There’s little doubt from anybody that Aretha Franklin knocked her rendition of The National Anthem out of the park ahead of Thursday’s opening Thanksgiving NFL game between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. Just a quick glance around online and you can see people heaping praise on the soul legend for her performance:
Aretha Franklin for every national anthem ever.
— Pride of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) November 24, 2016
Aretha, for the win.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) November 24, 2016
But with that praise comes a little good natured ribbing and fun, mostly at how long the anthem seemed to take. Even the folks at CBS seemed to have a little fun with it:
It's been a 1st half defensive struggle, but Aretha Franklin's ball control offense has her right in it
(pic via @ComplexSports) #MINvsDET pic.twitter.com/hMzHnfOlco
— NOTSportsCenter (@NOTSportsCenter) November 24, 2016
This echoes a lot of what people were sharing on Twitter, which worked out given the time it took Aretha to sing her anthem. They had a buffer before football got underway thanks to the Queen of Soul and they used it to the best opf their ability — or joked about using it with some great success:
https://twitter.com/fakevmart41/status/801842921653813248
Bad news: Football is cancelled
Good news: 13-hour Aretha Franklin concert. Leave it on through dinner. Everybody will love it.— The Ringer (@ringer) November 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/Ratchetveli/status/801841859454767104
I cooked my whole turkey, ate and did the dishes during Aretha Franklin's National Anthem performance.
— B. Miller (@BlaiseInKC) November 24, 2016
Aretha out there trying to sing the Anthem for all three games. Love it. Let's play some ball now.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) November 24, 2016
Before Aretha Franklin sang the National Anthem
After Aretha Franklin sang the National Anthem pic.twitter.com/EaMF1CctzB— shauna (@goldengateblond) November 24, 2016
That National Anthem almost moved the game to the day after Thanksgiving…
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) November 24, 2016
I was able to do all my Christmas shopping while Aretha sang the national anthem #happythanksgiving
— Strombone (@strombone1) November 24, 2016
Delay of game: Aretha Franklin
— TheMachine (@MachinesPicks) November 24, 2016
Aretha Franklin is doing a ball-control national anthem. It's all about clock management everyone.
— Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) November 24, 2016
It’s all in fun, hopefully. As Dan Graziano points out, there’s no reason to complain about Aretha going long. She’s earned it at this point:
Aretha Franklin is pretty far up at the top of the list of folks who can take however long they want with the national anthem.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) November 24, 2016
Besides, this anthem is far better than many of the shorter, horrible versions we’ve seen over the years. Nobody can do worse than Roseanne Barr or Carl Lewis when tackling the anthem.
(Via CBS / NFL)
