The NFL “Difference”

We have all wondered why many NFL players take the actions they take during the National Anthem before their games. Here’s why:

“GROW UP AND ACT LIKE MEN”

by Anonymous

You graduated high school in 2011.  Your teenage years were a struggle.  You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.  Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate.  Academics were a struggle for you and your grades were mediocre at best. The only thing that made you stand out is you weighed 225 pounds and could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds while carrying a football, or you could slip down the line and make a tackle with regularity.

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 or some other minimum wage-jobs that serious students often work.  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 attended class when you felt like it. Sure, you worked hard.  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 Americans 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 Black Hawk helicopter with ten other combat-loaded soldiers.  You will sleep at the Ritz.  He will dig a hole in the ground and try to sleep or live in wooden makeshift barracks which might be lucky enough to have air conditioning.  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 his great country and is still alive.

To the players of the NFL:  We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, and wear your jerseys.  Some anxiously wait for Sundays so they can cheer for you and marvel at your athleticism. Although many love to watch you play, they care little about your opinions until you offend our flag, our country and 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.   Many should be ashamed for putting their admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right, honorable and good for this nation.  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. Millionaire spoiled brats deserve neither our respect nor sympathy. Grow up and act like men instead of puppets of the radical left who hate America.

My thanks to Pat Chapman for sharing this with us. It explains a lot, doesn’t it?