Super Bowl LX hadn’t even kicked off before the NFL managed to stir controversy yet again. Fans took aim at the league after singer Coco Jones performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” widely known as the “Black National Anthem,” before the matchup between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

According to Fox News, the song “has been a source of consternation for NFL fans since the league started to use the song during the 2020 season.” Jones performed it as fans were still filing into Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, setting the tone for what quickly became a heated reaction online.

Breitbart News reported that fans flooded social media during Super Bowl LX to voice their frustration, repeating a familiar argument: “there is only one National Anthem.” The criticism wasn’t subtle.

“The United States of America has ONLY ONE National Anthem,” one person wrote. “Kicking off the #SuperBowl, in the year of our great nation’s 250th birthday, with the ‘Black National Anthem’, is a disgrace & racially divisive.”

For many fans, the issue wasn’t about the singer or the performance itself—it was about symbolism. They see the tradition as unnecessarily dividing Americans instead of uniting them under a single anthem, especially on the country’s biggest sporting stage.

This isn’t the first time the NFL has faced backlash for the song, and judging by the reaction, it won’t be the last. What was meant to be a pregame tribute once again turned into a political flashpoint, proving that football and culture wars still seem to share the same field.

At the end of the day, fans tuning in for the Super Bowl want one thing: football, unity, and the anthem that represents all Americans. And despite the noise, the game went on—reminding everyone that no matter the controversy, the Super Bowl still brings the nation together around the sport it loves.