Bill Maher slammed what he calls “patriotic bulls**t” at public sporting events during his live show Friday, excoriating the National Football League and Major League Baseball for tolerating displays of “militarism.”
Maher’s “Real Time” panel was discussing an NFL proposal to limit or eliminate cheerleaders from professional football games when the HBO host blurted out his thoughts on pre-game displays.
“Why don’t they just take away the militarism?” Maher fumed. “I kind of like the cheerleaders — maybe that makes me a sexist. But why do we have to mix football, you know, the season just started, with so much of this patriotic bulls***? You know, the flyovers and the flag on the field and the singing?”
He specifically took aim at the MLB, which allows teams to play the patriotic song, “God Bless America,” during the 7th inning stretch.
“Like I forget what country I’m in after six innings?!” he said.
Maher’s opinion is a departure, even, from Colin Kaepernick’s, who, along with other protesting athletes, insists that kneeling on the sidelines during the national anthem isn’t a commentary on the military or the “Star Spangled Banner,” but rather a protest against racism.
But the HBO late night host isn’t a fan of big displays of the stars and stripes. Last year, around the time President Donald Trump weighed in on the national anthem protests, Maher called the song, “fetish patriotism.”