Stop booing the anthems

UPDATE: San Jose’s mayor apologized Monday for the behavior of Sharks fans. "This showed a lack of respect to our Canadian neighbors, to the players of both teams, and to our own residents," Mayor Ron Gonzales said to the press. "I sincerely hope that this occurrence of bad behavior by a small number of fans is an aberration caused by misplaced enthusiasm and an ignorance of the expected courtesy that we should extend to all teams and players in every stadium, ballpark and arena."



It's not the first time the Canadian national anthem has been booed in recent years, but Sunday night in San Jose doesn't seem to have politics around it.

The booing of Annemarie Martin's rendition of "O Canada" was quite loud in the beginning, and while quieter at the end, kept up the whole way. Kudos to those in the arena that tried to drown out the booing by singing louder.

The fans in San Jose also booed Edmonton defenseman Chris Pronger whenever he had the puck, but that kind of booing is acceptable.

Some helpful notes to Sharks fans:

• Pronger likely enjoyed making Sharks fans mad, and so he enjoyed the booing. Clearly his play didn't suffer as a result.
  

• Some of your players are from Canada. When you boo their anthem, you boo your own players. Is that because they aren't from the U.S.?
  

• Your booing did give Edmonton's players even more motivation to play well. Sure enough, another 6-3 loss didn't help the Sharks.
  

• Finally, if you have a beef with the country of Canada, booing the anthem (however tasteless) is understandable. If your beef is with the Edmonton Oilers because they are dominating your hockey team, boo them during the game.
  

In my observation, Canadians are much more likely to sing the U.S. anthem with class than vice versa. In a sporting event, the "enemy" may be from a different country, but they deserve basic human respect, especially when that country is the U.S. largest trading partner along the world's longest undefended border. Hopefully for the rest of us, that was the last game the Sharks will play this year in San Jose.