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HALIFAX — Richard Samuelson raises an interesting point.
“Why,” he asks in a letter to the Montreal Gazette last week, “are national anthems played before sporting events?”
It doesn't happen before concerts or live theatre. Doesn't happen, any more, before the movie starts.
“Millions of Canadians and Americans start work every day without the benefit of national anthems,” he writes. “Why can't jocks?”
Philadelphia Flyers' Scott Hartnell celebrates his second period goal with Daniel Briere and Vaclav Prospal as Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price skates by in Game 5. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
Why indeed? He raises this point in the context of boorish behaviour in Montreal's Bell Centre when some hockey fans booed The Star-Spangled Banner before a playoff match between the Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers, followed by the boorish booing of O Canada when the series shifted to Philadelphia's Wachovia Center.
Mere mention of the Philadelphia booing in a sports column led to dozens of angry e-mails from Flyers fans, saying that the booing in Philadelphia was merely in “retaliation” for what had been done in Montreal – the fan equivalent, it seems, of high-sticking the player who cross-checked you last game.
It reached a point, at the second game in Philadelphia, where Flyers star Daniel Brière, a Canadian, appeared on the scoreboard to plead with the fans to show “respect” for the other team's anthem.
It's perhaps worth noting that Canadiens fans were singing O Canada for a team captained by a Finn, led by a Russian, with its future stars from Belarus and the Czech Republic and, oh yes, Canada in goal.
In Philadelphia, they sang God Bless America for a team captained by a Canadian and with more Canadian-born players in Flyers orange than were wearing the bleu, blanc et rouge of Montreal.
Once the bad blood had been tapped in the anthems, the games could begin.
How different it is down here at the World Championships. The Finns come out onto the ice and a quick check of the roster shows that – amazingly – every one of the Finns comes from … Finland.
Same with Team Canada. Same with the USA squad. Latvia is all Latvians, Slovenia is all Slovenians. …
They come out onto the ice and, rather than the game beginning with the anthems of the two countries, as is done in the NHL, the players merely salute the other side by raising their sticks in respect. The game is played – in, it seems, about half the time it takes to play an NHL game with all those commercial breaks and tedious intermissions – and at the end the winning team's flag is briefly raised while that country's anthem is played and the fans of the winning side, also from the same country, join in on the singing.
The other team stands on its blueline, respectfully.
No one boos.
As soon as the anthem is over, the players line up politely to shake hands.
It all seems so right.
Frank Deford, the Sports Illustrated writer, noted the same thing not long ago about the World Cup of soccer. He particularly liked it when players would stand with their arms on each other's shoulders during the anthem. “Seems so right here,” he said in a commentary he later did for National Public Radio.
Right there, and here, but almost silly at a game between the Calgary Flames and the Nashville Predators or the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees, where a significant portion of the players wouldn't know the words to either anthem.
“C'mon,” he said in the broadcast, “countries aren't playing in games like these, just municipalities which have paid athletes to represent their franchises.
“What is it with this nationalism – even, I would say, forced patriotism that only inflicts nationalism on sports?”
While some like Deford want less, some others want more. A member of the British Parliament is even calling for an English national anthem – different from God Save the Queen – so that English sports teams that come up against Scottish or Irish or Welsh teams would have their very own song to fire up the fans.
He even calls for fans to vote, online, for the new anthem, which could prove rather entertaining. If Canadian hockey fans did the same, Stompin' Tom Connors's The Hockey Song would win hands down.
There are, admittedly, some fine and stirring singers who would be missed. Lauren Hart does a fabulous duet with the late Kate Smith in Philadelphia; Ottawa's Lyndon Slewidge, and Mark Donnelly helped by Vancouver Canucks fans, are great, as are several others.
But it would also mean no more embarrassments like Roseanne Barr or Carl Lewis – or Canada's own Robert Goulet forgetting the words.
Personally, I look forward to the final anthem in this World Championship, which winds up in Quebec City in a couple of weeks.
It would be nice, of course, if the home side won and O Canada were played, but no matter who wins, the very best part of it will be that the official anthem singer will be the team itself – out of tune and too loud.
But sung with meaning.
As well as with reason.
At the end, not the beginning.
