Jay Kersting's Blog

The NFL cancelled the playing of the National Anthem at the Monday Night Football game in Pittsburgh last night.

Cancelled!!

Except for the Super Bowl, the National Anthem is never shown on TV, so those at home would not know.  The Steelers said that the NFL wanted the game to get underway as quickly as possible following a weather delay in the game.  And they further said that, according to USA Today "several more minutes would have been needed to set up a microphone and sound equipment at midfield, where the anthem is traditionally performed at Steelers games."

OH, don't want to mess with tradition.  Um, hold on, cancelling the national anthem is better than screwing with how the Steelers do it????

The singing of the national anthem takes two minutes or less, unless Whitney Houston is screeching it out like she did at Super Bowl XXV...I know some of you loved it, I hated HER version of the song, but that is ANOTHER Story. 

Apparently, they did not realize that they COULD have put the singer in the endzone with a microphone.  They could have had the singer up in the press box.  We have seen that done with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field.

But NOOOOOOO!!  The National Football League decided that this would be too much trouble.  The NFL must bow down to the power of cable/satellite TV.

This was a crappy game.  The Steelers are decent, the Dolphins stink.  And it was 3-0 game in the end.  Two to four minutes of time to honor America is too much to ask?

To the powers that be in the NFL, it most certainly is.

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