Pentagon spent $9 million for ‘paid patriotism’
Arizona senators condemn staged marketing displays
The Pentagon paid more than $9 million to professional sports franchises the past four years to stage phony “paid patriotism” events, Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain disclosed Wednesday.
The events included full-field displays of the American flag, enlistment and re-enlistment ceremonies and emotional reunion events in which a servicemember returned to the surprise of family members.
“Unsuspecting audience members became the subjects of paid marketing campaigns rather than simply bearing witness to teams’ authentic, voluntary shows of support for the brave men and women who wear our nation’s uniform,” the report by the Arizona Republicans said.
“It is hard to understand how a team accepting taxpayer funds to sponsor a military appreciation game, or to recognize wounded warriors or returning troops, can be construed as anything other than paid patriotism,” it said. McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The advertising-marketing contracts were intended to help with recruiting, but the military has no hard evidence they were effective. Many of the agreements involved the National Guard.
Among the biggest beneficiaries were NFL teams, which were paid more than $6 million. The Atlanta Falcons received $879,000; the New England Patriots, $700,000; and the Buffalo Bills, $650,000. The Atlanta Braves received $450,000, the most of any Major League Baseball franchise, while the Minnesota Wild were paid $570,000, the most of any National Hockey League team.
The Atlanta contracts included an event in 2013 during which a crowd cheered as the Falcons welcomed 80 Guard members who unfurled an American flag across the Georgia Dome’s turf.
“Little did those fans — or millions of other Americans — know that the National Guard had actually paid the Atlanta Falcons for this display of patriotism,” the report said.
Besides the major sports franchises, the military paid NASCAR about $1.6 million. For that, the Air Force received, among other things, personal appearances by driver Aric Almirola and retired driving legend Richard Petty.
In statements in the report, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Falcons owner Arthur Blank defended the voluntary support the league and its teams provide to the military.
“I’m not aware that the president has weighed in on this, and I will acknowledge that I’m not aware of the policies that govern those kinds of relationships,” President Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, said Tuesday. “I do know that the Department of Defense would likely say that these kinds of relationships enhance their recruiting efforts.”
In a letter to Flake in July, Brad Carson, acting undersecretary of Defense, said the improvement in the economy had made recruiting more difficult and marketing was needed to meet recruiting goals. “Sports events are an important component of this process,” he wrote.
In the report, the senators said they “hope that both DOD and the professional sports teams will refrain from signing marketing and advertising contracts that could suggest even the appearance of impropriety.”