Sit, stand or leave, QB’s future unclear
Is playing national anthem at games even necessary?
The last thing I expected upon my return to the United States, after almost a month in Rio, was to become consumed with a controversy about patriotism.
Didn’t we just do that, with the nasty, ill-advised criticism of gymnast Gabby Douglas, who was skewered for not putting her hand over her heart during the national anthem? She wasn’t doing it out of protest, but it seemed that we had some discourse about not making others conform to specific ideals about what patriotism means.
But here we are again, with Colin Kaepernick choosing to sit during the anthem. Interesting that almost no one even noticed he was doing it — and had done it in two previous preseason games
— until he talked about it. Now we’re all in an outraged lather.
Though it seems selfevident that being an American absolutely means having the right to express yourself in a form of protest, this has gotten ugly — and I have an idea for how to solve this issue:
Stop playing the national anthem before professional sporting events.
Why do we do this, anyway? It’s an almost 100year-old tradition, that, lore has it, began with a band playing during the seventh inning of the 1918 World Series. That was weeks before the horror of World War I ended, and the country was in shock, with more than 100,000 young men killed in 17 months.
But what does watching a 49ers game have to do with my view of America? Why does every major-league baseball game or NBA game demand a show of patriotism?
I just came from an event where anthems make sense. When an athlete or a team from a country wins an Olympic gold medal, that country’s anthem is played. Everyone stands with respect. That makes sense; it’s a national honor, a medal won on behalf of a country.
And we stand for other country’s anthems as well — as a sign of respect. Even anthems of countries whose policies we might not really respect. It’s not really about patriotism, but about good manners.
Anthems make sense in the Olympic context (and, by the way, American athletes are among the worst at singing along with the “Star-Spangled Banner.” If you want to see athletes really belt out their anthem with joy and love, look to Brazil or France. Must we also police our athletes if they don’t want to sing one of the world’s most unsingable songs?)
It makes sense to play the anthem before the U.S. soccer team plays, or a U.S. basketball game, for teams that are assembled on behalf of the country.
But at an event that is a game between two arms of a giant corporate entity? What is so patriotic about spending $300 a ticket to watch big guys hit each other?
The “Star-Spangled Banner” — which wasn’t our officially adopted anthem until 1931 — was wellreceived after the 1918 World Series, so more teams began to play it, and then it just became custom. In the wake of the terror attacks of 9/11, ballparks restarted the tradition of playing “God Bless Amer- ica.” If you ask me, it feels like patriotic pandering.
Some are criticizing Kaepernick’s actions as an empty gesture, which is fair. Can we see something more productive than Instagram posts and a gesture that required one random NFL reporter noticing?
But the truth is, standing for the national anthem before a sporting event is an equally empty gesture for many people. Though many are reverent during the anthem and think of their freedom and those who have died for our rights, just as many are buying a beer, daydreaming or looking at their phones. Raising their butts off the seat doesn’t make them better Americans than Kaepernick.
Other thoughts on Kaepernick:
To those who say he “should” be grateful, and that he has a good life, take a look at the racist comments posted on his Instagram account. They’ve been there for years, long before this controversy. He has plenty of reason to be concerned about what’s happening in our country.
No matter what you think of what he was saying, it was refreshing to hear Kaepernick, 28, use complete sentences and sound like the thoughtful person I met in 2011. For the past several years, it seemed like he shut out all intellectual thought with his Beats.
It probably won’t be a fun reception for Kaepernick on Thursday night in one of our country’s most militarycentric cities, San Diego. Following that will be a Monday night opener, the day after the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
The debate has become Kaepernick as a patriot, not Kaepernick as an apparently washed-up quarterback. He was terrible Friday, and the 49ers have to make a decision about what to do about him. But can Chip Kelly cut a man who has taken a stand on the issue of race? While locally we are familiar with his performance, nationally — if Kelly cuts him — it could play into the narrative that Kelly has a problem with African American players.
Will anyone want Kaepernick? There’s a team in Texas that just lost its starting quarterback to injury, but it’s hard to imagine Jerry Jones signing someone who won’t stand for the anthem.
This might end up being the legacy of Kaepernick’s career. Will any productive change come of it besides being the endnote to his career?