CitadelDawg84 said:
OT
ESPN president says network will not air national anthem on 'Monday Night Football'
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2018/08/17/espn-president-says-network-will-not-air-national-anthem-on-monday-night-football.html
Since you introduced this non-football subject I guess I should be able to explore it. Where has it ever been decreed by anyone (excepting Donald Trump) that we have to play the national anthem at a sporting event--or anywhere else for that matter? Now before you blow up, I have no issue with any country's national anthem. I do however have a real problem with anyone, including a government and especially a government, forcing me to recite it, stand for it, cross my heart while it is playing or putting my hat over any one of my orifices while it airs. This is a new level of nationalism heretofore only seen in the likes of communist regimes, dictatorships, etc. Nazi Germany being a prime example.
My country is flawed historically and presently, but whose is not. I'll feel proud of my country when presently we have learned from our mistakes and work to be better people. That ain't happenin!
I'll be prouder of my country when we value teachers over ambulance drivers (you know, those "heroes"). I'll be proud when people mean more to us than profits, when the color of skin makes no difference in opportunity, when we recognize character and truth, when we work to better the planet rather than exploit it for all the gain that is there and when we finally realize that this is not a theocracy. I'll be proud when we recoil when a President says women are fat and disgusting (that includes your wives, daughters, mothers), when he describes their genitals and what he wants to do to them, when he states that he knows more than nuclear physicists, when he claims to know more than our diplomats, when he claims to know more than our generals.
When I am proud again, I will listen to the national anthem--but only because I choose to.