NFL 4th of July Celebration: Greatest Patriotic Moments
By Erik Lambert
An NFL 4th of July celebration sounds unusual. After all, the holiday falls at a time of year where football is in its dead period. Nothing is going on.
Players and coaches are away enjoying the peak of summer and getting ready for training camp that is less than a month distant. That said this doesn’t mean the league doesn’t know how to celebrate the birth of America right. They just do it at different times of year with various, memorable acts of patriotism
People sometimes say the league is heartless and only cares about money. That can sometimes be true but it’s not a universal thing. It’s a league made up of many flawed human beings, just like America itself. While there are some selfish bad apples who ruin it for the bunch, there are other men and women who go out of their way to make sure people remember that football is America’s game for a reason.
With that in mind, here’s an interesting question. What stand as the greatest patriotic moments in league history? Here are some examples that stand out to this day.
A Yellow bow around the Superdome to welcome home Iran hostages
Typically it’s in times of war where Americans find their patriotism at its strongest. There are some examples though that have shined through outside of direct conflict. One of the most enduring images came on the eve of Super Bowl XV. The Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders were preparing to do battle when several players noticed that a gigantic yellow ribbon had been tied around the massive Superdome.
Many were confused about why that was the case until it was revealed to be a celebration for the release of the American hostages who’d been held in Iran for 444 days. All the people had been taken when revolutionaries in Iran stormed the U.S. embassy. Despite diplomatic and military attempts to end the crisis, it wasn’t until then that a resolution was found.