(KGME) Colin Kaepernick sparked national outrage when he first refused to stand for the national anthem during the team's preseason game against the Green Bay Packers on August 26th.
Fans were calling for him to be released, other NFL owners were saying they would never sign him and this became a heated debate throughout the country.
On September 1st, Kaepernick's teammate Eric Reid was the first player to join Kaepernick's protest and they both took a knee during the national anthem. Since then several players from multiple teams have followed Kaepernick's lead and have kneeled as well.
Marine Colonel, Jeffrey A. Powers is sick of it. So he wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
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?
Read more the full letter on Fox Sports 910 AM Phoenix
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