Open letter to the NFL players...read and share

CaptainCruise · 10-25-17, 01:41 PM

Found this the other day and it hit pretty hard. Check it out and pass it on if you like:

An open letter to the NFL players,

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 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 McDonalds 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 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 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 his 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.

Thanks for reading.....
"CC"

Dowly · 10-25-17, 01:59 PM

How about you go play on a minefield?

Catfish · 10-25-17, 02:19 PM

There is so much wrong in this text.. pretty much sums up what is wrong in this world.

u crank · 10-25-17, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dowly

How about you go play on a minefield?

How about you cut that out?

Dowly · 10-25-17, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by u crank

How about you cut that out?

Why? It was a stupid answer to a equally stupid post.

u crank · 10-25-17, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dowly

Why? It was a stupid answer to a equally stupid post.

Well if you think it was a stupid post why don't you explain why you think that?

Dowly · 10-25-17, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by u crank

Well if you think it was a stupid post why don't you explain why you think that?

Because it accused NFL players who kneeled of a) disrespect the flag b)disrespect the country and c) disrespect the soldiers who fought for their freedom to do just that.

That is my quick, drunken, Finnish explanation of it as I understand it.

PoorOldSpike · 10-25-17, 06:32 PM

Here in Britain we've heard that some US blacks are disrespecting the flag by refusing to stand during the national anthem.
I don't get it! I mean, you'd think they'd be proud to stand for the flag considering it flew at the forefront of the Union's drive to end slavery..

August · 10-25-17, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PoorOldSpike

Here in Britain we've heard that some US blacks are disrespecting the flag by refusing to stand during the national anthem.
I don't get it! I mean, you'd think they'd be proud to stand for the flag considering it flew at the forefront of the Union's drive to end slavery..

Unfortunately according to some folks all the men portrayed in this painting are racists because they are white.

Kazuaki Shimazaki II · 10-25-17, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainCruise

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.

Perhaps all that's needed to counter this is to say that getting overexcited over the flag is also a practice encouraged by Communist China (on Oct 1, people can go to jail for insulting their flag).

Maybe this thought can provoke a rethink in the "patriotic American" that wrote this...

Onkel Neal · 10-25-17, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II

Perhaps all that's needed to counter this is to say that getting overexcited over the flag is also a practice encouraged by Communist China (on Oct 1, people can go to jail for insulting their flag).

Maybe this thought can provoke a rethink in the "patriotic American" that wrote this...

I think because we have so much more real personal and collective freedom than the Chinese is a really big reason seeing the nation's symbol ignorantly disrespected is why it bugs some of us so much.

But you may disagree, I won't try to shut you down.

CaptainCruise · 10-27-17, 03:42 AM

We all have our own opinions on this. Not all of us agree, some of us disagree quite.......vigorously.

But there is one thing I think we can all agree on, and that is this mess is not going away anytime soon. At least until the end of football season, and then some jock in a different sport will probably carry on the cause while his football brother is home for the off season.

My hero's......

Platapus · 11-05-17, 01:33 PM

if this is disrespecting the flag

Then what is this?

Where are the protests?

Buddahaid · 11-05-17, 07:57 PM

But what about this?

August · 11-05-17, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Platapus

Where are the protests?

Maybe intent actually matters eh? Of your two pictures one is intended to be a figurative middle finger to the nation and the other is a spontaneous act of patriotic pride.

10-25-17, 01:41 PM	#1
CaptainCruise Eternal Patrol Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Long Island, New York...home of the 5 gallon economy bucket of "Cruiser's Crunchy Egg Salad"!!! Posts: 141 Downloads: 344 Uploads: 0	Open letter to the NFL players...read and share Found this the other day and it hit pretty hard. Check it out and pass it on if you like: An open letter to the NFL players, 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 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 McDonalds 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 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 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 his 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. Thanks for reading..... "CC"

10-25-17, 02:19 PM	#3
Catfish Dipped Squirrel Operative Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: ..where the ocean meets the sky Posts: 17,765 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	There is so much wrong in this text.. pretty much sums up what is wrong in this world. __________________ >^..^<*)))>{ All generalizations are wrong.

11-05-17, 01:33 PM	#13
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 19,360 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Who is being disrespectful to our flag again? if this is disrespecting the flag Then what is this? Where are the protests? __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

11-05-17, 07:57 PM	#14
Buddahaid Shark above Space Chicken Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 9,319 Downloads: 162 Uploads: 0	But what about this? __________________ "However vast the darkness, we must provide our own light." Stanley Kubrick "Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming." David Bowie

10-25-17, 01:59 PM	#2
Dowly Lucky Jack Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Finland Posts: 25,052 Downloads: 32 Uploads: 0	How about you go play on a minefield?

10-25-17, 06:32 PM	#8
PoorOldSpike Seaman Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Plymouth UK Posts: 38 Downloads: 1 Uploads: 0	Here in Britain we've heard that some US blacks are disrespecting the flag by refusing to stand during the national anthem. I don't get it! I mean, you'd think they'd be proud to stand for the flag considering it flew at the forefront of the Union's drive to end slavery..

10-27-17, 03:42 AM	#12
CaptainCruise Eternal Patrol Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Long Island, New York...home of the 5 gallon economy bucket of "Cruiser's Crunchy Egg Salad"!!! Posts: 141 Downloads: 344 Uploads: 0	We all have our own opinions on this. Not all of us agree, some of us disagree quite.......vigorously. But there is one thing I think we can all agree on, and that is this mess is not going away anytime soon. At least until the end of football season, and then some jock in a different sport will probably carry on the cause while his football brother is home for the off season. My hero's......