Susan Tedeschi, the Grammy-winning lead singer of Jacksonville’s Tedeschi Trucks Band, wore a Jacksonville Jaguars shirt while she sang the National Anthem before a sold-out EverBank Stadium crowd Sunday at the Jaguars-Bills NFL playoff game.
But they’re the only ones who saw it — CBS chose to air a commercial instead.
Tedeschi sang the anthem standing on one end of the stadium, between an enormous American flag that stretched clear to the other end zone, and members of the U.S. Coast Guard at Station Mayport presenting the colors in front of her. Breanna Freeman, a student from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, was interpreter for the Anthem.
Four F-35A Lightning II fighter jets from Florida Air National Guard’s 159th Fighter Squadron out of Jacksonville International Airport flew about 1,500 feet over the stadium just as Tedeschi reached the song’s crescendo, nearly drowning her out.
This is the fourth time Tedeschi has sung the National Anthem before a Jaguars game, and the team has never lost when she’s on board.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: CBS skips Tedeschi’s National Anthem at Jacksonville playoff game
Reporting by Tom Szaroleta, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
