The moment was raw, powerful, and perhaps even a little awkward to watch, as if everyone was intruding on an intimate expression devoid of pain.
There were no fans at the stadium due to the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, but the NWSL played “The Star-Spangled Banner” through a loudspeaker, and the CBS television camera caught on two players.
Casey Short, defender of the Chicago Red Stars who is black, knelt and sobbed while her teammate Julie Ertz, who is white, knelt next to her and also cried. They hugged each other tightly, as if helping them endure the 1-minute-40-second hymn together.
Once the song reached its final bloom, they stood up, wiped away the tears from their faces, and were asked to go out onto the field and try to win a soccer game, a jarring transition from deep-seated struggles in life. real to a literal game.
It was a poignant moment that perhaps crystallized the meaning of kneeling during the anthem, as well as any other since Colin Kaepernick first did it in 2016.
It should never have happened.
All American sports leagues have long since stopped playing the national anthem before sporting events, and now is the perfect time to stop this outdated and misguided practice.
When was the last time you went to the cinema and, after the progress, everyone stood up to salute the flag? What about “Jeopardy!” hits? Does the audience put on the anthem before the shows start? Before the main act at a concert, should you first play a recording of the national anthem?
It never made sense to play the national anthem before games in the American sports leagues. And yet they all do. The NBA, NFL and, yes, even the NWSL force their players to line up and sing for an American flag before they are allowed to do their job.
It is worth considering where this tradition came from. According to history, the crowd at the World Series in 1918 was grim as World War I progressed. The band at the stadium played “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the seventh inning stretch, and breathed new life into the crowd, helping to cement the tradition.
Today there are no crowds due to the pandemic. And if the leagues still play the anthem even though there are no crowds, who is it for? Is it for the Pentagon, which since 2012 has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on paid propaganda at sporting events (especially NFL games) as a military recruiting tool? Does anyone know more?
Anyway, it is an old tradition and we are living in an unprecedented moment when tradition is being thrown out the window. From the NBA to MLB, sports leagues are planning pandemic-proof events that require new approaches designed from scratch.
Everything about these upcoming tournaments is new, from locations to programming, formats, and media coverage. So why does the pregame routine of playing the anthem stay the same?
MLS, which has its own unique tournament scheduled to start on July 8, has already ruled out playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in games. It’s not because the league has as many foreign-born players as there are Americans, and it’s weird to force them to participate in American patriotism. No, it is because of the roots of tradition: the crowds.
“We will not play the hymns,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber told reporters earlier this month. “There will be no fans in the stands, so we didn’t see what would be appropriate.”
Fans, of course, will be back one day. But if leagues take this opportunity to stop playing the national anthem, they can normalize having sports without it.
After all, traditions evolve over time. They come, they go, they change. Sometimes unusual circumstances are needed to drive that evolution. A global pandemic can be as good a push as any other to finally get rid of the anthem at sporting events.
The hug from Casey Short and Julie Ertz during the national anthem on Saturday was undeniably powerful. But why was Short put in that position in the first place? (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
Whether the anthem is played or not, Short, Ertz and any other NWSL player have the right to protest against systemic racism in this country.
The NWSL became the first professional team sports league to return since the murder of George Floyd on Saturday, and players were aware of the platform they had.
They wore Black Lives Matter shirts during pregame warm-ups and wore black armbands during the game. Before the start, they knelt in a planned moment of silence. They were not going to avoid using their voices to draw attention to the cause, and that is to the credit of the players.
But playing the national anthem was ultimately the choice of NWSL and (presumably) CBS.
NWSL spokesmen did not respond to an email Sunday from Yahoo Sports asking why the anthem was played before games in empty stadiums. But the league was quick to share the image of Short crying on social media and in sponsored content, which he felt was more exploitative than empowering.
In fact, much of the news coverage and discussion on social media about the Red Stars game was about the moment shared between Short and Ertz. And also about Rachel Hill, a white Red Stars player who stood next to Short even when all her teammates knelt. The game itself became an afterthought.
Short shared several thoughtful messages about fighting systemic racism on Twitter earlier this month, so we already have an idea of how he feels. The Red Stars did not make Short available to the media after Saturday’s game, and he has not yet spoken publicly about the timing.
She doesn’t need to. It’s her time, not ours, and the NWSL should never have put her through that on live television.
The question of whether the anthem should be played at sporting events is independent of asking whether players have the right to kneel during the anthem and whether those displays are important.
Short’s show of excitement was powerful and important, especially in light of President Trump reluctantly retweeting a video showing one of his supporters singing “white power” the next day. (Trump later removed the retweet.)
Nor is it the responsibility of Short, or the responsibility of any black person, to suffer trauma in front of a live audience so that ignorant people can realize that racial oppression is real. It’s not fair to push her to be the symbol of black experience when she’s just trying to do her job.
Short is more than a black woman. She is a very good soccer player who deserves a place on the US national team, she was robbed of the opportunity to show the world that on Saturday.
Red Stars coach Rory Dames gave this assessment of his team’s performance after a 2-1 loss:
“The emotions you saw Casey had before the game, and probably Julie at the time as well, most of our team has had those kinds of emotions all day,” he said, “struggling with what was right.” or how you show solidarity and how you support the Black Lives Matter movement and what is happening. “
“I would say we spent quite a bit emotionally before we got here.”
If the pregame anthem causes so much anxiety and disruption within a team, is it worth doing? The players, after all, had prepared their own protests and gestures to support the Black Lives Matter movement, and it was on their own terms.
There was something different about the hymn, something that played a deeper chord. Colin Kaepernick’s explanation is worth checking out after he first refused to act out the anthem in 2016.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses blacks and people of color,” Kaepernick said. “For me, this is bigger than soccer and it would be selfish of me to look the other way. There are dead bodies on the street and people who are paid leave and run away with the murder. “
In light of the murder of Floyd and other unarmed black people in recent years, Kaepernick’s sentiment is as relevant as ever. The truth that some people do not want to accept is that the flag and the anthem cannot mean the same thing to everyone if the American institutions do not protect everyone in the same way.
In essence, playing the national anthem at sporting events is a purely symbolic gesture. All symbols can change their meaning over time, and since 2016, the meaning of this has changed significantly.
It’s time for the leagues to recognize him. Once they do, the next course of action is clear.
