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An open letter to the NFL players,<\/strong><\/p>\n An open letter to the NFL players, You graduated high school in 2011.\u00a0 Your teenage years were a struggle.\u00a0 You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.\u00a0 Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate.\u00a0 Academics were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19382,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19378\/revisions\/19382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\n\n\n\n\nYou graduated high school in 2011.\u00a0 Your teenage years were a struggle.\u00a0 You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.\u00a0 Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate.\u00a0 Academics were a struggle for you and your grades were mediocre at best. \u00a0The 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nYour best friend was just like you, except he didn\u2019t play football.\u00a0 Instead of going to football practice after school, he went to work at McDonalds for minimum wage.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They laid out the red carpet for you. Your best friend worked double shifts at Mickey D\u2019s.\u00a0 College was not an option for him.\u00a0 On the day you signed with Big State University, your best friend signed paperwork with his Army recruiter.\u00a0 You went to summer workouts.\u00a0 He went to basic training.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nYou spent the next four years living in the athletic dorm and eating at the training table. \u00a0You spent your Saturdays on the football field, cheered on by adoring fans.\u00a0 Tutors attended to your every academic need.\u00a0 You attended class when you felt like it. \u00a0Sure, you worked hard\u2026you lifted weights, ran sprints, studied plays, and soon became one of the top football players in the country.\u00a0 Your best friend was assigned to the 101st<\/sup>Airborne Division. \u00a0While you were in college, he deployed to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice.\u00a0 He became a Sergeant and led a squad of 19 year old soldiers who grew up just like he did.\u00a0 He shed his blood in Afghanistan and watched young American’s give their lives, limbs, and innocence for the USA.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nYou went to the NFL combine and scored off the charts.\u00a0 You hired an agent and waited for draft day.\u00a0 You were drafted in the first round and your agent immediately went to work, ensuring that you received the most money possible. \u00a0You signed for $16 million\u2026although you had never played a single down of professional football.\u00a0 Your best friend re-enlisted in the Army for four more years. \u00a0As a combat tested sergeant, he will be paid $32,000 per year.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nYou will drive a Ferrari on the streets of South Be ach.\u00a0 He will ride in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter with 10 other combat loaded soldiers.\u00a0 You will sleep at the Ritz.\u00a0 He will dig a hole in the ground and try to sleep.\u00a0 You will \u201cmake it rain\u201d in the club.\u00a0 He will pray for rain as the temperature reaches 120 degrees.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOn Sunday, you will run into a stadium as tens of thousands of fans cheer and yell your name.\u00a0 For your best friend, there is little difference between Sunday and any other day of the week.\u00a0 There are no adoring fans.\u00a0 There are only people trying to kill him and his soldiers. \u00a0Every now and then, he and his soldiers leave the front lines and \u201cgo to the rear\u201d to rest.\u00a0 He might be lucky enough to catch an NFL game on TV.\u00a0 When the National Anthem plays and you take a knee, he will jump to his feet and salute the television.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTo the players of the NFL:\u00a0 We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, and wear your jerseys.\u00a0 We anxiously wait for Sundays so we can cheer for you and marvel at your athleticism. \u00a0Although we love to watch you play, we care little about your opinions until you offend us. \u00a0You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you.\u00a0 We have tolerated your drug use and DUIs, your domestic violence, and your vulgar displays of wealth.\u00a0 We should be ashamed for putting our admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right.\u00a0 But now you have gone too far. \u00a0You have insulted our flag, our country, our soldiers, our police officers, and our veterans. \u00a0You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country.\u00a0 I am done with NFL football and encourage all like-minded Americans to boycott the NFL as well.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNational 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!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n* Note, I did not write this letter, it was sent to me by my dear friend Richard Small, however I agree with every line of it! \u00a0Please share this with your friends, and show your support by posting a message here, I am joining you in the boycott!!!<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBlessings,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n
the pilgrim<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n* A personal note: \u00a0I love football, played in High School, and have followed \u00a0both college and NFL my whole life, I have watched every Super Bowl except the one year I was in the Galapagos Islands. \u00a0This breaks my heart, I used to live for this time of year, now I\u00a0can’t force myself to watch even part of an NFL game! I still have college, but I don’t recognize my country anymore!!!!! \u00a0God help us!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"