1. Thank you, Mark Cuban.
Over the years, I’ve written a handful of columns (last June and in 2018, for example) advocating for sports to stop playing the national anthem before games. There’s no reason besides “tradition” that the anthem is played at sporting events. None. Zilch. Zippo. The playing of the anthem is now a culture war talking point more than anything.
And Cuban proved this by never announcing his decision that the Mavericks would no longer play the anthem before games. He never sought publicity for his move. He just did it.