WHAT WILL YOU DO INSTEAD OF WATCH THE SUPER BOWL?

boblonsberry.com ^ | 01/23/18 | Bob Lonsberry

[shortstop]

We’ll still have a Super Bowl party.

There just won’t be any football.

We’ll leave the TV off, ignore the alerts on the phone, and enjoy the company of family and friends.

If the NFL doesn’t respect my country or my service, then I won’t respect it.

Yes, this is about the anthem. It’s also about the NFL’s attitude, and the recent insult it offered a leading veterans group.

Here’s the story.

A few weeks ago, the National Football League approached a veterans group of which I am a member – AMVETS – and asked it if it wanted to put an advertisement in the printed program commemorating whichever number Super Bowl it is they’re playing in a couple of weeks.

The NFL burned a lot of red, white and blue bridges this year and it is trying to rehabilitate its image with the folks who left its stadiums and telecasts in droves. Thus the solicitation of a veterans organization for a place of honor in the official game program.

All for just $30,000.

Donating the space to an organization representing veterans was apparently never on the table.

Which shouldn’t surprise anybody. Salutes to the military have always been huge money makers for the NFL. That organization has all the patriotism the taxpayers can afford.

So the NFL wanted to AMVETS to pay so that the NFL could wrap itself in AMVETS glory.

And AMVETS said yes.

The AMVETS executive director, Joe Chenelly, told me yesterday that he agreed to the NFL’s terms, and committed to buying a display ad.

A few days later, he sent it in.

That’s when the crap hit the fan.

The AMVETS ad is a simple vertical rectangle. It has a background of sky blue with a paragraph of text and the AMVETS logo at the bottom. In the left center, stretching from top to bottom, is the photographic profile of an Air Force color guard holding one flag – the American flag.

To the right of that imprinted on the sky blue, in black ink, is the hashtag “#PleaseStand.”

The NFL said no.

There was back and forth. There were efforts to keep from losing the $30,000 sale. But at the end of the day, the NFL wouldn’t budge. Apparently in its world, #TakeAKnee is free speech, but #PleaseStand isn’t.

Apparently, football players have a right to be heard but military veterans don’t.

And thus is demonstrated the hypocrisy of the NFL.

It cowered all year before its players, even tacitly offering them hundreds of millions of dollars to stop protesting, and saw between 10 and 30 percent of its customer base disappear.

And still it gets it wrong.

Still it disrespects a simple group of veterans who want to express a viewpoint.

Basically, the NFL told the veterans to go screw themselves.

So I’m going to return the favor.

I’m going to watch something else. I can eat chips and have fun with my family without there being a football game playing in the background. I can with the Super Bowl what an increasing number of people did this year with the National Football League – forget that it exists.

It’s a pretty easy decision, really. It’s like one of those elementary-school math problems, where you use little signs to indicate whether something is greater than, lesser than or equal to something else.

First question: My love of country and my interest in football.

First answer: My love of country is greater than my interest in football.

Second question: My respect for the judgement of professional athletes and my respect for the judgement of honorably discharged veterans of the American military.

Second answer: My respect for the judgement of professional athletes is less than my respect for the judgement of honorably discharged veterans of the American military.

Third question: My loyalty to the NFL and my loyalty to a pile of dog crap.

Third answer: My loyalty to the NFL is equal to my loyalty to a pile of dog crap.

You can go to war so a bunch of fat-cat millionaire jocks can piss on the flag and the country, but you can’t say what you want in an ad that you have to pay $30,000 for?

Apparently that’s how the NFL says to America’s veterans: Thank you for your service.

So I won’t be tuning in.

Next Sunday or next year.

Because I won’t stand for those who won’t stand for our anthem.

And I won’t support an athletic league that provides a forum for contempt for country but not for love of country.

[clintonh8r]

I had planned to watch too, until I heard about the NFL’s rejection of the ad. Now as far as I’m concerned they can all fk themselves, “Patriots”, Iggles, Goodell, the whole rotten gang....

[GnuThere]

Yes, the puppies frolic and drool, no kneeling there!

[al_c]

When do the Olympics start? Curling would be a better option than the Super Bowl.

[Paddyboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGnyzh3IfcA

[Polyxene]

Read, then watch the next episode of Victoria.

[BenLurkin]

Probably be playing the same old video game and checking in here from time to time.

[morphing libertarian]

Missing my second in a row. Just finished by second season boycotting.

I may come to FR and cuss out the people on the inevitable SB thread. Or I could re-organize my sock drawer. Either are preferable to watching spoiled millionaires insult the war dead and wounded in my family.

[Empireoftheatom48]

I’m with you, I’ll be watching. I’ve been an Eagles fan for 60+ years and have watched them in the Super Bowl twice. We have four generations of Army and Navy service with my Son being active duty Navy. He will be watching too. I know the kneeling players are idiots. It’s also true that we have a Great Christian Quaterback in Carson Wentz.

[sima_yi]

Calculus II homework.

[Southern Magnolia]

What I like to do is shop the near empty stores. That’s been my favorite “super bowl tradition” since the late 80’s-early 90’s.

Walmart is usually a ghost town during the first half. Mad rush of people during halftime, then depending on who’s playing/winning/losing, it starts to fill up.

[Alberta's Child]

I’ll probably go to the zoo. At least THOSE animals appreciate the people who feed them.

[Aevery_Freeman]

This is a dilema.

I can't decide between watching "The Patriot","We Were Aoldiers","Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" on TV or going to the movies to see "12 Strong".

[Dandy]

I will be doing what I normally do. Whatever I want. Haven’t watched a NFL game is years and don’t care for it at all.

[elcid1970]

“Watch youtube videos about WWII...”

Now yer talkin’! At least you learn something by watching history unfold.

Unlike watching ungrateful millionaire thugs with attitude.

[refermech]

Same here,I want Tom and Belechec to get number six. I want to see the old guys win.

[Right Brother]

Play darts.

[hoagy62]

What will I do? Probably what I do every Sunday. Go to church, come home, make lunch for the family, consume said lunch, and then sit back in my easy chair and relax. Probably even take a nap. It will be the first time in several years that the Super Bowl has not been on my TV. But, after this year, and especially what I read up above about AMVETS...Never again.

[SpinnerWebb]

I will be at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya all-inclusive, ordering my 17th margarita.

[BykrBayb]

There’s a restaurant/ sports bar in Greenville, SC that has been refusing to show NFL programming on its televisions, until they stop the protests. Weather and health permitting, my husband and I plan to spend Super Bowl Sunday there.

http://palmettorestaurantalehouse.com
Palmetto Restaurant and Alehouse
(864) 288-3800
103 East Beacon Drive
Greenville SC 29615

[1217Chic]

Cook....sip.....no football....who cares....