The Buffalo Bills’ inaugural regular-season home opener at their new stadium could hardly have gone better. Highmark Stadium was buzzing for hours before kickoff, with fans tailgating in the parking lot and crashing through folding tables, and the energy carried through to a convincing win over the Detroit Lions. But one part of the night stood out for the wrong reasons: the decision to open the game by singing Canada’s national anthem.
For many fans, it felt strange and out of place to perform a foreign nation’s anthem when no Canadian team was involved in the game. That sentiment is entirely understandable.
A Longstanding Relationship With Canada
The Bills do have deep ties to fans north of the border. The team maintains a substantial footprint in Canada, with many supporters making the short drive to attend games for decades. The organization even had a 2026 draft pick announced from Canada during the broadcast. Bills owner Terry Pegula also owns the Buffalo Sabres, who play “O Canada” before every home game, regardless of whether they are facing a Canada-based team.
Even so, that history does not make the decision on Thursday night the right one.
How the Anthem Was Presented
The Barenaked Ladies, a Canadian alternative rock band, delivered a subpar rendition of “O Canada.” During the performance, the broadcast showed a massive Canadian flag on the field near one end zone, with an American flag at the other. Watching the inaugural regular-season game at America’s newest stadium—featuring two American teams—go out of its way to honor a foreign nation felt odd. To some, it came across more as a marketing ploy and virtue signaling than anything else.
That view is not isolated. Many fans expressed confusion online, including Canadians, and Fox News contributor and U.S. Marine Joey Jones criticized the decision.
Jones said, “We play the [United States] National Anthem not to honor fans who enjoy entertainment, but to honor the men and women serving this country, providing freedom and security so we can do that during a time of war.”
He went on to offer a history lesson to the Bills and the National Football League, saying, “We play our national anthem because in 1918 we entered WWI, and they wanted to honor a Navy player that was out on the field. They wanted to honor that our sons and some daughters were fighting a war in trenches in some of the ugliest warfare every seen in our lives.”
Honoring Fans Without Honoring a Nation
Jones is exactly right. This is not about disliking our neighbors to the north. It is not about refusing to be friendly. It is not about Trump. It is incredible to see so many Canadians enjoy American sports, but honoring their nation by singing their national anthem goes too far, especially when no Canadian teams are involved.
There is a way to honor Canadian Bills fans and season ticket holders without honoring the nation as a whole. If the Bills wanted to give a special shoutout to Canadian fans before the game, thanking them for their support and dedication over the years, that would be entirely appropriate. But going as far as honoring another nation is borderline disrespectful to the history of the American anthem and to those who have fought and died to defend its rights and freedoms.
The Irony of Ford Field
The funny and ironic aspect of all of this is that Ford Field, the Lions’ stadium, is just as close to the Canadian border as Highmark Stadium is. Yet the Lions have never sung “O Canada” in order to “honor” their prominent Canadian fan base.
This is not as much of a virtue signal as singing “Lift Every Voice,” also known as the Black National Anthem, but it is a close second. When American teams are playing an American sport on American soil, we should stick to honoring our nation. America has one anthem, and if foreign sports fans want to come over the border to enjoy these games, they are welcome—we’re glad they’re here—but they shouldn’t expect or want us to honor their nation through songs of allegiance.
The Bills are said to only perform the Canadian National Anthem for their home opener. Let’s hope that is the case.
