(September 23, 2017 at 12:35 pm)FFaith Wrote: I'm pretty sure there's a rule in the NBA stating that players must stand for the anthem. Is it really forced though? Nobody is forcing these millionaires to make millions playing a game. They can go and do otherwise if they so choose. I understand that playing the anthem is mostly just an advertisement for the military, and I'd like it to be removed from all games other than the Olympics, but that's not happening anytime soon.
[my bolding]
I know the thread has moved waaaay past this but I just want to whole heartedly agree with this. Do the Dallas Cowboys have to be reminded at every game which country they are playing for? No, because all the teams are playing for the same country. In international sports where the national anthem actually denotes a difference between the players/teams it's at appropriate, or at least arguably so.
Plus, personal pet peeve arriving, fans have weird and stupid ways rituals during the national anthem anyway. Like when soccer fans twirl their scarves in the air like stupid little helicopters during the anthem or flick them at the ends of lines or verses. I don't think they should stop on my account because it annoys the piss out of me, but I also think there's some amount of hypocrisy in the Take A Knee controversy when people lose their shit over a guy who goes to a knee during the anthem and otherwise doesn't interrupt but say nothing when thousands of people flip and twirl a scarf during the same song which can be seen as making light of what the song represents.
Man, I must be annoyed this morning, second rant and it's only 7:10.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
