steep price to pay for just making a statement, to this day.
As sports have restarted we are seeing more athletes taking a knee to protest the wave of police shootings, or killing of unarmed black men and women, across the country. Many of us have been shocked by the string of police overzealousness. Seeing basketball, baseball, and hockey players kneel in protest is not unexpected based on their social media comments and actions. Seeing NASCAR doing this is shocking, but kudos to them for being on the right side of this issue.
Athletes protesting is not anything new. Most of us are old enough to remember the Mexico City 1968 Olympics and Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos raising a black gloved fist during the national anthem while standing on the awards podium. This was shocking to everyone back then.
I am of the position that if you feel strongly enough about an issue, and want to make a statement, it is your right as an American to go make that statement, as long as nobody is being physically harmed. As a matter of fact. I don't care how you make your statement, even doing this doesn't bother me.
My questions are this, why are they still playing the national anthem at the start of games when there are no fans in the stadium, and why do they still celebrate the 7th inning stretch in baseball?
The original purpose of playing the national anthem before a sporting event was to generate patriotism and good feelings during WW1 and it quickly became a tradition going forward. Maybe the time has come to end that tradition, especially since there are no fans in the stands right now.
Players from all sports could give a rats ass about the song as exemplified by their pacing, spitting, talking, and general lack of attention being shown each and every game while it is played. The song itself can only be correctly sung by three living people on the planet so it's not like singing Sweet Caroline with 20,000 of your best friends.
All the agina being generated because our idiot in chief says kneeling is an insult to soldiers and the flag would be eliminated and we can move on to the other 500 things we should be worrying about right now. By eliminating it you eliminate any issues and frankly, nobody will miss singing this song.
The 7th inning stretch singing can end also, especially by the Cubs and their parade of semi celebrities who they bring in to lead fans in singing take me out to the ballgame. I was over that 10 years ago. Just let the fans sing on their own, when, or if, they ever return.
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