“On the Holmes Front, with Frank Holmes”
The overpaid bullies of the NFL have spent the season insulting the flag, police, veterans, and America herself. Now, they want to use the last game of the season to spit in the face of veterans one last time.
The NFL rejected a Super Bowl ad from a national veterans organization that asks players to stop disrespecting our flag and our national anthem.
The league rejected a full-page ad for Super Bowl LII’s program from American Veterans (AMVETS) that shows soldiers holding a flag and asks everyone in the stadium to “#PleaseStand.”
“It’s a simple, polite request that represents the sentiment of our membership, particularly those whose missing or paralyzed limbs preclude standing,” wrote AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
But the NFL said it wouldn’t print the ad – because honoring the flag is too “political”!
Besides, the program is supposed to put players on pedestals, not on notice.
“The Super Bowl game program is designed for fans to commemorate and celebrate the game, players, teams, and the Super Bowl,” said NFL Vice President of Communications Brian McCarthy. “It’s never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement.”
The league claims that telling people to stand for the Stars and Stripes is a controversial statement – but encouraging players to kneel and link arms to protest our flag isn’t?!
McCarthy said the NFL would be happy to take the vets’ money and let them run an ad – as long as it does not carry this patriotic message.
He told the vets to change the wording to “Please Honor our Veterans,” or “Please Stand for Our Veterans.” McCarthy pointed to an ad from the VFW that says, “We Stand For Veterans.”
But telling other people – like the players – that they should stand up and honor our country is off-limits.
The NFL is saying: Who do these veterans think they are to tell football players what to do?!
But the vets say they weren’t the ones who turned the national anthem into a sideshow to put a radical political message.
“We respect the rights of those who choose to protest, as these rights are precisely what our members have fought – and in many cases died – for,” Commander Polk wrote to Goodell.
But the NFL’s “corporate censorship to deny the same rights to those veterans who have secured it for us all is reprehensible and totally beyond the pale.”
The players shouldn’t even need a reminder to stand for the flag and the “Star Spangled Banner” since the two teams who will face off on February 4 have such patriotic names: the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles.
But if pro football’s bigwigs won’t listen to the veterans, maybe they’ll listen to the millions of ex-fans who aren’t watching their game, buying their tickets, or cheering on their anti-American players anymore.
The NFL’s TV ratings are down, and in a major way. “Thursday Night Football” viewership rose in 2016 but fell – sharply – this season.
What’s more, ratings are down because of the players’ political stunts – and they know it.
Most of those 1.5 million ex-viewers said they tuned out the NFL this year because of the national anthem protests, according to a poll from Seton Hall University.
And they’re siding with the league’s biggest enemy: President Trump. One-third of people say they quit watching the NFL “in support of Donald Trump,” according to another poll from Ozy Media.
Patriotic football fans don’t want to watch millionaires complain about how unfair America is – and it’s starting to hit the teams where they live.
In December, NFL tickets were going for as little as $10, $7 – even $2 dollars a ticket!
That made some of the owners finally start to own up to the problem. The week of Christmas, Baltimore Ravens owner Dick Cass sent a letter to seasons-tickets holders admitting that the number of fans skipping the games is “noticeable,” and “surely the one-time (kneeling) protest in London has been a factor.”
If league officials won’t do the right thing for our country, tell them to do it for the money.
There are approximately 18.8 million veterans living in the United States. Around 150 NFL players kneeled during week three of the season, the height of the protest.
Give up, Goodell. They’ve got you surrounded!
Every reader can help the NFL do the right thing, right now.
Call the NFL at (212) 450-2000, and tell them to run AMVETS ad – even to run a picture of the advertisement as a PSA on the Jumbotron before the game.
Tell them players who break NFL rules by kneeling during the national anthem should be fired.
Tell them you won’t be watching the Super Bowl – or any other game – unless they do.
We owe our veterans a debt we can never repay. The least we can do it pay them the honor and respect they deserve.
— Frank Holmes is a reporter for The Horn News. He is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”