Fox debuted a commercial ahead of its Feb. 2, 2020 airing of Super Bowl LIV featuring Johnny Cash's 1974 recitation of "Ragged Old Flag." The update on a similar Super Bowl ad from 2017 was a celebration of the American flag and the republic for which it stands, featuring appearances by Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter and the families of some of the 9/11 terrorist attacks' victims.
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Be it the participation of his old team the San Francisco 49ers (they lost the Super Bowl to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs) or his stance on kneeling for the national anthem, something about the pregame show segment riled up both sides of the Colin Kaepernick argument.
Some joyed in what they viewed as a "wonderful slap in the face" of Kaepernick. Others knocked both Fox Sports and the supposedly "apolitical" NFL for what they viewed as a hit piece.
You can?t tell me the choice of Johnny Cash doing Ragged Old Flag wasn?t about Kaepernick https://t.co/qFOKN5D1rt
The original video aired before the kickoff of Super Bowl LI (that flag, and Tom Brady, is still there for this year's big game) and was introduced by Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and singer Harry Belafonte.
Both pointed viewers of America's biggest annual TV event to lyrics Cash wrote in response to Watergate and the Vietnam War.
"Ragged Old Flag" Lyrics
I walked through a county courthouse square On a park bench an old man was sitting there I said, your old courthouse is kinda run down He said, naw, it'll do for our little town I said, your old flagpole has leaned a little bit And that's a ragged old flag you got hanging on it
He said, have a seat, and I sat down Is this the first time you've been to our little town? I said, I think it is He said, I don't like to brag But we're kinda proud of that ragged old flag
You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when Washington took it across the Delaware And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key Sat watching it writing say can you see And it got a bad rip in New Orleans With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams
And it almost fell at the Alamo Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg And the south wind blew hard on that ragged old flag
On Flanders field in World War one She got a big hole from a Bertha gun She turned blood red in World War Two She hung limp and low a time or two She was in Korea and Vietnam She went where she was sent by Uncle Sam
She waved from our ships upon the Briny foam And now they've about quit waving her back here at home In her own good land here she's been abused She's been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused
And the government for which she stands Is scandalized throughout the land And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin But she's in good shape for the shape she's in 'Cause she's been through the fire before And I believe she can take a whole lot more
So we raise her up every morning We take her down every night We don't let her touch the ground and we fold her up right On second thought, I do like to brag 'Cause I'm mighty proud of that ragged old flag
