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And the Home of the What?: An Open Letter to Jayhawk Fans

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As some of you know, I am scheduled to sing the National Anthem at the next KU home game, Feb. 7, against Mizzou. Obviously, I'm thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity, especially for such a big game. But I'm also concerned. I noticed this when I first sang the anthem at Allen Fieldhouse last season, and unfortunately it reared its ugly head again for the entire nation to see on College Gameday last Saturday. Therefore, I have a simple request: please, please, please stop with this "home of the CHIEFS!!!" nonsense at the end of our National Anthem.

I'll refrain from getting too deep into whether it's appropriate for this to be done at an actual Chiefs game. (It's not. Period. But I digress...) But that's the Chiefs' problem, not mine. That said, I simply cannot understand why anybody, let alone a significant number of fans (it's gotta be several hundred, no?) attending a KU basketball game, would feel the need to trivialize and demean the anthem by paying tribute to a team that plays a different sport in a different state!!! It simply makes no sense.

And I'm not trying to make this about me. It's not. In fact, one of the first things I learned about singing the National Anthem is that it's NOT about the singer/performer. It's about the anthem, about the flag, about our country. That's one reason why I try to sing the anthem in as straight-forward a manner as possible. It's not about me. It's not about KU. And it's certainly not about the Kansas City Chiefs.

Let's be respectful of our great nation, and we should start by enforcing an immediate stop to this nonsensical "tradition."

Thank you and ROCK CHALK!!!

Bensa

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