“O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” the iconic lines to our national anthem. An anthem that can be heard, interestingly enough, before all of our major sporting events. Although not one rule book has made the playing of our national anthem mandatory, it is a staple of American culture. Put simply, if there is an NFL, NHL, NBA, or MLB game being played, so is our "Star Spangled Banner."

The song’s origin — relating to the tradition of playing it at sporting events — lies where everyone expects it to -- baseball. Per Luke Cypher’s 2011 ESPN article “The Song Remains The Same,” the Star Spangled Banner first became a tradition during the 1918 Cubs and Red Sox World Series. During the seventh inning stretch, the military band on hand decided to “fire up the Star Spangled Banner,” as Cypher puts it. The Red Sox third baseman at the time, Fred Thomas, was on loan from the Navy, and upon hearing the first few notes, he turned to attention and saluted the flag as the iconic song played at Wrigley Field. Seeing their teammate doing so prompted the rest of the players to turn towards the American flag and give it the civilian salute (military salute is hand to your forehead, civilian is hand over your heart). Upon seeing the entire field of players honoring the flag during this song, much of the crowd stood and followed suit. The overwhelmingly warm reception of this new festivity led the Cubs to repeat the playing of the song during the seventh inning stretch for the next two games, followed immediately by the Red Sox playing it during the pregame festivities, the birth of a tradition that has lasted nearly 100 years.

But what is the real logic behind playing this song before every sporting event? Yes, there are plenty of reasons why. The sports leagues and teams are largely from the United States, it promotes patriotism and familiarity with our national anthem, it is entertaining for the fans, and it allows a moment to reflect on why we get to enjoy the things that we do. However, and I feel guilty of this too, it appears that we are so numb to the national anthem being played, so accustomed to this century old tradition, that very rarely is the idea challenged, broken down and thought about logically from a “why do we do this?” standpoint.

Having already touched on many of the reasons why the national anthem should be a standard pregame festivity, let’s investigate some of the shortcomings of the ideas, aspects that upon deeper investigation might not pass the eye test.

First and foremost, what gets lost in translation is that the verse that is commonly sung is primarily about war. Think about those lyrics for a moment, “O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air.” As Cypher begins his article with, “It's a taunt, a lyrical grenade chucked at a defeated opponent. "See that flag still flying, the one you tried to capture?" it famously asks the British. Then it answers: ‘Scoreboard.’” The idea of uniting our country is admirable, and sporting events are one of the best places to do so. However the idea that the song we use to celebrate our great country is one with lyrics such as “havoc of war,” “the perilous fight,” and “their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution” isn’t exactly the light that I want my country seen in. Before every game, everyone in attendance, U.S. citizen, foreigner, athlete, coach, umpire, fan, everyone, is given the cold reminder that the country supposedly being honored actually slaughtered thousands of soldiers, and then wrote a song that is now sung to remind the entire world how badly we kicked their asses. Personally, that’s not my idea of a pregame ritual that warrants pride.

Secondly, let’s examine what exactly the event being played after the anthem is. Three of the four major sports leagues that the national anthem is played before are the NHL, NBA, and MLB. The MLB is and always will be “America’s Pastime,” but as years have gone by the number of Dominican players has sharply risen, up to 28 percent, per BestTickets unofficial MLB census in 2015. The NBA was invented by a Canadian, and features players from around the world on any given team. And the NHL has had only one season that the Canadian born players didn’t encompass at least 50 percent of the league (Yahoo Sports). The most iconic places that our anthem is played at are more than often not even fully American. If this is the case, then the national anthem is not about honoring the game or the teams on the field, but rather entertaining and energizing the crowd of people so accustomed to hearing it.

Perhaps my strongest opinion about the matter lies in the fact that I believe our willingness to play it at seemingly every sporting event (half of my high school baseball games had it played before they started) has desensitized us as a country to what should be a song of great honor and distinction. A national anthem is something that should be held in the highest of regard, a patriotic song that an entire country of people can feel united under, and proud of. The Star Spangled Banner has become a song almost trivial in nature, few people realize that the song actually has four stanzas instead of just the one that is colloquially sung. And while it is impressive that our fascination with the song has brought with it immense familiarity, it simply has lost its meaning to much of our country. When watching a sports event on television, how many of you stand up to “honor America with the singing of our national anthem?” If you are like me, the answer is not only have I never done it when sitting at home on the couch, but I have also never seen anyone else do it. The national anthem our entire country is supposed to be so proud of is transforming from a song our country is proud to hear into nothing more than an entertaining performance intent on amping up a crowd at a game.

The national anthem is a song that should live on in American history forever, reminding us of the battles we fought, the adversity we overcame, and the pride that we have in our country. My fear is that our current anthem is slowly accomplishing less of those. We hear it everywhere we turn. The idea that hearing “The Star Spangled Banner” is now a common occurrence eliminates the notoriety of it. No longer is it a song only heard at the Olympics, when athletes solely from one country go to figurative war against athletes from another. Instead, we play it for the Canadian born NHL players, the 101 international born NBA players, the Dominican born MLB players, and, above all else, we play it to entertain the crowds that come to watch.

There is huge value in the community-building tradition of honoring our country by collectively singing a culturally significant song before some of the most influential events our country has to offer. However I propose that using our national anthem, a war anthem that boasts about violence and war, degrades the meaning that our one and only national anthem has to the general population. We should save our national anthem for the major events in American history: at the podium for the Olympics, on any games played on September 11th, even maybe for the World Series and other sporting championships. This would make it an occasion, a moment that captivates audiences and brings back the joy and love we have for the most important song our country sings. Our national anthem is, as it stands, nothing more than your favorite Eminem pump up song; it is not used to inspire pride, instill love and patriotism, but rather to entertain the masses with the depressing story of “bombs bursting in air."