How did the United States military and a song about the War of 1812 become so inextricably associated with American sports? But how did a song about the War of 1812 that wasn’t even adopted as the national anthem until the 1930s become so indelibly bound to the American sporting experience? Football was similarly keen to wrap itself in the flag with NFL commissioner Elmer Layden in 1945 calling for a league-wide adoption of the anthem, saying: “The national anthem should be as much a part of every game as the kick-off. In 1954, Arthur Ellers, the Baltimore Orioles’ general manager and a world war one veteran, bemoaned that spectators conversed and laughed and moved around while the anthem was played. That the hurlyburly threatening the future of America’s most popular sports league centers on an eight-year-old tradition really is something.

Source: The Guardian November 12, 2017 09:30 UTC