National anthem at sporting events?

[ChrisOH]

This topic came up in another off-site forum I'm involved in and I thought it might be of interest to this forum.

The question was: Why, in the U.S., is the national anthem sung before sporting events? I always thought this was rather odd myself -- I mean, if I go to see a movie, the audience doesn't stand and sing the anthem before the show starts, nor do they at plays, rock concerts, or other public entertainment events. So why sports?

Is it possible this is a way of reinforcing the idea that sports are "patriotic"? If the patriotism behind the anthem is so important, why not do it at all public events?

For those of us outside the U.S., is it traditional practice to sing the country's national anthem before a sporting event, or is that strictly an American thing?

[i_like_1981]

Wait... does this happen at every single major sports game in the USA? The only time the national anthem gets played before any games of football over here is when the England team are playing internationally. It never happens before any old game. Now I've heard everything. I thought living over here in football-dominated England was bad enough... it sounds like the patriotic and proud element of sports is far heavier emphasised in America with the cheerleaders, the playing of the national anthem before every game, pep rallies and the fact that being on a sports team in high school automatically puts you on top of the system. It isn't quite so bad over here - maybe I should stop running down England so much!

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Safety]

Every football, basketball, and even baseball game has the national anthem sung before it. I personally enjoy having the national anthem sung before every game. It emphasizes how fortunate people from America are to be able to have the freedom of attending and enjoying a sporting event. Plus, sometimes you get to see notable artists singing the national anthem and that's always cool.

[recovering_fan]

maybe I should stop running down England so much!

Especially if they start singing "Jerusalem" at the national team's football matches. It's so much classier than "God Save the Queen."

(just my opinion)

--RF

[i_like_1981]

Especially if they start singing "Jerusalem" at the national team's football matches. It's so much classier than "God Save the Queen."

All I've heard is that the fans do their chants during the course of the game and before the match, team anthems will be played over the loudspeakers. Of course, when I say "anthems", I mean popular songs that are associated with the team, not individual anthems for each team. It sounds like sports over in America have a far stronger emphasis on patriotism. I bet this is done so that those people who don't like sports are made to feel unpatriotic - total insanity, as far as I'm concerned!

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Indurrago]

Every football, basketball, and even baseball game has the national anthem sung before it. I personally enjoy having the national anthem sung before every game. It emphasizes how fortunate people from America are to be able to have the freedom of attending and enjoying a sporting event. Plus, sometimes you get to see notable artists singing the national anthem and that's always cool.

Then they should play at the beginning of every school-day for all students in high-school and lower, I believe that would be FAR more effective in expressing the freedoms in this country including freedom from sports....wait we don't have that one....

[ChrisOH]

Governments and religions like to keep things "status quo". Sports is one way to do this -- the more people are focusing on sports, the less time they have to think about other things, like, say, questioning the government or religion currently in power? So, I think "official" endorsement of sports (through things like playing the anthem before games, having championship teams meet the President at the White House, etc.) helps maintain that status quo. Unfortunately, it's also helped contribute to the "dumbing down" of America, as we've seen from some of the educational statistics posted on this site recently, where the U.S. in in the double-digits of rankings in terms of math, reading, and science skills (but no worries, so long as our pro basketball players beat the rest of the world at the Olympics! Go USA!)

Of course, sports aren't the only thing that contributes to this, but I do believe it to be a very large part of it.

As far as religion goes, even at church (I once belonged to a fundamentalist Church of Christ before becoming an atheist 15 years ago), sports were promoted. Most members seemed to be sports fans, the preacher regularly used sports anecdotes in sermons, the young adults' group I was in had "watch parties" for TV sports events, and the church and its affiliated school system had competitive sports teams which played against other schools and churches, as well as intramural sports they held in their "Family Life Center" (read: gymnasium complete with basketball hoops and markings on the court/floor).

[The Imperialist]

Hmmm...I know the Japanese national anthem is played before most 'national' sports (on a national scale), like sumo, karate, judo, and any other 'national sports' that gets played indoors.

I prefer the national anthem to be revered than to be looked down upon like what is happening in Japan, personally, so I kind of envy the US, but I think it is so overdone that it has decreased its original significance as a national anthem.