Louisiana governor Jeff Landry urging LSU, other state schools to standardize national anthem policy at sporting events
In the wake of Monday night’s highly viewed contest between Iowa and LSU, one discrepancy jumped out to some viewers and caught the attention of Louisiana governor Jeff Landry: LSU was not present for the national anthem.
The Tigers were instead inside the locker room, while the Hawkeyes players were out on the floor when the anthem was performed.
Landy first took to Twitter on Tuesday to make his thoughts about respecting the flag clear, then joined Fox News on Wednesday to further outline steps he plans to take to ensure that there are more standardized procedures for the national anthem.
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In short, he wasn’t happy that the Tigers weren’t present for the anthem.
“I’m not calling out the players or coach (Kim) Mulkey,” Landry said. “I support coach Mulkey, my statement said that. Look, I think this is a bigger question, this is a bigger problem for collegiate sports nationally and in Louisiana.
“I just sent out a letter to each one of our college boards, telling them that those college boards should put in place a policy that respects the national anthem. The national anthem is as much a part of American sports as is the actual game that’s being played. And the fact that there is not a policy and it says, ‘Listen, these players are going to be out there and respect the flag and respect those that go out there and protect us,’ is really disrespectful in and of itself. So it’s unfortunate that LSU was not there at that particular time.”
Mulkey, the LSU coach, respectfully answered a question about the incident after the game. LSU typically has a pre-game routine that takes it into the locker room when the anthem is being performed.
This was not out of character on Monday night, then.
“Honestly, I don’t even know when the anthem was played,” Mulkey said. “We kind of have a routine where we are on the floor and then 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.”
Fans noticed precisely because one team was present and the other was not.
It didn’t help that it also came on the heels of an LA Times column that painted LSU as ‘villains’ and ‘dirty debutantes’ against a more virtuous UCLA team in the previous round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Iowa was on the field. That highlighted the particular problem,” Landry said. “And what we’re going to do is work in Louisiana, say, ‘Listen, college athletes need to understand that in order to be truly united, in order to truly have civic sensibility, we all need to be united under one flag and respect that anthem.'”
Landry pointed to his recent experience at an LSU baseball game as being more indicative of the sense of pre-game coordination around the anthem that he’d like to see.
“Look, I went out and threw one of the first pitches for the Florida-LSU game several weeks ago. The first thing the baseball team did, we had the national anthem,” Landry said. “Both the teams were out there. If you have consistency, you don’t have these kind of problems. And guess what, it’s as much a part of the fan experience, just like you said. Think about a Little League baseball game. I’ve seen kids be more behaved during the national anthem than they are during the sport itself, because it’s respect for our nation. And that’s what I think we should be getting back to.”
Of course, the Fox News host then threw one more tricky question at Landry.
Will his mandate to the boards of the universities require student-athletes to stand during the national anthem, as opposed to kneeling or sitting, rather than merely being present?
“Well listen, again, that’s what the university should put in place. They should,” Landry said. “Everybody should respect the flag. If you don’t like it, well guess what, you don’t have to play the sport. I would hope that all of the Final Four teams would be out there respecting our nation and letting everyone know that we’re united under one flag.”