Opinion: Proposed NFL Rule Disses Veterans

Watching professional football was not on the agenda for my household during Thanksgiving, nor has it been this entire season.

On Nov. 21, the Washington Post reported NFL owners are considering an offseason change to the league’s national anthem policy reverting to a previous approach of keeping players in the locker room while the Star Spangled Banner is played.

As the son of a combat veteran, I lead my family in refusing to associate with the NFL. My dad served in Korea and had some unused leave due him. By providence he was shipped home early just before most of his unit was wiped out. Growing up in the ’70s bashing Vietnam veterans was popular and I witnessed my dad treated the same way by family members. Nobody recognized his sacrifice or comprehended the devastating social effects of Post Traumatic Stress, which in recent years has been reclassified — no a longer a disorder, but a natural reaction to stress.

Army Captain (ret.) Tyler Merritt, former Special Ops commander and co-founder of Nine Line Apparel, believes it is disrespectful to our nation’s military and those who died in combat for professional athletes to not stand and honor our country.

“We believe in the First Amendment,” Capt. Merritt said. “We believe in the right for all people to peacefully protest. Our members fought for this right and, in many cases, lost their loved one and their teammates in defense of this right.”

Capt. Merritt is a former Apache helicopter pilot turned Special Operations Air Mission commander. Following his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Capt. Merritt deployed multiple times to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arabian Peninsula, and South America. Capt. Merritt most recently served as Executive Officer to C Company, 3-160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. He previously served as a West Point faculty member.

According to Capt. Merritt, the problem is that protesting the flag and the National Anthem creates a different conversation than the one NFL players are alleging they’re trying to have. They are protesting social injustice and specifically mistreatment by police.

Capt. Merritt acknowledges while NFL athletes such as Colin Kaepernick, Marshawn Lynch and others who have chosen this course of action, play a game for a living, the American military chooses to leave their families and run towards danger in some of the most dangerous corners of the globe.

“The least we can do is honor them for a few short minutes by standing for the National Anthem,” said Capt. Merrick. “The NFL creating a rule to hide the players in the locker room is as offensive as kneeling. If not more offensive, because the players who want to show their patriotism are no longer allowed. The fact that Marshawn Lynch will stand for the Mexican anthem but sit for his own is abhorrent. He is one of the premier beneficiaries of all this country has to offer — wealth, success, and freedom to do what he loves.”

Capt. Merritt believes the NFL is already hemorrhaging viewers, and if the NFL owners follow through with this decision, they’re going to lose even more fans. As far as I’m concerned, they have already lost.