The Philadelphia Eagles trounced the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, and as always with the annual event, the national conversation was as much about the advertisements as the game. I was pleasantly surprised, amid our current political rancor, to note some messaging promoting patriotism, unity and civility, appeals which transcend left and right to speak to all Americans.

A Harrison Ford commercial for Jeep reminded viewers: “You don’t have to be friends with someone to wave at ’em. We won’t always agree on which way to go.”

And in a video opening the game, Brad Pitt told us: “When we are bound by a common goal, we’ve reached heights, authored achievements, pushed progress. Not alone, but together. In ways that have lifted the world and one another.”

Sports, which once transcended politics to unite all Americans, have been heavily politicized at least since 2016 when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kicked off the trend of kneeling during the pre-game playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” declared the mixed-race Kaepernick in explanation.

Sports fans, who generally prefer their superstar athletes to display a more patriotic humility and gratitude, were offended, if not outraged. But “taking a knee” became routine for many athletes, especially in the National Football League (which not only permitted the protests but encouraged social justice slogans in end zones and on the backs of helmets). These protests even filtered down into high school sporting events.

That wasn’t the only divisive politicizing of the sport. Because some mistakenly perceive that “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not inclusive of black Americans, there has been a growing movement to adopt “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, as a “black national anthem” alternative. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) has promoted this idea from as far back as 1917.

After the incendiary controversy over the 2020 death of George Floyd in police custody, the notion of granting the hymn equal time with “The Star-Spangled Banner” gained momentum, and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is now played prior to many sporting events including every Super Bowl since 2020 – including the most recent one.

After the November election landslide which signaled that most Americans are fed up with the divisive political warfare that has engulfed the country in the last decade, Super Bowl fans expressed their displeasure with the inclusion of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” One X user posted, “We’re still doing this?” Another tweeted, “There is only one National Anthem,” followed by a Stars-and-Stripes emoji.

Flags, too, have become a contentious battleground. Many have taken to proclaiming their allegiance to various political causes by flying, say, the Black Lives Matter flag, the LGBTQ flag, and/or the Palestinian flag. Indeed, though viewers at home didn’t see it, one Super Bowl performer last Sunday was detained for unfurling Sudanese and Palestinian flags on the field. Those who reject the Stars and Stripes believe, like Kaepernick, that it represents a country irredeemably tainted by racism, oppression and hypocrisy. They believe patriotism amounts to a whitewashing of our checkered history.

With a new presidential administration in power, our country has a chance to take a new, healing direction. A good place to begin is by rolling back the unhealthy obsession with politicizing every arena of our private lives and public assemblies like sporting events. Relentless political conflict is emotionally, spiritually and socially corrosive; it must not be allowed to dominate our consciousness and relationships. Our country must have only one national anthem, just as it must have only one flag (indeed, a month ago President Trump diverged from the previous administration by ordering federal facilities to fly only the Stars and Stripes). Any other alternative is segregating.

This is not to suggest that we as a people cannot hold different political positions or debate them vigorously, nor is it to suggest that America is off-limits to reasonable self-critique. But our nation, on the verge of its 250th anniversary, can only survive for another 250 years if we agree, as we once did, on an overarching allegiance to the United States of America as represented by one flag and one anthem that unite us all.

Prior to attending the Super Bowl, Trump issued an official White House statement praising the sport’s power to bring us all together. After lauding both teams for embodying “the best of the American Dream,” he wrote:

Football is America’s most popular sport—for good reason—it fosters a sense of national unity, bringing families, friends, and fans together and strengthening communities. This annual tradition transcends our differences and personifies our shared patriotic values of family, faith, and freedom heroically defended by our military service members, law enforcement officers, and first responders.

To borrow the slogan from the “Star Wars” spinoff series “The Mandalorian,” “this is the way” to embrace shared values and traditions that transcend differences and build stronger families and communities. Make sports apolitical again.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image Credit: Flickr-Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0