In the year 2016, with all that exists in American society, is it really still necessary to play the National Anthem at all college and professional sporting events? No one buys a ticket to a game to hear the anthem. So how about we stop doing it.

According to the Washington Post:

As legend has it, singing the national anthem at sporting events began during the 1918 World Series, when the nation was at war. As recounted by the New York Times of Sept. 6, 1918, it was the seventh-inning stretch of the first game between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. “As the crowd of 10,274 spectators — the smallest that has witnessed the diamond classic in many years — stood up to take their afternoon yawn, that has been the privilege and custom of baseball fans for many generations, the band broke forth to the strains of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ “The yawn was checked and heads were bared as the ball players turned quickly about and faced the music. Jackie Fred Thomas of the U.S. Navy was at attention, as he stood erect, with his eyes set on the flag fluttering at the top of the lofty pole in right field. First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.” The event had a public relations bonus for ballplayers in 1918, as there were people wondering why they were on the ballfield rather than the battlefield. The idea caught on. “Not to be outdone,” writes Marc Ferris in his cultural history of the anthem, “Red Sox owner Harry Frazee opened each game in Boston with it.” Making this even more interesting is the fact that “The Star-Spangled Banner” — which borrowed its difficult melody from a “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a British song about boozing and womanizing — wasn’t adopted as the official national anthem of the U.S. until 1931. As time passed, playing and singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” became as routine as cracker jacks at ballgames. And for many the patriotic awe faded. By the mid-1950s, with the nation at peace and increasingly fat and happy, crowds were less erect, less attentive and less respectful as the anthem was played. In 1954, Ferris reports, the general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Arthur Ellers, a World War I veteran complained that about the fact that fans went on talking, laughing and moving around as the anthem was played. “‘To me,'” Ellers said, “‘it’s very distasteful.” So disrespectful did he find it that he decided it wouldn’t be played anymore, relenting about a month later under pressure from the Baltimore City Council, which counts among the city’s main tourist attractions Fort McHenry, the actual broad stripes, bright stars and rockets red glare had inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words in 1814. Of course, while many fans do stop what they’re doing when the anthem is played, remove their hats and shush their children, others still laugh and talk and move about while the anthem is being played. “The next time you’re at sporting event,” Kyle Koster, wrote in the The Big Lead in May, “take a look around notice how many people are locked into their phones, sipping their beer or worse during the playing of the anthem. It’s impossible to know someone’s inner thoughts, but the outward actions suggest someone counting the seconds until they can yell, ‘play ball’ instead of basking in freedoms of the First Amendment.” And up in Baltimore they can’t wait to yell “Oh” when they reach the verse, “O say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave.” “Orioles fans are not alone in their desecration of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ of course,” wrote The Washington Post’s Mike Wise in a moment of disgust in 2012. “Many of their tainted gene pool have migrated to Verizon Center for Capitals games. Some of these louts actually yell “OH!” and “RED!” at different intervals — twice ruining the anthem. Their spawn can be found in Houston, too, where a small group called “The Red Rowdies” holler “ROCK-ETS RED GLARE!” during Rockets NBA games.”

And, of course, those of us who are hockey fans, know that the anthem is how the crowd gets charged up at Chicago Blackhawks home games at the United Center.

But, so what?

Who would be damaged if the anthem was no longer played at these events? Would the goons that go to games and get drunk notice that the anthem was no longer de rigeur? Would the families who bring small children mind 2 minutes less of fidgeting to deal with?

If the anthem was no longer played at sporting events, would the collective mass of owners, leagues and schools be making a bold unpatriotic statement that politicians would then seize upon? I doubt it.

Instead, the anthem would no longer need to be the political football it has become and players, owners, announcers and fans could get to the business of playing the games without finding it necessary to make a political or social statement.

Colin Kaepernick has seized upon an ongoing, difficult discussion and brought it to the forefront through sports' odd need to patriotize every event. Good for him. But, in the end, what purpose is served by people using the American flag and a song to cover their true character at a ballgame.

Let's ditch the anthem at sporting events and have the conversation that Kaepernick, his detractors, the President, and so many others deem necessary. Who would be hurt?

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