Old Men in Sweats! TM
By: Tommy T. & Barry D.
Volume 23
It’s Called the Star Spangled Banner!
That’s our national anthem. In case you all forgot.
Because nobody ever really uses the name of the song. Nobody really cares about the song. Oh, everybody is still arguing about the song. After a somewhat quiet off-season the NFL, with it’s usual foot-in-mouth style, declared a “new anthem rule.” Some half-baked, ridiculous notion allowing the protesting or antagonist players to stay in the locker room during the playing of… The Star Spangled Banner. What a laughable play-call by Goodell and his gang in the NY offices. What do those NFL guys do in those high-rise offices anyway? Roger Goodell has officially become the Potsie Weber of pro sports. And Adam Silver is the Fonz. It’s that simple. One guy is as cool as the other side of the pillow, sans the leather jacket, and the other guy is… well, a damn Potsie.
But one thing is clear, thanks to Goodell and his Happy Days gang, the national anthem problem isn’t going anywhere. It will be front and center as the NFL training camps have opened and the pre-season is days away. I just wanted to give you some of the specs of our national anthem. The Star Spangled Banner’s lyrics come from a poem called "Defence of Fort M’Henry", which was written on September 14, 1814, by the then 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Ahhhhh, I bet you all thought it was written during the Revolutionary War some 45 years earlier. Wrong. But actually most of you don’t even give a rip when and where our national anthem comes from. Or what it really symbolizes.
Us Old Men in Sweats have been watching NFL games since the mid-70s. When the Steel Curtain was the most dominating force in sports and most of us stood in our living rooms during the playing of the national anthem on Sundays before Pittsburgh demolished another opponent. When we were kids and we dreamed of playing in the NFL, which everybody on my street dreamed, one of the major bonuses would have been STANDING for our national anthem. When we played high school football and they played the anthem over the loudspeakers that was my proudest moment of being on the team. It was so great to actually be doing something the guys on Sunday we’re doing. Standing for the Anthem. I loved it.
Now as we have grown older, I have a far different perspective on the National Anthem. After moving west to Los Angeles for nearly 3 decades and gaining a far greater perspective on life I have many varied beliefs. I look at our National Anthem a little differently. Oh, don’t get me wrong, if I was a professional athlete I would still stand proudly on the sideline while the Star Spangled Banner was being played. I would NEVER, EVER take a knee or turn my back to the flag. But being part of “older” crew I also don’t hate or even disagree with those who choose to kneel. That’s why I gave a little history of the Star Spangled Banner earlier. To make us remember it was created over 200 years ago. Two centuries ago.
Created around the time our great nation was created. So much has happened and changed in our country over the last two hundred years. And naturally our perspectives have changed as well. How can we expect an entire nation, created from the premise that all who live here are equal and have inate freedoms to believe and worship what each person desires, to fall on the same side of the fence on the Anthem issue? Go ahead and disagree with the people on the other side, but don’t hate them. They’re just like you and me.
Just this past week Malcolm Jenkins of the Philadelphia Eagles called Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, a “bully” for declaring his players, his em-ploy-ees, must “toe the line” during the national anthem. I don’t fault Jerry Jones for choosing to honor the National Anthem by forcing his players to stand. Just like I don’t fault Malcolm Jenkins for taking the baton from Colin Kaepernick and leading the Anthem protests. Both men are right. Both men are courageous, thoughtful, and justified in their beliefs.
Jenkins has raised the level of awareness on several social injustices that needed to be raised. Namely police brutality and mandatory minimums in our penal system. The brutality of the, albeit very very few bad cops, and the unimaginable inbalance of the socially-challenged currently imprisoned under the mandatory minimum laws has to be addressed. Malcolm Jenkins has the total package to tackle such issues. He’s intelligent, accomplished, and at the right place in his life and career to take a stance. Or in this case, take a knee. If I was on Jenkins’ team I wouldn’t be kneeling with him on Sundays but I sure as hell would be fighting with him the rest of the week to help correct these issues in our country.
Just like if I was an owner of a football team I would demand my players stand and “toe the line” during the anthem. A lot of my friends and family call me gutless for landing on both sides of this Anthem issue. Some friends say I speak out both sides of my mouth. But I believe it takes more fortitude to see the deep-rooted beliefs in both Jenkins and Jones.
I believe it takes a greater, deeper perspective to allow for both sides to be 100% correct. You may say, “that’s impossible. How can they both be correct?” Well, because in this country they both have a right to believe and act as they’re doing… both legally and non-violently.
I admire both men and all the other men during these last couple years who have come forward to defend their side and their beliefs. It’s takes a lot to speak out these days because the repercussions are immediate, volatile, and many times made in anonymity. Anybody can say anything anonymously. But Jerry Jones and Malcolm Jenkins just say it for all to see. Both men represent exactly what the Star Spangled Banner represents, to me.
That’s what I see the National Anthem symbolizing. The right to speak freely, loudly, and without repercussions.
What a great country we live in. Let's all allow the National Anthem do it’s job.
-OMIS
PS... NOTICE I DIDN'T MENTION ONE PROMINENT NAME IN THIS ENTIRE BLOG. LET'S KEEP IT THAT WAY!
OMIS: “PREACHING SPORTS KNOWLEDGE FOR A LIFETIME!”