A mariachi band's national anthem before the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles game ignited a heated social media debate and racism charges.
Page S2From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 30 September 2026
Nine years after kneeling ignited an anthem fight, a mariachi band singing it ignites one too.
Hot Mic Moment
Somebody get the political desk on line two, because this reporter has something to say once this light goes off. Nine years ago the test was whether a player could kneel through the anthem without a president objecting. The song hasn't moved. Whose performance of it counts as loyal — that's the only thing that has.
Gushis side
This reporter has heard national anthems botched by nerves, drowned by fireworks, and once forgotten mid-verse by a nervous rookie singer. Not until Sunday had this reporter seen a pregame anthem become the lead story on cable news by dinnertime. Before the Bears hosted the Eagles, a mariachi band took the field for the anthem — the same pregame slot every NFL Sunday runs — and by kickoff a debate over the performance had ignited online, racism charges attached.
This reporter has seen this movie before. Anthem controversies in this league go back to around 2015, when players first knelt and the White House got loud about it — Sunday's mariachi band just picked up the same fight nine years later.
A congressman got involved too, weighing in publicly on the mariachi band's performance, because nothing pulls a lawmaker onto cable news faster than a pregame song.
The reaction split the internet clean down the middle, racism charges flying in both directions before the coin toss.
Nine years is a long run for a pregame song to stay this loaded. This reporter has called plenty of anthems since 2017 without a senator's office issuing a statement. This time it took a mariachi band, not a kneeling player, to get one.
Trudyher side
Try 2017, sugar. ESPN's own record, dated September 24 of that year, has players kneeling, linking arms and skipping the anthem outright after President Trump criticized the protests that same week. Nine years from there gets you to Sunday.
A senator, Gus. The wire names a sitting U.S. Senator — upper chamber, not the House. It doesn't say which party, and neither will this column.
The wire's exact words are "a heated social media debate and racism charges." That's the full quote. It doesn't say which direction those charges ran, and neither does this paper.
That's enough hot mic for one lifetime, Gus — go lie down. The paper trail holds up anyway: the same September 2017 that ESPN logged players kneeling, linking arms and skipping the anthem, President Trump had already weighed in on those protests, and this week's wire has a sitting senator weighing in on this one. Same fight, nine years apart, both on the record.
“You can kneel, you can stand, you can bring a whole horn section — don't matter, the flag's just cover for who gets counted as American on a Sunday. A senator's got time to weigh in on a mariachi band but you don't see that kind of speed on your kid's school lunch bill. That's the tell.”
“Nobody's against mariachi music, this is about respect for tradition at a football game, that's all — wait, is "tradition" the word I want here, that's not quite landing the way I meant it. The senator's just responding to constituent concerns, that's the job, we're not going to apologize for representing people who called in upset about a song.”
The receipts
· Amid criticism of U.S. national anthem protests by U.S. President Donald Trump, some National Football League players and teams react to the controversy by kneeling, linking arms, or skipping game per from the morgue, 24 Sep 2017
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.