A Marine band played. Dozens of sailors and Marines unfurled a giant American flag. A famous athlete made a protest as the media scrambled to document it while scores of others voiced their feelings about it, including a man in a camouflage Chargers jersey screaming obscenities.
It was, for the good and bad, an all-American event.
A football game so few cared about was played Thursday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
After a protest that captured the interest of what seemed like the entire nation.
In this viral age where we are too quick to label even the mundane as the biggest and the best ever, it was not hyperbolic to say Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Powell was singing the most anticipated national anthem of all time.