Nationalism rules at Macalester.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: Edge of Sports - Removal of college football player Jacob Bond from the Macalester College team because of failing to remove his helmet during the national anthem

Some people go to college and become a Wildcat, a Blue Devil, or a Seminole. I was a Fightin' Scot. No semipro sports factory for me. I attended Macalester College, a small liberal arts school in St. Paul, Minnesota, with 1,850 students, back in the mid-1990s. It fit me like a well-oiled baseball glove: no frats, lots of fiery debates, and a sports program that was at times regarded as a rumor. The military regimentation that marks big-time college sports programs just wasn't an easy match for a school that offered a course called Physics for Poets. Students were always more likely to cheer on a building takeover than a touchdown.

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We were an institution of iconoclasts and outsiders. Sports had to fit into that general O mosaic. It was high school turned on its head.

That's what makes a recent lawsuit leveled against my alma mater all the more troubling, as the school appears to have tumbled into our post-9/11 fever dream.

A 2009 grad named Jacob Bond contends in court that he was booted from the football team his sophomore year because he refused to remove his helmet during the national anthem. For anyone who thinks the marriage of sports and nationalism is in need of a divorce, this could be reason enough to support young Mr. Bond.

But even if you sleep with a flag pin fastened to your pajamas, you might find yourself sympathizing with Bond because the anthem was actually being played on an adjacent field for a high school soccer game.

For assistant coach Patrick Bab cock, that was reason enough for Jacob and his teammates to stop practice, remove helmets, and stand at attention. Seems extreme for West Point, let alone Macalester.

Bond, who held strong disagreements with Bush's war in Iraq, just said no. "I don't think that with the actions of our government that our national anthem is important enough to interrupt a football practice," he told Inside Higher Ed .

"Why do you always have to be different?" Bond contends Babcock responded. Within twenty-four hours, the lineman was out on his ear.

The school denies it did anything wrong, though it acknowledges there was an "incident" on the field that day.

"I think the norm [of responding to the anthem] would be respect, but there would never be any kind of penalty because of free speech," said Laurie Hamre, vice president for student affairs, according to Inside Higher Ed . The office of civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education also looked into the matter and...