Friday, October 6, 2017

Boycott the National Football League on Veteran's Day


These are the first five paragraphs of a September 25, 2017 story on the Pittsburgh affiliate of CBS-TV,  The link in the second paragraph and the tweet after the fourth paragraph were both included in their story.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Alejandro Villanueva jersey sales are skyrocketing after he was the lone member of the Pittsburgh Steelers to stand for the national anthem before Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears.

On Fanatics.com Villanueva’s jersey is now the top selling Steelers jersey, and one of the top selling jerseys in the entire NFL.

The rest of the Steelers remained in the locker room and tunnel behind Villanueva during the national anthem.

NFL fans were moved by Villanueva’s decision to emerge from the tunnel and stand for the anthem with his hand over his heart.
Villanueva is an ex-Army Ranger who served three tours in Afghanistan and is a bronze star recipient.

I found the photo below with a search for photos of him standing when his teammates were hiding.

These other websites have similar stories, all dated the same day (September 25, 2017).  Every website name is a clickable link to their story.
ESPN CBS Sports CNN - Money Sports Illustrated
The Blaze Fox Business USA Today The Sporting News
The Daily Wire New York Daily News Penn Live The Washington Examiner
Town Hall Business Insider Red State The New York Post

This is the title of the video on the left.


"Fans boo kneeling New Orleans Saints players during tribute to fallen New Orleans Police Department officer"

The news story quoted above mentions a website that sells his jersey.  This is one place where you can buy it, for men or women.  You can also buy his jersey (for men) on the NFL Shop, the Pittsburbh Steelers Fan Shop, Dick's Sporting Goods, and on Fan's Edge.

Women and children can buy his jersey on this page of the Steeler's Store.


The first of these two videos, uploaded by CBS This Morning in May 2014, shows the military background of Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva.  The second video shows him at a September 25, 2017 press conference.
The photo below appears on the January 20, 2017 page of Barstool Sports, which is titled, "Steeler's Left Tackle And Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva Explains Why He Was Awarded A Bronze Star With Valor".


These are the first five paragraphs of an August 20, 2015 E.S.P.N. story,
The text came just after noon.

We have a late practice today and I think we get done at 1930, could I call you then or would that be too late?

You can take the man out of the military -- and improbably put him inside the locker room of one of the NFL's most storied franchises -- but not the military out of the man.  To Alejandro Villanueva, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger who served three tours in Afghanistan, 7:30 p.m. will always be 1930, military time.

"That's him," said Mike Munchak, the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive line coach and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  "You'd love to have 50 guys like him."

By next month, Villanueva hopes to be one of Pittsburgh's final 53.  To hear those inside the Steelers' organization tell it, the 26-year-old has a legitimate shot at making the opening-day roster despite not having played in a football game since 2009, his senior year at Army.
This is the fourth paragraph.

"That's him," said Mike Munchak, the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive line coach and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  "You'd love to have 50 guys like him."

This photograph of Alejandro Villanueva, and the caption below it, were in the September 25, 2017 ESPN story, one of 16 news stories that are linked earlier on this page.

Alejandro Villanueva stood outside the tunnel for the national anthem while his Steelers teammates remained in the locker room. AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

This is the complete text of a September 27, 2017 story on the Pittsburgh affiliate of CBS-TV,  The link in the second paragraph was in their story.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Tens of thousands upset over NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem are planning a boycott of the NFL.

A Facebook group now has more than 70,000 members calling for a boycott of all NFL games on Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 12-13.

The group is encouraging people to avoid watching football on both Sunday and Monday to show support for veterans.

The Facebook event states: “We will be not be watching or listening to NFL games on November 12th in solidarity with veterans around the country, as football players have continued to disrespect the national anthem, the American flag, and everything our nation stands for.”

The following videos show the protests by NFL fans of NFL players. All of these players have the advantage and the privilege of being American citizens, protected, as we all are, most of the time, from the world's worst tyrants and terrorists.

This video was uploaded by Inside Edition on September 12, 2016
This video was uploaded by the Associated Press on September 27, 2017
This video was uploaded by Breaking News Today on September 29, 2017
 Being an American citizen means that the entire U.S. Military does a good job of protecting you (and the players) from the world's worst tyrants and terrorists.

The flag of the United States represents a country whose Bill of Rights, part of the U.S. Constitution, gives all Americans the right to practice our religion, the right to express our political thoughts, and many other rights.

These players have privileges that most of the world doesn't have, but they don't know it.

These are a few of the veterans that Alejandro is honoring

The following news stories are arranged in chronological order, oldest first.

These are the first five paragraphs of a March 24, 2007 Washington Post story.  The two photographs after the story were found with a search.
Under a brilliant midday sun, hundreds of mourners gathered at the grave of Spec. Ross Andrew McGinnis yesterday to pay their respects to a teenager who, in accepting death, saved the lives of four men.

The 19-year-old Army gunner from the outskirts of Pittsburgh was on patrol in Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighborhood Dec. 4 when a grenade sailed through his hatch and into the Humvee, according to official military accounts.

When he realized the four soldiers inside would not be able to escape in time, he leapt into the vehicle and covered the grenade with his body, taking the full brunt of the explosion.

"He had the opportunity to escape," his father, Thomas McGinnis, said in an interview before the funeral. "He chose not to."

Ross McGinnis was posthumously promoted from private first class to specialist and awarded the Silver Star. He has also been nominated for the Medal of Honor.
The promotion that he received postumously (after he died) means that his family will be able to receive more financial benefits as a result of his sacrifice.  Link to a U.S. Government website that explains this.

The photograph of his gravestone is on the website of Arlington National Cemetery.

These are the first seven paragraphs of a March 29, 2012 ABC News story.
It is a compelling war-zone story of heroism of a U.S. soldier who gave his own life to save an Afghan girl from certain injury.

Sgt. Dennis Weichel, 29, died in Afghanistan last week as he lifted an Afghan girl who was in the path of a large military vehicle barreling down a road.

Weichel, a Rhode Island National Guardsman, was riding along in a convoy in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan when some children were spotted on the road ahead.

The children were picking up shell casings lying on the road.  The casings are recycled for money in Afghanistan.  Weichel and other soldiers in the convoy got out of their vehicles to get them out of the way of  the heavy trucks in the convoy.

The children were moved out of the way, but an Afghan girl darted back onto the road to pick up some more casings that lay underneath a passing MRAP, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle.  The huge armored trucks can weigh as much as 16 tons and are designed to protect the troops they carry from roadside bombs.

Weichel spotted the girl and quickly moved toward her to get her out of the way.  He  succeeded, but not before he was run over by the heavily armored truck.  The girl was safe, but Weichel later died of his injuries.  He had arrived in Afghanistan  a few weeks ago and had been a member of the Rhode Island National Guard since 2001.

Lt. Col. Denis Riel, a spokesman for the Rhode Island National Guard, said Weichel embodied values that can't be taught. "I have heard nothing but incredible stuff about this kid, selfless beyond our core values that we live up to," Riel said.  "As I hear more from family and others, he was the living embodiment of the Army's core values: courageous, selfless and loyal.  All values we expect from our soldiers.  We mourn all combat deaths, but this one is a significant loss."
"... he was the living embodiment of the Army's core values: courageous, selfless and loyal."


The photograph of his casket being carried to the cemetery is included in this April 2, 2012 Daily Mail story.
The Daily Mail story was updated on August 13, 2012 because of a reporting error in April.  The child he saved was a boy, not a girl.

These are the first four paragraphs of a May 4, 2016 Chicago Tribune story.
Charlie Keating IV was famous for his family but made a name for himself as a star distance runner at his Phoenix high school and then as a Navy SEAL.

He was shot and killed Tuesday in Iraq during a gunbattle that involved more than 100 Islamic State fighters, Army Col. Steve Warren said.  The Navy Petty Officer 1st Class was part of a quick reaction force that moved in to help American military advisers who came under attack.

He's the third American serviceman to die in combat in Iraq since the U.S.-led coalition launched its campaign against the Islamic State group in summer 2014, military officials said.

"Like so many brave Americans who came before him, Charlie sacrificed his life in honorable service to our nation for a cause greater than self-interest, which we can never truly repay," U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement.
"Like so many brave Americans who came before him, Charlie sacrificed his life in honorable service to our nation for a cause greater than self-interest, which we can never truly repay," U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement.

These are the first four paragraphs of a May 13, 2016 story on the website of the ABC-News affiliate in San Diego, California.
SAN DIEGO - A San Diego-based Navy SEAL killed in action in Iraq last week was laid to rest at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Friday following an enormous display of support from grateful members of the public.

Petty Officer First Class Charles H. Keating IV, 31, was fatally shot in a May 3 battle with Islamic State forces in Tall Usquf, Iraq.  According to the Navy, ISIS broke through the front lines north of the city of Mosul, and Keating's SEAL team and air support were called in to repel the attack.

A funeral service was held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Coronado, after which a hearse carrying his body and a long procession of vehicles wound their way through the city and across the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge.

Thousands of people -- including students let out from Coronado schools -- lined the route to pay tribute to the fallen SEAL.
This one-minute video was uploaded by
The Associated Press on May 13, 2016
 "Thousands of people -- including students let out from Coronado schools -- lined the route to pay tribute to the fallen SEAL."
"Thousands of people -- including students let out from Coronado schools -- lined the route to pay tribute to the fallen SEAL."

... but the millionaires shown in the following photos don't  know and don't want to know what our nation, represented by our flag, does for them every single day.

Ungrateful Miami Dolphins on the left and ungrateful Cleveland Browns on the right.

Ungrateful New Orleans Saints kneel because they're deliberately ignorant of the sacrifices that the U.S. military has made for people all over the world.
These ungrateful players may play for New England, but they're definitely not patriots.
The ungrateful players shown below are on the Baltimore Ravens team, which ignores the contribution of the team called the U.S. military.


These are the first two paragraphs of an October 16, 2017 article published on the N.F.L. website and written by an N.F.L. reporter.  The links in these paragraphs were in the article.
The letters and emails have poured into team offices -- angry ones, some from military veterans -- and then there are the boxes of returned team merchandise and tickets and the worried calls from local sponsors about what they are hearing from their own customers.  In the three weeks since the president first attacked NFL players who have protested racial inequality and injustice by not standing for the national anthem before games -- it has felt much longer to practically everyone in the league -- the controversy has overwhelmed virtually everything else this season.

On Tuesday, before a regularly-scheduled meeting of the league's owners in New York, players, their union's leaders and owners will gather to try to find a way to move on.  Players have been meeting with a handful of owners and league executives since August, discussing ways the league could support players' efforts on social issues.  But while a joint statement released last week by the league and the union emphasized that there has been no change to the league's current policy, which does not require players to stand for the anthem, the hope for this meeting is that players and owners might at least move toward a solution that will bring most of the protests to an end, while also advancing the players' goals.
The previous article still fails to show the connection between the player protests and the fan's anger, shown by videos like these.


The photo below is the U.S.S. Constellation.  The quote next to it is on this page of Encyclopedia Britannica.  Their word "harbour" is spelled correctly in the British version of the English language.
The U.S. Navy’s first ship, the Constellation, was launched in Baltimore in 1797, and its namesake, the last all-sail warship built (1854) for the navy, has been moored in the city’s harbour since 1955;
Armed ships in the U.S. Navy, like armed soldiers in the U.S. Army, and later, armed U.S. Marines and Airmen who fly armed warplanes, all contribute to the safety and the security of the most powerful nation in the world.

Even though the United States could use its' military power to claim land from Mexico at any time in the near future, we haven't done that in over 150 years, and we've never taken any land away from Canada since America became a country in 1776.  If we wanted to, we could take control over Mexico and all central America, including the Panama Canal, but we want peace with our neighbors, unlike Germany in the late 1910s and again in the late 1930s.  Russia has had many episodes of hunger for land that was close to it.  That's why they took over eastern Europe in the 1920s and renamed it the Soviet Union.


The ungrateful football players mentioned above are deliberately ignorant of the proud history of our country, which has been protecting people all around the world from tyrants and terrorists even when it costs servicemen and women their own lives.
Show these ungrateful players, their ungrateful coaches, and the ungrateful NFL Commissioner that you appreciate the sacrifice of the U.S. military and the nation that our flag represents.

Don't go to any NFL game on Veteran's Day, the day before it, or either of the two days after it.
The following tweet includes a graphic that said that more than half of the current players in the N.F.L. have been convicted of felonies.  If you click on the date at the end of the tweet, you will see the tweet and the graphic, as they appeared on his timeline.
Link to a September 25, 2017 Daily Wire article on this subject.

Link to an undated page that gives detailed information about 15 N.F.L. players who have committed very serious crimes, including murder.


Boycott the NFL on Veteran's Day!!


Important notes:

This page included some news stories that were published after this blog page was published.  Those stories, and a few others, have been moved to a blog page that was published on October 11, 2017.  That new page is devoted to updates and a quick look at CNN's journalism standards.  Their news stories describe President Trump very differently than their past stories described President Obama.

By the way, I'm not a fan of either person, and there are different reasons for each of them.  Please read my May 26, 2016 article in American Thinker, which explains why I wrote the name "Ted Cruz" on my ballot in November 2016.

Another related page was published October 14, 2017 called The Economics of the N.F.L. Boycott.  This page has information about the revenue sources of the league and the teams.  It also has information about the reduced audience for N.F.L. games that are broadcast on television.

These tweet were all added on May 23, 2018.






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