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The Saints called a veteran's refusal of an award over the anthem protests 'disappointing'
Circa ^ | 11/3/17 | Mark Hensch

Posted on 11/03/2017 6:53:31 AM PDT by markomalley

The New Orleans Saints say it is “unfortunate and disappointing” that a military veteran declined an honor at the team’s game this Sunday.

Retired Navy Cmdr. John Wells has refused to accept an award over the National Football League’s (NFL) ongoing national anthem protests.

“We will not allow Mr. [John] Wells’ decision and subsequent media appearances to distract our players and organization from continuing to honor and support our military and veterans,” the Saints said in a statement Thursday, according to ESPN.

“[Our organization has an] unwavering 50-plus year commitment to honor, support and recognize our servicemen and women and veterans,” the statement added.

The Saints also noted that their players have stood for the anthem in every game since the franchise’s creation in 1967 save for one contest.

“[The exception is] the Week Three Game at Carolina when a few of our players did sit,” they said of the team’s Sept. 24 matchup with the Carolina Panthers.

Wells was chosen for the People’s Health Champion Award, which is given to people who have “significant accomplishments” and have reached “senior citizen status.”

The former Navy officer declined the honor, however, due to the recurring demonstrations by NFL employees during “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“I am unable, in good conscience, to enter a NFL stadium while this discourtesy prevails,” he wrote to executives of Peoples Health and the Saints.

“I had hoped and prayed that the NFL would outlaw these disgraceful protests and wanted to give the commissioner and the owners a fair opportunity to do so,” Wells added.

“Their failure to act is a slap in the face to all those who served in uniform. Men and women have fought and died for the flag that players are disrespecting.”

Scores of NFL employees have knelt during the national anthem since President Trump criticized the move in September.

Trump called on the NFL to fire employees who perform the gesture, and he has since repeatedly argued it is unpatriotic.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the anthem in 2016 to protest America’s racial injustice.

The act has since divided NFL fans into those who find it disrespectful to the U.S. and others who believe it is a valid act of free speech.

We asked veterans how they really feel about the NFL anthem protests.

(video at link)


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
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To: markomalley

Birgdog would gladly to 3 a week.


21 posted on 11/03/2017 7:28:00 AM PDT by rawcatslyentist (TETELESTI Read em and weep Lucy! Yer times almost up.)
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To: markomalley

I knew a John Wells in Baton Rouge. He was the official state calligrapher and forged some of the documents in the great escape. I wonder if this is his son?


22 posted on 11/03/2017 7:28:42 AM PDT by panzerkamphwageneinz
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To: The_Republic_Of_Maine

This week the Jaguars are finally back in town against the Bungles. Their only appearance at home after the London debacle was the loss to the Rams and the stadium looked like the game had already ended but that was at kickoff.

This weekend is the annual Blue Angels Air Show in Jacksonville, this time at Jax NAS. Every other year it is at the beaches at Mayport NS. This is a very heavy military town to boot so the gametime pics might even be worse than the Rams.

Next weekend they are home again but it is Veterans Day and there is a movement planned weeks ago to ask all veteran ticket holders to boycott that game.


23 posted on 11/03/2017 7:29:08 AM PDT by mazda77
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To: markomalley

Sheriff David Clarke: NFL Players Should Tell Chicago ‘Gangbangers’ to ‘Put the Guns Down’
The Politistick ^ | OCTOBER 17, 2017 | MATTHEW K. BURKE

Posted on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 1:10:36 AM by Mr. Mojo IN

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3596032/posts

Responding to progressive propagandist Trevor Noah, host of “The Daily Show,” who has been hosting his show from Chicago, where he has been bashing conservatives for highlighting the longtime Democrat-controlled city’s astronomical murder rate, despite having some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clark appeared on FOX Business to discuss not only Chicago but also the anti-American NFL protests against the American flag and the National Anthem.

Sheriff Clarke accused Trevor Noah of trying to downplay Chicago’s murder rate because it sheds a negative light on the Democrat Party and that it’s Obama’s adopted hometown.

“They are trying to find a statistic that takes the ugliness off of this,” Clarke said. “There’s a lot of people here whose hands have been in this including Barack Obama, including [Democrat Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel who’s has thrown the Chicago police department under the bus. There’s the academia with their inane social engineering, soft on crime policies.

You have a lenient court system. But here’s the one common threat that really bothers me that weaves through all of this including the other cities that he [Trevor Noah] tried to hide behind — St. Louis, Chicago or Detroit and Cleveland — black victims, overwhelmingly, black people are slaughtered in the streets in these American cities and the perpetrators are black as well.”

“It is funny to me, and I don’t mean that rhetorically, that when one police officer — and what is it anomaly in the United States — kills a black man –whether armed or not — all of a sudden the town is burned down but these people in these great cities, good people, many of these children, a nine-year-old in the city of Chicago can get gunned down,” Sheriff Clarke said. “And what do we get out of people like Noah and others? Yawns. Black lives matter? Where are they?” he asked.

David Clarke then tied the issue into the NFL protests, stating that if the NFL players truly wanted to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Black Americans, they would go into Chicago in the high crime areas and insist that the “gangbangers” put down their guns and stop shooting people.

“Where is the NFL Players Association? Why aren’t they down in these streets of St. Louis? There is NFL team in Detroit and Cleveland and Chicago. Where are these players? Why aren’t they in the streets asking for calm, if they think this is so simple?

If they think the police are screwing this up and the crazy injustice they’re talking about, why don’t they go down to the City of Chicago and also these other cities and why don’t they ask for peace?

Why don’t they tell these gangbangers, who should be locked up in prison, tell them to put the guns down? No, all we hear is this grandstanding on the NFL sidelines over the National Anthem. This stuff is crazy.”

Fox Business host Liz MacDonald noted at the beginning of the segment that Trevor Noah conveniently left out the fact that 59 people were murdered in the month of September alone — the exact same number who died in the recent Las Vegas mass murder.


24 posted on 11/03/2017 7:33:00 AM PDT by mosesdapoet (Mosesdapoet aka L.J.Keslin)
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To: markomalley

Dear Nfl,

We as fans have decided that we are not watching you as a form of protest. Like you are protesting the very small percentage of bad police officers by sitting/kneeling/farting/whatever during the national anthem, we are protesting also.

You may ask what are we protesting? We are protesting the very small percentage of NFL players who beat their wives and girlfriends. We are against violence of women. You say, well that’s not many of us and most of us do great works. We understand that, but that does not seem to factor into your calculations concerning the police. A vast majority of police are fine upstanding citizens who do wonderful things in the community also.

You should be happy concerning our activism. After all, we are just following your lead. Thanks for showing us the way....


25 posted on 11/03/2017 7:35:52 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: markomalley

[We will not allow Mr. [John] Wells’ decision and subsequent media appearances to distract our players and organization from continuing to honor and support our military and veterans,” the Saints said in a statement Thursday, according to ESPN.]

So according to the Saints Org he’s the enemy now, got it. These idiots are clueless.


26 posted on 11/03/2017 7:41:17 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (My "White Privilege is my work ethic.)
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To: markomalley

FUNFL


27 posted on 11/03/2017 7:46:37 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
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To: markomalley

I wouldn’t good for the Veteran! No awarding business can change the gross insult of players disrespecting our country. GTH NFL!!


28 posted on 11/03/2017 7:50:39 AM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, they're excreted." -- Marcus Tillius Cicero)
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To: MayflowerMadam

I’m sure Bowe Bergdahl is still available . . . he is more along the line of the pond scum the NFL appreciates and honors.


29 posted on 11/03/2017 7:55:50 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress (http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/BYTOPICS/tabid/335/Default.aspx D)
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To: Pilgrim's Progress

Hood rats in NFL uniforms gonna find out that “they be killin de golden goose”. FUNFL


30 posted on 11/03/2017 8:03:05 AM PDT by Fred911 (YOU GET WHAT YOU ACCEPT)
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To: markomalley
“[Our organization has an] unwavering 50-plus year commitment to honor, support and recognize our servicemen and women and veterans,” the statement added.

FAKE NEWS

31 posted on 11/03/2017 8:14:12 AM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Fred911

What the NFL is doing, in my opinion (and I am unanimous in it), is no different than G.I.’s being spat upon when they returned from Vietnam. It is the NFL doing the spitting this time.


32 posted on 11/03/2017 8:14:50 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress (http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/BYTOPICS/tabid/335/Default.aspx D)
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To: stars & stripes forever

So what did the Saints ownership do? Crickets.


33 posted on 11/03/2017 8:18:35 AM PDT by Kozy (new age haruspex; "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.")
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To: markomalley

Glad to read this.


34 posted on 11/03/2017 8:26:11 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: markomalley
Rock on, Cmdr Wells!


35 posted on 11/03/2017 8:30:33 AM PDT by SparkyBass
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To: markomalley

If you can’t honor the flag and anthem of the United States of America, then your “honor” isn’t worth spit.


36 posted on 11/03/2017 8:38:18 AM PDT by AZLiberty (The logical endpoint of "zero-tolerance history" is zero history.)
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To: markomalley

The NFL has no honor!

Dawson: Well, what do we do then, sir? We joined the Marines because we wanted to live our lives by a certain code and we found it in the Corps. Now you’re asking us to sign a piece of paper that says we have no honor. You’re asking us to say that we’re not Marines. If a court decides that what we did was wrong, then I’ll accept whatever punishment they give. I believe I was right. I believe I did my job. But I will not dishonor MYSELF, MY UNIT, OR THE CORPS SO THAT I CAN GO HOME IN SIX MONTHS! Sir.


37 posted on 11/03/2017 8:46:36 AM PDT by Garvin (Add rember folks, kill a commie for mommy ~ Semper Fi, Mac!)
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To: Pilgrim's Progress

Just announced that Bowe won’t get any jail time.


38 posted on 11/03/2017 8:46:59 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (A person's greatest strength is his greatest weakness.)
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To: headstamp 2
So according to the Saints Org he’s the enemy now, got it.
Yeah, that was my thought too. Amazingly stupid people, saying amazingly stupid things.
39 posted on 11/03/2017 8:50:52 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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