La. Gov. Floats Penalty for Players Who Skip National Anthem

(AP)

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry weighed in on the LSU national anthem controversy, floating an idea that could impose a penalty on student athletes if a similar incident happens in the future.

Before LSU’s Elite Eight loss to Iowa in Albany, New York, on Monday night, coach Kim Mulkey’s team was conspicuously absent from the court during the national anthem. Iowa’s players were reportedly holding hands as “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed, however.

“My mother coached women’s high school basketball during the height of desegregation, no one has a greater respect for the sport and for Coach Mulkey,” Landry wrote in a post on X on Tuesday morning. “However, above respect for that game is a deeper respect for those that serve to protect us and unite us under one flag!”

“It is time that all college boards, including Regent, put a policy in place that student athletes be present for the national anthem or risk their athletic scholarship!” he continued. “This is a matter of respect that all collegiate coaches should instill.”

For her part, Mulkey said her team did not intentionally skip the national anthem to make a statement or promote a cause.

“Honestly, I don’t even know when the anthem was played,” Mulkey said in a press conference after her team’s 94-87 loss. “We kind of have a routine where we’re 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,” she added. “I’m sorry. I, listen, that’s nothing intentionally done.”

But Baton Rouge Proud reported on Monday that skipping the national anthem is not a one-time occurrence for the LSU team.

In a post on X, BR Proud sports reporter Chessa Bouche said that the LSU’s women’s basketball team is “never on the court for the National Anthem.”

“If you ever go to an actual LSU game you’ll see that they’re never on the court for the anthem,” she added. “It’s that simple. I’ve covered them for 3 years & they’ve never been.”

Many people panned LSU for the alleged pattern of skipping the anthem, with one X user named Stephen replying to Bouche’s post with, “If they are never on the court then they have ALWAYS been wrong.”

“There is no excuse to not honor a country where you are celebrated for playing a game,” he said. “Nowhere else on the planet would they have this opportunity yet they aren’t thankful. Everyone knows why they weren’t there.”