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French Flag Among Tributes To Honor Victims At Sport Events

By Ernie Howell
Published on: 07:21 PST, Nov 14, 2015

The French Flag has been used around the world today at sports events to honor the 129 victims of Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

The day started with Gerald Asamoah’s Farewell Match. Asamoah, a German soccer player, played in his Testimonial Game (the American equivalent to a final game) today for FC Schalke, the team’s website reported. Gerald Asamoah took the field with the spotlight on him, but the retiring player chose to use the opportunity to honor French victims by displaying their flag.

Tributes to the victims of Friday’s tragedy didn’t just happen abroad. The Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League lit their skating rink in the colors of the French Flag prior to their contest with the Calgary Flames on Friday night, Bleacher Report wrote. Despite the good feelings produced by the French Flag tribute, the Capitals lost the game 3-2 in overtime.

College football has seen a handful of tributes in honor of the victims from Friday’s attacks, USA Today reported Saturday morning. ESPN’s College Gameday, the preeminent college football pre-game football show, usually has several fan-made signs displayed throughout the day, and the show tweets the best of the them throughout the day. This week, however, the show decided to tweet only one sign after the terrible events Friday — a peace sign using the French flag colors and the Eiffel Towel as the symbol’s divider.

Cardale Jones, a quarterback for the No. 3 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, tweeted a picture of his own personal tribute that did not use the French flag or its colors. Jones used the same symbol on his sneakers as was seen earlier on ESPN’s College Gameday show.

Army’s college football team started the tributes on the field as the football team took the field with the French flag running in stride with their traditional American flag salute. The tribute was recorded by a member of the media at the game and posted on Twitter.

The College of William & Mary ROTC brought both the American flag and the French flag out to mid-field before the game during the singing of the national anthem, another tribute to the victims surrounding college football.

College football wasn’t the only place that fans were able to see the French flag on display before a sporting event. Clint Bowyer, who races the No. 15 car in the NASCAR circuit, had his car hauler flying the French symbol at the Phoenix Raceway.

Facebook users can display personal tributes in the same way millions of users decided to celebrate the Supreme Court decision to allow gay marriages, Tech Insider reported Saturday. Users can choose to apply color filters to their profile pictures, giving the image a filter using the French flag colors. In the article, Facebook users are also shown how to produce this effect for their pictures.

The attacks occurred in Paris and were perpetrated by ISIS, a group that claimed responsibility for the actions. In addition to the death toll, more than 350 people have been injured, NBC News reported.

While sports events give fans a way to escape reality for a brief time, the French have cancelled all such sporting events Saturday and Sunday due to the tragedy. An area of one tragic terrorist attack was the French soccer stadium. France was playing host to Germany in a friendly match when the shootings began.

Both the French and German upcoming matches, friendlies against England and Holland, respectively, are in jeopardy, as reported on Saturday morning by The Telegraph –– an English newspaper. In honor of their next scheduled opponent, England lit Wembley Stadium in the colors of the French flag.

What do you think of the French flag tributes being demonstrated at sport events? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

[Photo by Mika Volkmann/Getty Images]

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