The man who used his trumpet to blow a rousing rendition of the national anthem at the Carolina Panthers' home opener has three words for San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick _ and they might just surprise you.
"I feel ya," said Phoenix brass master Dr. Jesse McGuire, 58, as he pounded his left breast with his right fist three times while sitting in a private room deep within Bank of America Stadium, a couple hours before kickoff on Sunday afternoon.
And this is someone who's had more than a little time to reflect on the sentiment behind "The Star-Spangled Banner": Since his debut at a Phoenix Suns game in 1989, McGuire estimates he has performed the song "about 4,000 times that we can prove. At one point, I was doing three anthems a day for three years straight."
"We're actually being considered for a world record."
To put things in perspective, the anthem has been the cornerstone of the 58-year-old jazz musician's livelihood for almost as long as Kaepernick has been alive. Therefore, it's more than a little bit intriguing to hear McGuire's take _ as an anthem guy, but also as an African American _ on the Niners' QB, who along with teammate Eric Reid kneeled (as they have done together since Week 4 of the preseason) while McGuire stood and played on Sunday.
(San Francisco's Antoine Bethea, Eli Harold, Rashard Robinson and Jaquiski Tartt, meanwhile, kept their right fists raised during the song. No Panthers protested.)
"I absolutely and totally respect his right to protest," said McGuire, who wore dark sunglasses and a No. 14 Panthers jersey as he sat with his wife Donna Sunday morning, she in a Cam Newton jersey. "That's a constitutional right, and anybody trying to take that away from him is trying to violate his constitutional rights."
Kaepernick, San Francisco's backup quarterback, has said he started kneeling to raise awareness about injustices against African Americans and other minorities, particularly with regards to police brutality.
"In terms of this stance for the violence that's happening all over the world _ and to black males especially _ I understand and I applaud his stance. ... Whether I disagree or not is of no consequence whatsoever. To protest means that you are going to make waves; so if that is the case, and if that's the definition of a protest, then the desired result of his mission is accomplished. He got his point across, and he got people talking."
This was McGuire's second time doing the anthem at Bank of America Stadium, and coincidentally, the first time he did it was also at a Panthers-49ers game.
Of his Jan. 12, 2014, rendition, before Carolina's 23-10 NFC divisional playoff loss, USA Today said: "(It) was everything a national anthem should be _ soaring, inspiring, respectful and, just as importantly, short and sweet. His high notes are divine."
Sunday's performance (which Fox Sports chose not to air) was strikingly similar in terms of the notes and the flourishes, with the main difference being that this time Kaepernick stood. The crowd may have in fact been louder this time, too; its roar almost completely drowned out his trumpets last few loudspeaker-assisted blasts.
As McGuire made his way off the field afterward, he used one hand to hold his phone as he shot video of the sea of black-and-blue-decked fans, and the other to point at particularly rowdy bunches with his instrument. The adoration seemed unanimous.
And yet, he noted a couple hours earlier, "I get hate mail all the time from people who don't like the way I play the national anthem. Oh, all the time. They call me unpatriotic; they say that the anthem is not about me, it's about America, and to play the theme straight. And I'm going, 'Man, show me the sheet music from Francis Scott Key, the night he wrote this thing at the shelling of Fort McHenry, negotiating the release of a prisoner. Show it to me, and I'll play it that way.'
"But in the meantime, allow me to serve America in the way that I feel like I need to. A lot of people want to take that from us, and that can all be summed up in one word: assimilation. You see, they want us to be like them, and that's not what America is about."
