Why an American football game played the Canadian national anthem

Why an American football game played the Canadian national anthem

There are no Canadian teams in the NFL, but there are millions of fans.

At the Buffalo Bills game in New York on Thursday night, many Canadians were wearing the team’s familiar red, white and blue and drinking beside their pick-up trucks, which were parked for tailgating, a very American pre-game ritual.

The Bills’ stadium is just 112 miles (180 km) from Toronto, roughly a two-and-a-half-hour drive for fans, and sits right across Lake Ontario, which President Donald Trump has tried to rename Lake America.

So it was hardly surprising that plenty of Canadians showed up well before kick-off to take in the atmosphere and see the new Highmark Stadium for their team’s home opener against the Detroit Lions.

What was unexpected was hearing their national anthem played in the stadium.

The field featured both the stars and stripes of the US flag and the maple leaf of the Canadian one, and the 1990s Canadian band The Barenaked Ladies performed Oh Canada! before a huge crowd.

For many Canadian fans, it was an emotional moment. They said they felt a very warm welcome, even though their country’s mood has recently become much frostier toward the US.

“I’ve always felt welcome here,” said Ben Kerr, from Bradford, Ontario.

“I think it’s a nice acknowledgement,” he added. “I appreciate that the Bills are doing that for Canada.”

Relations between the two countries, which began to worsen when US President Donald Trump returned to office and repeatedly called for Canada to be annexed, have deteriorated further amid an escalating tit-for-tat tariff battle.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Canada, which shares the world’s longest undefended border with the US, is “at war” with its southern neighbour over trade. Trump has called Canada “nasty” and “entitled”.

The Bills’ new home, Highmark Stadium, cost $2.2bn to build.

Both countries are feeling the economic effects, with Canadian industries hit hard by tariffs and Canadians boycotting travel and spending in the US.

The ongoing tensions made the trip to Buffalo a little more complicated for Kerr.

“I try to spend as little money as possible in the US,” he told the BBC. “Buy our food in Canada, buy our beer in Canada, bring it across and drink it here. We’re not big in supporting the American economy in this trade war.”

Many Americans at the game voiced their own frustration with the growing trade war and the way it has split the two neighbours.

For Drew Grier, an American who lives eight minutes from the stadium, “the anthem playing tonight is a core part of who we are as a border city”.

At a Buffalo Sabres playoff ice hockey game in April, a microphone failed while the Canadian anthem was being sung and the crowd’s voices carried it through.

“You sang the Canadian anthem because it needed to happen,” Grier said.

Canadian Blake Parnham remembered that moment: “I was sobbing watching the game at home because I felt so vindicated, that Buffalo is different.”

He could not travel to Buffalo for the Bills’ home opener, but watched from his elaborately decorated backyard in Keswick, Ontario.

Grier said singing the Canadian anthem tonight is “not that polarising of a thing”.

“If anyone is polarising it, it’s coming from those outside here, because those of us here, we love Canada,” he said.

But some felt it went too far.

“The only acceptable reason to sing that anthem would be if they were playing a Canadian team, but they don’t play any Canadian teams,” one fan posted on social media.

“I don’t think it’s really necessary,” said David Waring, who attended Thursday’s game.

In the end, it may all come down to simple economics.

The Bills’ new home, Highmark Stadium, cost $2.2bn to build. While western New York has a population of just over 1.5 million, the nearby greater metro areas of Toronto and Hamilton are home to more than 8 million. Put simply, the team needs Canadian fans.

Gavin Kemp, who has run the NFL-Canada office for eight years, told the BBC that Canada’s relationship with the NFL was “extremely important”.

When asked why the Bills chose this year to play the Canadian anthem, Kemp said the team was “leaning into one of their biggest parts of their market”.

Canada has nearly 15 million NFL fans, about one-third of the country’s population, and roughly 10-15% of Bills season ticket holders are Canadian, according to the team.

“Sports really transcends all of this,” Kemp said. “All this politics is kind of secondary to the fact that your team is doing fantastic right now.”

Even American fans who usually support other teams found themselves backing the Bills.

Carol Breed, who supports the Detroit Lions, considered travelling to Highmark Stadium from her home in Battle Creek, Michigan, after hearing they would play the Canadian national anthem.

“I love our country’s relationship with Canada,” the 74-year-old told the BBC, adding that in Michigan the country is seen more as a “relative”.

“I just hate what Trump has done to the partnership.”

She was unable to watch the game in person, but has found other ways to satisfy her O’Canada craving.

A couple of weeks ago, Breed took the two-hour drive across the border on the recently opened Gordie Howe International Bridge, which has also recently fuelled tensions between the two nations.

“We sang the US anthem until we reached halfway and then started singing the Canadian anthem,” she said.