Chicago Blackhawks: Critics Offended by Anthem Tradition

I thought I’d seen it all in terms of people going out of their way to be politically correct.

That was, until this afternoon, when I sat down to log in to Comcast.net, and saw a video featured by Fox News Mobile. The title: “Disrespectful Hockey Tradition.”

I wondered what that could be about.

So I clicked on the two-minute long video, and it did not take long to get my blood boiling. Apparently, people are offended by Chicago Blackhawks fans cheering before and during the singing of the American National Anthem, as opposed to waiting until it’s finished.

Excuse me?

Steve Brown, the on-location reporter, then goes on to say how disrespectful to the veterans this is, despite how much the Blackhawks fans enjoy preserving a tradition that was started in the 1980s.

Is it just me, or does hockey seem like the only professional sport to get bashed for the most minute things in recent times?

One dolt at the end of this video goes on to say that he feels so disrespected by this, that it, “makes my skin crawl,” “makes me grit my teeth,” and “cringe when I hear it.”

My message to you: Don’t like it? Don’t go to games.

How on earth can someone be offended by a variation of patriotism?

In my opinion, the Blackhawks fans are more in the right than any other fanbase by showing how much they love their country by cheering it for its entire length. At the end of this video, Brown goes on to say that they spoke to the leader of the Illinois USO, and he feels that the fans’ tradition is “quite respectful.”

So the veterans are on the fans' side, and we still have to make a spectacle of this?

We have soldiers getting killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economy in the toilet, and a Socialist health care plan passed the other night. Leave it to Fox News to peddle this crap like they actually know what they’re talking about.

Leave hockey and its traditions to the people who can actually respect and appreciate them.

Please check out my sports blog, "From New York to San Francisco."