In On In In August 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the National Anthem and then later began to take a knee before his team’s preseason games. He was protesting police brutality and the country’s existing and increasingly overt racism.
He said so then, and continued to say so since.
Beginning in 2017 many other players began protesting against President Trump when he ignored the actual reason for the protest, and trying to avoid dealing with the real reason for behind it, began pushing the false narrative that taking a knee was unpatriotic, anti- law enforcement, and an insult to the troops.
The tradition of NFL players having to be on the field and standing for the National Anthem only came into practice in 2009, while standing on the field remained optional, not mandatory,
Playing to his supporters at rallies and knowing being uber-patriotic would get him cheers, Trump, the man who was weak in condemning the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, declared that NFL owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem, and encouraged fans to walk out.
“Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired. He’s fired!”.
He called the players’ protest “a total disrespect of our heritage”.
Considering the players were protesting police brutality and the country’s existing and increasingly overt racism, this heritage of which he spoke and which he so strongly defended would appear tp be somewhat questionable.
While willfully ignoring why Kaepernick had begun protesting and why other players followed suit, Trump claimed his criticism of the protesters was not related to race while demeaning the integrity of NFL’s primarily African American players.
“This has to do with respect for our country and respect for our flag.
“You have to stand proudly for the national anthem, or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country”.
So it is now established in Trump’s mind and those of his supporters that protesting racial disparity is un-American and disrespects the troops.
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At Super Bowl LIII Gladys Knight sang the “Star-Spangled Banner”. It lasted 121 seconds.
The timing was important as betting on the length of time a singer takes to sing the National Anthem is called a “prop bet”.
Prop bets are wagers placed on events during a game that don’t involve the final outcome. They involve such things as how soon the first touchdown is scored.
This year there was wager on the length of Gladys Knight’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Some offshore books had set the total for the anthem at 1 minute 47 seconds. The average time of the Anthem between 1979 and 2018 was 106.1 seconds, and the betting was based on an over/under duration based on that average.
During that time, performances had ranged from simple renditions to huge orchestrated ones, and the now famous, trend-setting Whitney Houston rendition at Super Bowl XXV.
Bets are placed on whether or not the Anthem is sung as written, or becomes a musical marathon complete with fireworks and fighter jet fly-overs.
Neil Diamond performed the Anthem in only 61 no-nonsense seconds while Natalie Cole took top prize at 148 seconds.
And the reaction to this betting on the Anthem?
A series of good-natured articles about it in various sports reporting outlets and happy banter at the end of local news shows just before the sign off.
Oh, and silence from Trump who apparently, while railing against protests of racial disparity and claiming such are disrespectful toward the country and the troops, seems to see something as crass as betting on the length of the Anthem’s performance to be perfectly fine.