Not Worth a Minute

According to Fox News reporter Todd Starnes, nearly 200 high school hockey teams in Pennsylvania have been advised to eliminate the National Anthem because it takes too much time to perform and costs too much money.

"We are recommending the National Anthem not be played or sung or whatever it is," Ed Sam, commissioner of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL) told Fox News. "It has absolutely nothing to do with patriotism at all. That's the furthest thing from the truth."

Schools were notified of the directive in an email from the PIHL. He said teams are only allotted a certain amount of time to play matches.

Sam also said it had to do with economics. He said ice time is quite expensive and the national anthem eats into the clock.

Thousands of dollars are spent on equipment, uniforms, officials and facilities for a single ice hockey game. The National Anthem takes between 1:14 and 1:32 to perform. That is an average of $7.00 to conduct the total song. Mr. Sam believes this is just too much to spend on promoting patriotism and love of country to American students and families.

Where would anyone get an idea like that from?