Was Bad Bunny caught sitting down during the National Anthem at a New York Yankees game on October 8, 2025? No, that's not true: Videos circulating on social media show Bad Bunny seated during the last verse of "God Bless America," not the American National Anthem, which is "The Star Spangled Banner." Lead Stories could find no video of Bad Bunny sitting during the National Anthem.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by the @NFL_DovKleiman account on X on October 9, 2025. The post read:
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Bad Bunny was caught SITTING DOWN during the National Anthem at last night's Yankees game.
Many NFL fans are boycotting the Super Bowl as a result of Bad Bunny being named the halftime show performer.
What an awful look...😬😳
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
The video attached to the post was a nine-second loop of a two-second snippet from a TMZ video of the incident. It does not document the song or the sitting. However, another video on TikTok does show Bad Bunny sitting as "God Bless America" is heard in the stadium. This video does correctly identify the song and makes no claim that it is the American National Anthem.
@mangu45 #badbunny ♬ original sound - mangu45
The social media posts making the claim that Bad Bunny disrespected the United States of America by not standing for the singing of "God Bless America" may not be aware that it is not the national anthem.
Many sporting events include a rendition of "God Bless America" before the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner," and many of the fans stand and put their hands over their hearts during both songs. The federal law that specifies that the "The Star Spangled Banner" is the national anthem also says that Americans should stand and place their hand on their hearts when it is played. It does not reference "God Bless America." The law is spelled out in United States Code 36 Chapter 10, titled "Patriotic Customs." §171, titled "Conduct during playing," reads:
During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should render the military salute at the first note of the anthem and retain this position until the last note.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of govinfo.gov)
