Football, as we Americans know it, is something entirely, well, American. It is so American, in fact, that when speaking about the popular sport to non-US citizens, one must use the term “American football.”

If you don’t use this distinction, most people would assume you are talking about the sport of soccer, as it is referred to as “football” nearly everywhere else but here.

From the inception of the sport in the late 1870s until now, it has been one of the most well-known pastimes of our nation, allowing it to quickly rise to the very top of popularity.

I dare you to name a game that is more attended or watched than the SuperBowl. It is so equivocally American that MVPs of the sport are named “All-Americans.”

And yet, the National Football League has recently made some decisions that are wholly un-American.

At the top of the list is their decision to do away with the singing of the National Anthem before its games. Now, at first, this choice could be seen as a way for the league to avoid the drama and tension that has arisen in recent years as some players have chosen to kneel during it.

However, when it was announced this past week that the NFL would be replacing the national anthem with what is known as the “black national anthem,” the decision became about something else entirely.

And as former NFL player Burgess Owens pointed out, it’s a move that is taking the country back in time and bringing segregation at its worst into normalcy.

Owens wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday, “This just in: along with the ‘black national anthem,’ the NFL will be assigning black bathrooms, water fountains, and players will now have their own space on the back of team buses!”

Now, obviously, Owens, who, by the way, is black, is being a bit cheeky here. However, the point is far from it.

If we are to segregate the national anthem, of all things – you know the one thing that is supposed to bring us all together – what is stopping us from taking that a few steps further?

We’d be right back in the 1950s when black and white children couldn’t share entire schools, let alone bathrooms. When drinking fountains were labeled with a particular race, and when living on the wrong side of the tracks was about skin color, not your financial state.

Think of movies like “The Help” and “Remember the Titans.” These tell a story of how color meant everything to society. It was a time when having darker pigmentation put limitations on you, while others, born in the very same nation, state, and city, were given none.

And nearly 70 years later, you’re telling me the “progressives,” who are supposed to be forward-thinking, want to go back to that?

As one social media user asked: “How long till we have the neg football league? How long till they re-segregate school?”

Another replied, “You have GOT to be joking. How humiliating for black Americans to be put through this. We have entered a time capsule going back 100 years… let’s just separate a bit more why don’t we. UGH!”

No, it’s unlikely that the woke left will want to give up their freedom of going wherever they please, even allowing boys into girls’ restrooms. Nor will they tolerate being told that they aren’t entitled to everything under the sun.

But if we allow segregation, even in this form, to become commonplace, the “divisiveness” that the left claims President Trump is responsible for will only get worse. And that makes statements like this right on point.

“Is OUR National Anthem just for Whites now? Is it a White Anthem? And a Black Anthem? And they accuse Trump of ‘not bringing people together?’ Seriously.”

Seriously, indeed.

We are supposed to be ‘one nation, under God,’ seeking ‘liberty and justice for all.’ But how can we do that if we say there two national anthems and, subsequently, two nations? As Lincoln so wisely stated, “A house divided” will fall.