I have been somewhat perturbed…boy that is a kind word when you need it…as I have watched football on television. No…I am not throwing more stones at the New England Patriots here. With a nod to the final scene of the late 80s movie “Some Kind of Wonderful”, there is really nothing I can do to the Patriots that they have not done to themselves.
What has me p.o.’ed is watching the National Anthem being shown on televised football games. No…I have no beef with the song or what it represents. The thing is…I think networks should have been showing the footage of pre-game festivities…including and foremost…the NATIONAL ANTHEM for years.
Of late the playing of the song before some televised games has been featured. ALSO featured is the fact that the song is being SPONSORED BY….so and so.
Translation: The networks are getting around to showing the presentation of our country’s NATIONAL ANTHEM before games because someone is PAYING for it. This makes me sick.
I have a point of reference here. It is in the form of a piece I wrote a few years ago that never found publication before today. I am glad I held onto it.
THE NATIONAL ANTHEM…NOT FOR SALE (SUMMER 2010)
On two occasions this past June, I had grand opportunities to belt out The Star Spangled Banner…our National Anthem…in the context of exceptional circumstances.
The first, and most significant, was on June 14th at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. My dear wife, Carrie, and I had trekked the from Indiana. Inside a big white well air-conditioned tent positioned next to an airfield, Carrie and I were on hand to welcome back a unit of soldiers returning home from Afghanistan to the ones they love.
Like most inside the tent, we had a particular soldier we were there to meet…the newly promoted Sgt. Jarrett Beckett, our son. Less than a week ago he was decorated with a medal for bravery.
As the troops fell into rank and everyone was positioned, those of us not already standing were asked to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. I sang out.
I belted out that song like my life depended on it…and I suppose in part…it does. Tears were streaming down my face as I thought of those brave exhausted soldiers before us and the ones whom made it back to the United States only to have their families face loss, anger, hate, pride, honor, and every gamut of emotion that must go into burying a proud soldier who perished in combat.
At that moment, our National Anthem made a little more sense to me.
The second chance I had to sing this great song was later in that month of June. I was asked to sing our National Anthem in, of all places, the Conseco Fieldhouse ( it has since been renamed Banker’s Life Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis, Indiana. This place is the home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
The promotions department of these entities had/maybe still has a noble program called “Court of Dreams” that invites Indiana girls high school basketball teams to play games during the day of a WNBA Indiana Fever game. The high school teams participating during the day bought a block of group-priced tickets for the Fever game later that evening in exchange for the chance to play on the big stage that was the Conseco Fieldhouse during the day.
The high school games are played in the afternoon. Afterwards these teams typically hang out in downtown Indy as they wait to return to the arena to watch the women’s pro game.
That afternoon, before the start of the girls’ game I was attending, the head coach of one of the teams about to play walked across the court and up to the sixth row where I was sitting and asked if I would like to sing the National Anthem.
I was honored. I jumped at the chance. After all, the only other person I ever heard sing in that building was Paul McCartney.
I sang my heart out. As I sang my heart out, I could not help but to think about all the soldiers Carrie and I had seen earlier in the month walking in one after the other to their Ft. Hood homecoming.
Singing the National Anthem is an honor and a pleasure. I have performed the song many times before in high school gyms. I never dreamed I would be singing this song in a major league sports venue located in the state’s capitol.
Each time I lead an audience in the singing of this great song, I try to get out of it what I believe Francis Scott Key put into it as he was writing it. As one with a penchant for songwriting, I have long been intrigued with the circumstances Key was presented with that gave him such inspiration. We can only imagine. I hope and pray we never stop imagining.
Upon finishing my rendition of our nation’s song at the arena that day, the young lady in charge of the day’s promotions and events indicated she liked the way I presented this great song. Two staffers she had with her also raised their eyebrows in approval.
On that very spot, the lady in charge asked me if I would be interested in coming back to sing our country’s National Anthem at a Indiana Pacer’s NBA basketball game. I told her I would be honored. I continued to indicate my pride in the song and the fact that no more than ten days ago I was singing that song at Fort Hood as we were welcoming our son back from his service in Afghanistan.
After leaving the scorer’s table and heading back to my seat across the basketball court, I was met by a an older lady working there as an usher. She firmly grabbed my arm. She the told me my performance of the National Anthem…”was so wonderful it sent chills down my spine”. I thanked her and returned to my seat to enjoy some high school basketball.
Over the course of a month or so I exchanged emails with the young lady at the Conseco Fieldhouse about the prospects of me singing the National Anthem before an Indiana Pacers NBA game.
An official invitation came to me from the Conseco FIeldhouse to sing the National Anthem before an Indiana Pacers game.
In the context of the invitation, however, I came across the following phrase…”As part of the deal”.
Reading on I came to realize I had been suckered.
Yes…they wanted me to sing the National Anthem. But…I was expected to be a ticket agent for them and sell a block of tickets in exchange for my pipes belting out the National Anthem.
The balloon popped. The air suddenly failed the sail. And I was left to ponder how on earth a company could possibly think about parlaying the singing the country’s National Anthem into a money making proposition. (Leave it to the NFL this year).
I know…I know. Whitney Houston’s version of The Star Spangled Banner at the Tampa Super Bowl went off the charts in 1991 a few weeks after we entered the Gulf War.
Newsflash: I’m not Whitney Houston. This wasn’t the Super Bowl. And I only wish our country gave half the enthusiasm to our troops today as we did in early 1991 heading into the Gulf War.
Can you imagine in 1814 someone going to Francis Scott Key and telling him if he sold enough tickets for the Governor’s Ball then they’d take a look at his little song?
Well, the Pacers will have to find someone else willing to pay to sing the National Anthem. I believe what they are doing is American Flag blasphemy. While I am not a scholar of how teams of major professional sports go about presenting the National Anthem, I hope and pray this is an isolated case. The Star Spangled Banner should not be for sale. Our country is worth more than that. The efforts of our soldiers are damn sure worth more than that.
As I sit here in my back porch enjoying a rare cool breeze on a late summer day in Indiana, I look out on the horizon…not quite sure of what I see.
Speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson