The Kansas City Chiefs may have failed to reach their third consecutive Super Bowl in a 27-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, but fans of the Chiefs made America proud on Sunday.
During the playing of the national anthem prior to kickoff, singer Ashanti continued to have her microphone cut out, allowing the stadium to pick up the slack.
I’d like to believe we started a movement. Don’t forget that. #USA #nationalanthem #nfl pic.twitter.com/eG3YVMDOq9
— Nicole Raviv (@thenicoleraviv) January 31, 2022
Cincinnati came back from an 18-point first half deficit, tying the largest comeback in Championship Game history, beating the Kansas City Chiefs on a walk-off overtime field goal from Evan McPherson.
It’s the first Super Bowl appearance for the Bengals since 1989.
Just like in their divisional matchup against the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs won the overtime coin toss. But this OT would end differently, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes throwing an interception on third-and-10, allowing Cincinnati to win with just a field goal.
A similar situation unfolded during the 2021 NHL Playoffs, when New York Islanders fans went viral for their rendition of the national anthem.
The Coliseum comes together for the anthem. 🇺🇸#Isles pic.twitter.com/7HCVMjM2To
— NHL on NBC Sports (@NBCSportsHockey) June 9, 2021
The star of the moment — singer Nicole Raviv — was responsible for incorporating the crowd in the anthem, and couldn’t have been happier that a “mortifying” mishap from earlier in the playoff series occurred so that the special moment before game six could go down in the long and storied history of the Nassau Coliseum.
“Game four started with my microphone off,” Raviv told The Daily Wire. “They couldn’t hear me at first when I was singing but I continued to sing of course, because it’s the national anthem. You don’t really stop that. So I kept singing and I knew someone would fix it eventually, but within 10, 15 seconds of the song, the entire Coliseum just started singing.”
“Kind of to make up for the fact that my sound wasn’t there and to help me out and to bring it all together. And then I got a new microphone and basically continued from where I left off. Everyone started cheering once the sound came back on and we just finished the song together, as a strong collective crowd. It was a blessing in disguise.”
The assistance from the game four crowd gave Raviv and her team an idea — hand the mic to the fans.
“Once we saw the results of that [game four] — and we won that night — it was just such great energy in the building,” Raviv continued. “The atmosphere was really electric and everyone felt a part of it. Then the next game — which was game six — my team and I thought about ways to incorporate them [the fans] again. And that’s just what happened. So, I sang in the beginning, and then just gave them the microphone so they could really be heard this time and for it to be intentional.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].