Retired USMC Colonel calls out the NFL

Jeffrey Peters is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel who wore the nation's uniform for 26 years.  Now he's written a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Gooddell taking issue with the NFL's non-response to the growing protest against the national anthem.  It reads:

"Commissioner,

I’ve been a season pass holder at Yankee Stadium, Yale Bowl and Giants Stadium.

I missed the ’90-’91 season because I was with a battalion of Marines in Desert Storm. 14 of my wonderful Marines returned home with the American Flag draped across their lifeless bodies. My last conversation with one of them, Sgt Garrett Mongrella, was about how our Giants were going to the Super Bowl. He never got to see it.

Many friends, Marines, and Special Forces Soldiers who worked with or for me through the years returned home with the American Flag draped over their coffins.

Now I watch multi-millionaire athletes who never did anything in their lives but play a game, disrespect what brave Americans fought and died for. They are essentially spitting in the faces and on the graves of real men, men who have actually done something for this country beside playing with a ball and believing they’re something special! They’re not! My Marines and Soldiers were!

You are complicit in this! You’ll fine players for large and small infractions but you lack the moral courage and respect for our nation and the fallen to put an immediate stop to this. Yes, I know, it’s their 1st Amendment right to behave in such a despicable manner.

What would happen if they came out and disrespected you or the refs publicly?
I observed a player getting a personal foul for twerking in the end zone after scoring. I guess that’s much worse than disrespecting the flag and our National Anthem. Hmmmmm, isn’t it his 1st Amendment right to express himself like an idiot in the end zone?

Why is taunting not allowed yet taunting America is OK? You fine players for wearing 9-11 commemorative shoes yet you allow scum on the sidelines to sit, kneel or pump their pathetic fist in the air. They are so deprived with their multi-million dollar contracts for playing a freaking game!

You condone it all by your refusal to act. You’re just as bad and disgusting as they are. I hope Americans boycott any sponsor who supports that rabble you call the NFL. I hope they turn off the TV when any team that allowed this disrespect to occur, without consequence, on the sidelines. I applaud those who have not.
Legends and heroes do NOT wear shoulder pads. They wear body armor and carry rifles.

They make minimum wage and spend months and years away from their families. They don’t do it for an hour on Sunday. They do it 24/7 often with lead, not footballs, coming in their direction. They watch their brothers carted off in pieces not on a gurney to get their knee iced. They don’t even have ice! Many don’t have legs or arms.
Some wear blue and risk their lives daily on the streets of America. They wear fire helmets and go upstairs into the fire rather than down to safety. On 9-11, hundreds vanished. They are the heroes.

I hope that your high paid protesting pretty boys and you look in that mirror when you shave tomorrow and see what you really are, legends in your own minds. You need to hit the road and take those worms with you!

Time to change the channel."

I will be the first to recognize that Colonel Peters has every right to express these sentiments as he had done so eloquently.  I personally do not like these protests and like Colonel Peters I recognize the right of those players who are engaging in them to do so.  We are not required to like it, or agree with it, as long as we remember they are doing nothing more than exercising their right to freedom of expression.

Before I take issue with some of the contents of this letter let me expression another belief of mine.  Those who volunteer to defend our nation do not do so because of a flag.  It is a symbol only.  A revered symbol worthy of our respect, but a symbol nonetheless.  Don't take my word for it.  Let's hear what another retired military officer has to say on the subject.

"American soldiers in battle don’t fight for what some president says on TV, they don’t fight for mom, apple pie, the American flag --- they fight for one another"

That is a quote from Lieutenant General Harold "Hal" Moore, US Army (retired) whose heroism at the Battle of Ia Drang was recognized with the award of the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation's second highest medal for valor.

I am not trying to minimize the importance of our nation's flag or national anthem.  I'm trying to point out that they are symbols of what our nation represents.  Our Founding Fathers felt that freedom of expression was so important that it was listed first in the Bill of Rights.

Yes, it is stupid to penalize NFL players for twerking in the end zone.  But the fact that this penalty exists doesn't make that "worse" than disrespecting the flag/anthem.  It makes it a violation of the rules and like the Marine Corps, the NFL has rules and they are enforced no matter how silly.  

Take the case of former Marine Corps Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling.  She was ordered to remove biblical verses from her desk at work and refused.  She was court-martialed, reduced in rank and given a Bad Conduct Discharge (which means almost no veterans benefits).  She lost her appeal of the discharge last month at the nation's highest court reviewing military issues.

It is inarguable that such conduct where orders are being violated is a bad thing, contrary to the concept of good order and discipline.  Just like excessive celebrations in an NFL end zone are prohibited because they cause delays and are disruptive.  

Let's compare the infraction of Lance Corporal Sterling with that of retired General David Petraeus.  He admitted after retirement that he engaged in an extramarital affair but the military took no action against him for the affair.  Retired officers are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  Adultery is a specific violation of the UCMJ.  Are we to find that displaying a biblical verse is worse than adultery?  Both involve violating orders.

Colonel Peters can call for boycotts and continue to criticize the NFL and those players who continue to protest.  That's what makes our nation great.  But his best move is to follow his own advice at the bottom of his letter.  Change the channel, Colonel.

Edit:

Almost a year later, the protest of NFL players taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem continues.  The argument over whether the failure of Colin Kaepernick to be signed by an NFL team is based on systemic racism, the potential reaction of fans, or his actual value as a quarterback rages.

On a personal level, I do not like these protests.  I also wholeheartedly support the right of these players to do what they are doing.  The NFL would be well within its rights to institute a rule prohibiting such protests.  Wisely, they have not done so. 

Considering that African-Americans make up 68% of the NFL's players, to argue that owners are engaged in racism on an institutional level seems a bit far-fetched.  Would team owners treat a Caucasian quarterback who had done what Kaepernick did any differently?  I believe that if an owner thought that signing Kaepernick would lead his team to the playoffs, he'd sign him in an instant.  Backlash or no backlash.  Fans who threatened to stop buying tickets and watching a team because their signed Kaepernick would come back the moment he began winning games.