Throughout the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the United States Women’s National Team has faced a lot of criticism after a few players chose to remain silent during the playing of the national anthem. But as one USWNT beat writer points out, it’s quite hypocritical for people to be angry about this given that they weren’t angry at other U.S. teams doing the same thing.
This week, USWNT beat writer Meg Linehan of The Athletic pointed out that several other athletes representing the United States have done the exact same thing during the national anthem but have not faced the same criticism.
“The USWNT press corps — people like me who cover this team on an everyday basis — chose not to engage in that topic because it clearly wasn’t about singing the anthem. If it had been, I might have pointed out that most of the USA baseball team didn’t sing the anthem in the final of the World Baseball Classic this year, or that the USA men’s basketball team didn’t sing the anthem in the Olympic gold medal game in 2021. I could have pointed to a significant number of USMNT players who didn’t sing the anthem at the last World Cup, or identified the same among other countries who have competed in New Zealand and Australia over the last few weeks,” Linehan wrote for The Athletic.
More than that, Linehan also pointed out that the team was actually following the U.S. guideline for conduct during the national anthem by the book.
“I might even have pointed out that the U.S. law concerning behavior during the playing of the national anthem (U.S. Code Title 36, Chapter 10, Section 171) makes exactly zero mention of singing. What it does mention, though, is standing. That isn’t something that was debated rationally very often in the buildup to World Cup 2019, but at least there was a basis to do so,” Linehan.
It’s clear that those angry about the women staying silent during the national anthem were simply looking for something to be angry about. Because their anger was not rational.
