One Nation, Why Two Anthems Again NFL?
Over the last several years the National Football League has proven that they have fallen asleep because they became woke. From Black Lives Matter banners hanging around stadiums and written on the field, to individual messages on the back of players helmets. Then there was the NFL’s “End Racism” push which was so incessant that it became nauseating.
What the NFL should have realized is they are preaching to the choir. NFL fans are probably the least racist people in the world. No-one looks at color. I am a lifelong fan of all Pittsburgh teams. When the Steelers or Pirates take the field, they aren’t black or white they are simply Steelers or Pirates and my entire household roots for everyone of them. To this day the best baseball player I ever watched was Roberto Clemente and even now when I think of him his race never crosses my mind.
The sad thing about what the NFL has done by highlighting race in this manner, is they have actually created division. Intentional or not, they have portrayed blacks as victims and whites as persecutors. The NFL is hardly the only organization pushing this narrative, but what makes what they’re doing even more egregious is that people seek out sports as a place of refuge.
There is so much of this type of sickness being spewed everywhere, that the NFL certainly didn’t need to inject race into an equation where in the eyes of its fans, none existed.
At last year’s Super Bowl, the NFL went all out to demonstrate their wokeness. They had Rihanna performing at halftime, Babyface sang “America the beautiful” before the game, The flyover was completed using all women pilots, and most divisive of all was the fact that Sarah Lee Ralph sang what is considered the black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” By the way, proving that none of this is necessary, both starting quarterbacks were also black.
Last year wasn’t the first time the NFL decided to have both anthems performed at the Super Bowl. They have been doing this since 2021, when Alicia Keys sang the song. This year, Andra Day will continue the division by singing it.
At some point the NFL is going to have to look into the mirror. The majority of the players are black and black quarterbacks are not uncommon. Still, there is a yearly call for more black head coaches, which begs the question, will this mob not be happy until everyone is black? To be honest, the singing of the so called “black national anthem,” should anger blacks more so than other races. The song segregates them from the rest of America, which is something the country worked through decades ago.
You would think at some point the NFL would realize this and would cease and desist with such blatant displays of division. However, the league is riding high, making more money than ever with expanded schedules, more Thursday night games, and forcing the average fan to purchase “Peacock Plus” to watch a playoff game.
It seems as though enough is never enough with the present-day NFL. The product is a deliberately watered-down paradox, pushing offense to the extent that quarterbacks could wear dresses and heels, eliminating real kickoffs, and putting the fear of God into anyone that makes a hard hit, for fear of drawing a fifteen-yard penalty. Yet, they schedule more Thursday games, meaning players must prepare on short weeks, which enhances the possibility of injury and also provides sloppier games for the fans to ingest. Late in the year, they also increased Saturday games. Again, shortening the week for certain teams resulting in the same results as those on Thursday.
Right now, visualizing a drastic fall off in viewership for the NFL seems unlikely, and I am certainly not predicting that one is coming shortly. That said, there is a growing discontent among hardcore NFL fans and the current generation doesn’t have the same gut level loyalty to their favorite teams that other generations have had.
NFL fans don’t watch games to see racial division and woke political ideals on display. First, the NFL should ditch the multiple National Anthems, as well as any personal or political statements on banners, painted on the field or on helmets. Those are the things that are larger than the game. Those woke ideals tarnish the innocence of sports and eliminate it as a source of refuge.
Then the league can turn its attention to the games themselves. On that level, they should play less Thursday games, allow defenses to play defense, play less games outside of America and never stream games again that force devoted fans to pay to watch them.
Otherwise, years from now the NFL may be nothing more than a flag football league, with no TV contracts playing in front of empty stadiums with Dylan Mulvaney posters blowing along the sidelines.
