Something has come to my attention that I think is sick, disturbing and wrong. It seems that a week or so ago there was an NFL football game that was delayed because of the weather. Since the game was delayed 30 minutes they decided to just skip the National Anthem. Now that the media has gotten a hold of this information I have to read articles like this on the front page of Yahoo!:

Bad enough football has taken away all our free time in the fall and early winter. Now, it’s going to take away our patriotism?

There were frightening lightning strikes, a strong wind, a swampland for a Heinz Field playing surface. Everyone ran for cover, from the fans in the stands to the players on the field. But the Star-Spangled Banner was written with bombs bursting in air. Nothing’s tougher than the National Anthem. The NFL hardly seemed worthy of its red, white and blue insignia colors by canceling America’s most honorable song so the show could on two minutes less late.

Let me just start off by saying “fuck yourself” to all the people who have a huge problem with this. A lot of people are saying “If we don’t play the national anthem before sporting events we’re pissing on America and the freedoms we have to be able to enjoy these events.” I’ve been picking up on a key word in this whole debate and that word is “Freedom”. Well if the song represents freedom then wouldn’t it also represent the freedom to not play the song as often as we’d like? I mean, if freedom is your big concern then shouldn’t we be singing the Netherlands Anthem before every game anyways? Don’t you realize that the government has pushed through policies rolling back our civil rights and legitimate freedoms, in the name of patriotism?

Have you ever actually felt pride when you’re in attendance for something that plays the Anthem? Usually I’m just pissed that I’m supposed to take my hat off, then I make fun of the people who are singing super loud and because their shirt is a button up American flag. Why do I laugh? Because it’s absurd. I mean people really take this shit seriously, they act like they built this country from the ground up personally. They were born here, that’s about all they had to do with it. Now they just sit in their front yard with an American flag drinking cans of Miller High Life out of a Styrofoam cooler and entice war with their flag painted house and their “patriotism”.

So the NFL is taking away our patriotism, huh? Good. It’s the best thing the NFL has ever done.

To add a little comedy to this blog post, here’s Bill Hicks on patriotism.

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