An open letter to the NFL players
You graduated high school in 2011. Your teenage years were a struggle. Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate. You stood out because you weighed 225 lbs and could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds while carrying a football... Your best friend was just like you, except he didn’t play football. Instead of going to football practice after school, he went to work at McDonald's for minimum wage. You were recruited by all the big colleges and spent every weekend of your senior year making visits to universities where coaches and boosters tried to convince you their school was best. They laid out the red carpet for you. Your best friend worked double shifts at Mickey D’s. College was not an option for him. On the day you signed with Big State University, your best friend signed paperwork with his Army recruiter. You went to summer workouts. He went to basic training.
You spent the next four years living in the athletic dorm, eating at the training table. You spent your Saturdays on the football field, cheered on by adoring fans. Tutors attended to your every academic need. You lifted weights, ran sprints, studied plays, and soon became one of the top football players in the country. Your best friend was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. While you were in college, he deployed to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice. He became a Sergeant and led a squad of 19-year-old soldiers who grew up just like he did. He shed his blood in Afghanistan and watched young American's give their lives, limbs, and innocence for the USA.
You went to the NFL combine and scored off the charts. You hired an agent and waited for Draft day. You were drafted in the first round and your agent immediately went to work, ensuring that you received the most money possible. You signed for $16 million although you had never played a single down of professional football. Your best friend re-enlisted in the Army for four more years. As a combat-tested sergeant, he will be paid $32,000 per year.
You will drive a Ferrari on the streets of South Beach. He will ride in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter with 10 other combat loaded soldiers. You will sleep at the Ritz. He will dig a hole in the ground and try to sleep. You will “make it rain” in the club. He will pray for rain as the temperature reaches 120 degrees.
On Sunday, you will run into a stadium as tens of thousands of fans cheer and yell your name. For your best friend, there is little difference between Sunday and any other day of the week. There are no adoring fans. There are only people trying to kill him and his soldiers. Every now and then, he and his soldiers leave the front lines and “go to the rear” to rest. He might be lucky enough to catch an NFL game on TV. When the National Anthem plays and you take a knee, he will jump to his feet and salute the television. While you protest the unfairness of life in the United States, he will give thanks to God that he has the honor of defending this great country.
To the players of the NFL: We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, and wear your jerseys. We anxiously wait for Sundays so we can cheer for you and marvel at your athleticism. Although we love to watch you play, we care little about your opinions until you offend us. You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you. We have tolerated your drug use and DUIs, your domestic violence, and your vulgar displays of wealth. We should be ashamed for putting our admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right. But now you have gone too far. You have insulted our flag, our country, our soldiers, our police officers, and our veterans. You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country. I am done with NFL football and encourage all like minded Americans to boycott the NFL as well.--- SHARE, SHARE, SHARE ---
National boycott of the NFL for Sunday November 12th, Veterans Day Weekend. Boycott all football telecast, all fans, all ticket holders, stay away from attending any games, let them play to empty stadiums. Pass this post along to all your friends and family. Honor our military, some of whom come home with the American Flag draped over their coffin.
Please "share, copy, paste , tweet, resteem" to your heart's content. 
All of them are dying in the name of politicians. The flag has now become a tool for them to divide the nation even more. This is why its 2 years in a row trying to make this story bigger than what it is and its working. Weather people like it or not, if you respect freedom and the right to protest than this should be ok. The flag is supposed to represent a lot more than fallen military participants but again people will want it to represent whatever they deem fitting at the time. Its def tragic seeing young people die, especially for wars that are a direct result of the united states previous interventions. But there are a few things to consider as well. The nfl never even televised or made a huge deal of the anthem till a few years ago. The nfl has also for years been a large tax haven and is largley funded by federal and state tax dollars.
People being more upset about a protest and not being upset about the countless wars and meddling with other countries baffles me.
I am glad i am an american. However i am not happy about the military actions or how close it is to being all out socialist. Is it your goal to make standing mandatory? Id hope not for the sake of at least free speech
The players have NO "free speech rights" when they are on the field and in uniform. No employee has such rights while they are on the job. If you want laws changed, change them the proper way and carry on. Until then, quit attacking the nation and its flag, police and military.
Please show me where it says in the nflpa that they cannot do such things. And at any job I've ever had I have never been told what I can and cannot say politically. Show me under labor laws where it says that person cannot make a political statement a political statement. I'm pretty sure in this you're pretty much talking out of your butt. In a nation where we have free speech
Perhaps you should read up on contract law and get back to me.
You have NO #1A rights while working - in fact, since NO government action is involved in this protest, the First Amendment does not apply. Please read the Constitution while you're at it.
Youre a dildo. The constitution says nothing of this either. Get a life. And thicker skin. Hope socialism works out for you man
No going back - NFL is forever dead to me.
That is exactly how I have felt since Picklenick first took a knee.
The Unpatriotic National Felons League...
I'm not interested in watching them.
I quit watching the NFL when I cut my cable. Miss F1 - don't miss those spoiled twits.
some time in the middle part of the last century I was mildly interested in feetsball because I was a feetsball player....peer pressure don't ya know?
Then I discovered gurls...
Never looked back...never even WATCHED a game since then.
That's funny. I swam for George Haines from 1950 into 1958 (my sr. year in hs). I spent three and a tad years swimming for my hs swimming team, then I discovered girls... and got kicked off swim team for dreaming up excuses not to swim any more :-)
Enough water to swim in....imagine that.
Kinda rare when I was a kid...
California was like that - you could not graduate from HS without passing the state's swimming test, so there were pools for most school districts...and lakes filled with the stuff...
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://www.facebook.com/Red-White-Blue-News-143928478973403/
Fantastic post!