I don't particularly care for watching sports. Since I'm into politics, I'd rather watch the news than a sports team, regardless of the sport. It doesn't matter whether it's professional sports or college; I could provide you with a lengthy list of things I'd rather spend my downtime doing. But, strangely enough, I happened to watch the end of the LSU-Iowa game Monday night.
It wouldn't have been my choice, but I was visiting my childhood home and my father wanted to watch the game. His house, his rules. Not caring about college sports, I certainly had no horse in this race, but my father was rooting for Iowa. So it wasn't too difficult to at least be somewhat glad when Iowa emerged victorious over LSU — when in Rome, and all that.
But today, I'm finding myself particularly happy about Iowa's victory. I only watched the last quarter, but I found out after the fact that LSU's team had skipped out on the National Anthem before the game started.
Iowa players holding hands during the American National Anthem. LSU players left the court before the anthem was performed. pic.twitter.com/GhCLHUXiBX
— Dan Zaksheske (@RealDanZak) April 1, 2024
I actually wish it was more of a blowout, but LSU losing the game 94-87 was still good.
Kim Mulkey, the head coach for LSU, claimed that her team's absence from the court during the Anthem wasn't intentional.
“Honestly, I don’t even know when the anthem was played,” Mulkey claimed. “We kind of have a routine when they’re on the floor and they come off at the 12-minute mark. We just, I don’t know, we come in and we do our pregame stuff. I’m sorry, listen, that’s nothing intentionally done.”
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Really? Does anyone believe that? That sounds like Joe Biden claiming he didn't proclaim Easter Sunday as Transgender Day of Visibility. Of course, it was all a lie because, as local sports reporter Chessa Bouche noted, "LSU is never on the court for the National Anthem." Any kid who has played organized sports knows that the anthem is part of the "routine" before the game, so Mulkey's explanation doesn't hold water.
"If you ever go to an actual LSU game you’ll see that they’re never on the court for the anthem," Bouche elaborated in a post on X/Twitter. "It’s that simple. I’ve covered them for 3 years & they’ve never been."
It's actually somewhat amusing that Mulkey can't even own up to the skipping of the anthem being deliberate. If you're going to make some kind of political stand, you should own it; don't pretend you're not making it.
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Had I watched the whole game and known about LSU's deliberate absence during the National Anthem, I probably would have been cheering for Iowa rather than just casually rooting for them in solidarity with my father.
Maybe now that Mulkey and the team have been called out about it publicly, there will be some introspection at LSU about the team's refusal to participate in the National Anthem. Probably not. They'll probably pretend that their ever-so-important pre-game "routine" precludes them from participation, but we all what's really going on.
