Posted on 09/18/2017 9:18:15 PM PDT by Bender2
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
Wow. It’s funny: in my mind’s eye, I pictured you as some overweight old beer-swilling yokel someplace in the sticks - then I finally pulled your page and looked at your pictures.
Absolutely amazing! The guy who’s attacking me and those who served with me in Vietnam turns out to an Army Lieutenant Colonel who looks great in his uniform and has a lovely wife.
Not only that, he’s an artilleryman, just like I was.
So how did it come to pass that your love of football overwhelmed your loyalty to your fellow veterans? I can see by your ribbons that you served well in various staff jobs - how did you develop such a disdain for those of us who did serve in Vietnam?
I was an enlisted man ‘65-’66, served in 105mm battery for half my time in Vietnam,the next half as a scout observer with an infantry company, got shot in May ‘67 and spent the next 3 1/2 years recovering. And no, we never used drugs - or wore sunglasses - because you had to keep your senses sharp and unimpeded if you wanted to stay alive. Don’t believe Oliver Stone.
When I was well enough again, I was commissioned in early ‘73. Served in every artillery billet, including battalion commander. Attended Fort Sill four times: basic, advanced, NCTAC, Command Course.
So what happened to you? How did NFL football become more important than ties of service, or respect for the flag? How did you develop this hostility to Vietnam veterans?
On one hand, Colin Kaepernick, Michael Bennett and Marshawn Lynch's disrespect for the "Star Spangled Banner" is reprehensible to my way of thinking as their so-called reasoning for doing such are only politically correct claptrap, not hard solid fact based.
I've tried Googling and cannot find other NFL players beside those three above that are being noted not to stand for the National Anthem this 2017 season so far. So out of the nearly 1,800 player under contract to the 32 teams, only Lynch and Bennett did not stand. That is 2 out of some 1,800, not much of a percentage is it? Kaepernick is not on a team, so he does not count here.
So, for the sake of 2 active players dissing the National Anthem, we should do away with the NFL in entirety and never, ever mention it on Free Republic as it hurts the feelings of Anti-NFL Freepers-- Yep, that's what they appear to want.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked about this when it all started last year. "I think it's one of those things where I think we have to understand that there are people who have different viewpoints," Goodell said in response. "It's something that I think everybody wants. The national anthem is a special moment to me. It's a point of pride. That is a really important moment. But we also have to understand the other side that people do have rights and we want to respect those."
Now, Roger is not one of my favorite folk but, damn it, he is right here. There is Freedom of Speech even in the National Football League as there supposedly is throughout our nation under the US Constitution. Yet here on the NFL Live Thread, certain posters are saying I have no right to post it as it goes against their belief their view trumps my view to the point that mine is too worthless to even espouse.
Now, how is the Anti9-NFL tirade different than "Black Lives Matter" and their ilk demanding that we never every mention our ancestors fought for the Confederacy and we cannot honor them in any way? If they were once honored with statues, then tear them down!
How is this Anti-NFL tirade different than the protestors out in California at Berkeley demanding that no Conservative has even the right to speak?
We can disagree about NFL football but to demand one side not have the right to their opinion is just what the Left Wing Democrats and their "Black Lives Matter" and such cohorts are doing.
Chainmail toss at me his statement: "Having some divot post NFL games on ESPN for Freepers is imbecilic at best, unpatriotic at worst."
I do not need anyone to tell me what I can or cannot say or do. I do not need anyone to tell me whether I am patriotic or not. They can read my many posts here on FR for the past 15 so years to know that.
Vietnam was my war and it is embedded in my soul so deep I find I am most times unable to speak about it.
My late Father served in World War Two. He was in combat for some 400 days in some of the roughest actions of the war in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Southern France and on up into Germany and Austria. Dad never spoke much about the war and it was years after he died way to young at 52 in July of 1971 that I discovered all the hell he went through.
Yet, once he talked about Commando Kelly, Charles E. Kelly, who was the first enlisted man to be decorated with the Medal of Honor for action in Europe. My father knew him and said, "He was one hell of a fighter anyone would want by his side in a battle, yet he was a complete, worthless thug in real life."
So, Chainmail, I thank you for your service to our nation and your combat wounds suffered there.
However, if you wish to be a complete, worthless thug here on Free Republic trying to bully me to not have the Freedom of Speech to post my NFL Live Threads, then I will say for the last time to you, if you wish to be in league with the worse of the Left Wing thugs in this nation, go ahead, it is your right--
But you have no right to expect me to ever again post any reply to you or your brother NFL Haters. Y'all have the right to your opinions but you do not have the right to take my opinion away from me.
I am shaking my head that you cannot see the wrongness of acting exactly like those Left Wing thugs do every day.
You missed Malcom Jenkins, Cameron Jefferson, some Titans and most of the Browns.
**************************
I couldn't agree more, Bender2.
Okay, my Googling was not as successful as yours, so make that 8 named to 20 if there were an even dozen Browns opening week that you found. With Lynch and Bennett, that is still about 22 out of 1,800 active players, again, not much of a percentage to kill off the entire NFL along with my right to post an NFL Live Thread.
I will reply to you offline when I have some time.
My respectometer for Jerry has greatly increased
The problem that I see with the NFL and ESPN and posting their schedules is that they both haven't taken any action to stop the attacks on our flag, our country, and our President. Do the players/commentators have a right to free speach? Absolutely. But don't we have the obligation to hold them and their sponsors' feet to the fire to make those companies (and the NFL and owners are companies) enforce a standard of patriotic respect for our flag, our National Anthem, and our President?
Those players and owners and CEOs make millions of dollars off of us - and the NFL and ESPN would be only too fast to discipline anyone caught espousing conservative values, support for the President, or God forbid, praying on the field - yet they have looked the other way with disrespect to our country.
The boycott is starting to work and we have the owner's/sponsors' attention. When they fine or suspend players for failing to respect our flag and our anthem, I will be enthusiastic to see football schedules posted when the NFL and ESPN begin to impose discipline on their spoiled multi-million dollar and unpatriotic players.
Cool.
It is in MY school district and we can't seem to stop it.
We can't shut down the public schools but we CAN depopulate them.
The boycotts by both the Kapernick supporters and by his detractors are having minimal impact at best. The biggest hit to NFL viewership is from those of us that have cut the cable cord. Most folks stream TV and such now days. Especially millennials who don’t watch hardly anything live.
Whatever it takes: now we have high school teams “taking a knee” during the anthem. We’ll either have a country that respects our flag and our cultural values - or we won’t.
What we have is split. Most respect the flag and the country, some do not. But it’s the ones that do not that are getting the media attention. Dirty laundry sells.
“...We’ll either have a country that respects our flag and our cultural values - or we won’t....”
One thing you CAN do to change it is to be a Coach.
I was a little league baseball coach (and some soccer too) for 14 years.
My kids STOOD, uncovered, faced the flag, and cap over heart before EVERY game when our field played the National Anthem.
I made sure of it. And I made sure they knew why too.
You get the chance to teach them a bit of Patriotism, as well as teaching them the reason why everybody DOESN’T get a trophy just for showing up.
Some parents got twisted over my style of coaching; I told them “then join another team”. But their kid typically didn’t want to leave “the Team”.
You can undo some of the damage that the public school system does, just by spending time and being there, and teaching boys how to be young men.
It works when WE step up. Because if we don’t, who else will?
And to all you Vietnam vets, welcome Home and thank you.
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/49ers-Rams-tickets-cheapest-levis-stadium-history-12215863.php
Regarding 49ers game
Well, I’m off to live in a cave, where I’ll wear leaves and subsist on raw squirrel, so self-righteous mouthbreathers can’t hold me responsible for the evil of other men.
They can say what they like about me, I only wish they’d do it behind my back, in some other thread.
“As of Wednesday, resale tickets were being offered on StubHub for as low as $14 to see the team host the Los Angeles Rams at 7 p.m. That price is just cheaper than buying a pair of $7.50 pretzels through the Levi’s Stadium app and comparable to the price of a beer and a hot dog at the the three-year-old arena.”
lolololololololololololololololol
What you are doing with your teams is admirable and necessary - and it's what the NFL and the team owners aren't doing. The only way of fixing the "split" is to make it clear that the vast audience that pays for the expensive players have had enough and the cash cow isn't there for them if they back antipatriotic actions.
Football can be fixed, we just have to make the rich boogers at the top understand that they'll lose money if they don't take a stand.
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