How the U.S. Military is Paying NFL Teams Millions to “Honor the Troopsâ€￾ at Sporting Events

Ambrose

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[h=1]How the U.S. Military is Paying NFL Teams Millions to “Honor the Troopsâ€￾ at Sporting Events[/h]Michael Krieger | Posted Monday May 11, 2015 at 11:34 am
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When the Jets paused to honor soldiers of the New Jersey Army National Guard at home games during the past four years, it was more than a heartfelt salute to the military — it was also worth a good stack of taxpayer money, records show.
The Department of Defense and the Jersey Guard paid the Jets a total of $377,000 from 2011 to 2014 for the salutes and other advertising, according to federal contracts. Overall, the Defense Department has paid 14 NFL teams $5.4 million during that time, of which $5.3 million was paid by the National Guard to 11 teams under similar contracts.
The agreement includes the Hometown Hero segment, in which the Jets feature a soldier or two on the big screen, announce their names and ask the crowd to thank them for their service. The soldiers and three friends also get seats in the Coaches Club for the game.
– From the New Jersey Star Ledger article: Jets’ Salutes Honor N.J. National Guard but Cost Taxpayer
Like everything else in America, faux patriotism is also for sale.
I’ve written previously about how uncomfortable the superficial “honor the troopsâ€￾ displays at sporting events makes me feel. In the post, “Stop Thanking Me for My Serviceâ€￾ – Former U.S. Army Ranger Blasts American Foreign Policy and The Corporate State, I noted:
I have to admit, whenever I find myself in the midst of a large public gathering (which fortunately isn’t that often), and the token veteran or two is called out in front of the masses to “honorâ€￾ I immediately begin to cringe as a result of a massive internal conflict. On the one hand, I recognize that the veteran(s) being honored is most likely a decent human being. Either poor or extraordinarily brainwashed, the man or woman paraded in front of the crowd is nothing more than a pawn. Even if their spouse hasn’t left them; even if whatever conflict they were involved in didn’t result in a permanent disability or post traumatic stress disorder, this person has been used and abused, and thirty seconds of cheering in between ravenous bites out of a footlong hotdog from a drunk and apathetic crowd isn’t going to change that. I don’t harbor negative sentiments toward the veteran.
On the other hand, the entire spectacle makes me sick. I refuse to participate in the superficial charade for many reasons, but the primary one is that I don’t want to play any part in the crowd’s insatiable imbecility. It’s the stupidity and ignorance of the masses that the corporate-state preys upon, and that’s precisely what’s on full display at these tired and phony imperialist celebrations.
Of course, it’s not just me that finds these scenes hard to stomach. Many troops have come forward and expressed the exact same sentiment. For example, as Rory Fanning, who served in Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion noted:
These two ceremonies seemed to catch a particular mood (reflected in so many similar, if more up-to-date versions of the same). They might have benefited from a little “awareness raisingâ€￾ when it came to what the American military has actually been doing these last years, not to say decades, beyond our borders. They certainly summed up much of the frustration I was feeling with the Concert for Valor. Plenty of thank yous, for sure, but no history when it came to what the thanks were being offered for in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan, no statistics on taxpayer dollars spent or where they went, or on innocent lives lost and why.
Will the “Concert for Valorâ€￾ mention the trillions of dollars rung up terrorizing Muslim countries for oil, the ratcheting up of the police and surveillance state in this country since 9/11, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost thanks to the wars of George W. Bush and Barack Obama? Is anyone going to dedicate a song to Chelsea Manning, or John Kiriakou, or Edward Snowden – two of them languishing in prison and one in exile — for their service to the American people? Will the Concert for Valor raise anyone’s awareness when it comes to the fact that, to this day, veterans lack proper medical attention, particularly for mental health issues, or that there is a veteran suicide every 80 minutes in this country? Let’s hope they find time in between drum solos, but myself, I’m not counting on it.
We use the term hero in part because it makes us feel good and in part because it shuts soldiers up (which, believe me, makes the rest of us feel better). Labeled as a hero, it’s also hard to think twice about putting your weapons down. Thank yous to heroes discourage dissent, which is one reason military bureaucrats feed off the term.
Very well said, and now we learn that these spectacles are often even more phony than originally suspected. NFL teams are being paid millions of dollars to host them. From the New Jersey Star Ledger:
TRENTON — When the Jets paused to honor soldiers of the New Jersey Army National Guard at home games during the past four years, it was more than a heartfelt salute to the military — it was also worth a good stack of taxpayer money, records show.
The Department of Defense and the Jersey Guard paid the Jets a total of $377,000 from 2011 to 2014 for the salutes and other advertising, according to federal contracts. Overall, the Defense Department has paid 14 NFL teams $5.4 million during that time, of which $5.3 million was paid by the National Guard to 11 teams under similar contracts.
The agreement includes the Hometown Hero segment, in which the Jets feature a soldier or two on the big screen, announce their names and ask the crowd to thank them for their service. The soldiers and three friends also get seats in the Coaches Club for the game.
Aside from the Hometown Heroes segment, the agreements also included advertising and marketing services, including a kickoff video message from the Guard, digital advertising on stadium screens, online advertising and meeting space for a meeting or events.
Flake said there was nothing wrong with the Guard using football games to recruit soldiers. The problem, he said, was spending taxpayer money on a program that, on its face, appeared to be a generous gesture by a football team.
The Daily News also covered this story, with a choice line from one of the most authoritarian members of Congress, Peter King. A man so completely insane, he makes neocons blush. He defended the spending of taxpayer money on superficial, faux patriotism:
Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) also said “it’s money well spent.â€￾
 

Thrashen

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Every season, NFL, Inc. seems to ratchet-up its unyielding devotion of military imperialism and America 2.0. Fighter jets flying overhead before games. Cheap applause for veterans in full uniform standing at attendtion at the 50-yard line. Live video footage of Negro-loving, jock-huffing, fanboy soldiers gathered around a TV watching the “big game” from the Middle East. Negro “servicemen” jiving through the national anthem. Why does the NFL do this for the U.S. military? Perhaps because the NFL’s target audience, lower/middle class young males, are also the military’s target recruits? Ulterior motives (recruitment of new murderers and oppressors) disguised as “patriotism” that very few dare to question, let alone oppose...

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Speaking of mindless military/mercenary veneration…I was selected for jury duty about a month ago (naturally, I didn’t get picked after answering a few questions truthfully) and at the very beginning in the juror seating area, a judge was speaking to about 100 potential jurors. He started off his lame speech with “Hey, do we have any Phillies fans here today? If so, you’re all getting picked for a long trial, because I’m a diehard Yankee fan!” This jock-sniffer then launched what seemed like a 15-miunte pontification on the “American dream” and how we lowly serfs should feel honored to do our civil service to the justice system and should always remember our “brave men and women in the armed forces” who “fight for our freedoms and our rights.” The enemies of Isra-hell and Zionism beware!
 
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jaxvid

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It's so weird to hear that the soldiers are fighting to keep us "free" or to protect us from our enemies when the people they are fighting are thousands of miles away herding goats. There is absolutely no threat from the current people the US fighting forces are involved in. Furthermore if any of those so called terrorists wanted to actually come to the United States to do real harm our immigration system would welcome them with open arms. And anyone that objected to it would be branded a racist.

But I always welcome the opportunity to salute the pajama clad pro-gay, pro-homosexual, USA USA USA fighting men, women, queers, and trannies, keeping our country safe so we can be invaded by South America instead.
 

Lugnut

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It's so weird to hear that the soldiers are fighting to keep us "free" or to protect us from our enemies when the people they are fighting are thousands of miles away herding goats. There is absolutely no threat from the current people the US fighting forces are involved in. Furthermore if any of those so called terrorists wanted to actually come to the United States to do real harm our immigration system would welcome them with open arms. And anyone that objected to it would be branded a racist.

But I always welcome the opportunity to salute the pajama clad pro-gay, pro-homosexual, USA USA USA fighting men, women, queers, and trannies, keeping our country safe so we can be invaded by South America instead.

the US had your mentality in the 30s. thinking we can isolate ourselves from the world. but the reality is, we can't. especially since the US(and the west) is multi cultural.
 
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Some thoughts of the irony of:
1) White soldiers so enthusiastically running onto the field with flags all a'snapping, when its white men who the NFL and the USA are furiously in the process of displacing.
2) "Fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" How's this working out?

If our "men and women" were truly fighting for our freedoms, then Washington DC would be a burned and charred city, with the politicians hanging from gallows.
 

Freethinker

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Some thoughts of the irony of:
1) White soldiers so enthusiastically running onto the field with flags all a'snapping, when its white men who the NFL and the USA are furiously in the process of displacing.
2) "Fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" How's this working out?

If our "men and women" were truly fighting for our freedoms, then Washington DC would be a burned and charred city, with the politicians hanging from gallows.
:thumbsup: My thoughts exactly.
 

DixieDestroyer

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Some thoughts of the irony of:
1) White soldiers so enthusiastically running onto the field with flags all a'snapping, when its white men who the NFL and the USA are furiously in the process of displacing.
2) "Fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" How's this working out?

If our "men and women" were truly fighting for our freedoms, then Washington DC would be a burned and charred city, with the politicians hanging from gallows.

Well stated. The traitors on "Cr@pitol sHill" would be on the 'business end" of a long piece hemp rope.
 

foreverfree

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Was Michael Kreiger (whom Ambrose quoted in the OP) aware that Chelsea Manning nee' Bradley Manning (whom Krieger cited) was a transsexual?

John
 

NWsoccerfan

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Yet so many stupid fathers send their sons to the military to "die for a lie":usa2:
I was just thinking about this the other day as I have a son who is quickly approaching adult age. I will never encourage or send him in the direction of the military. He has zero interest in it, thankfully. This whole "military love" blitz the past few years by the NFL is all just designed to sell tickets and apparel.
 

Don Wassall

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Beer, boobs, white cheerleaders, black athletes, white male idiots on commercials and in the stands, fighter jets and heroic soldiers. That's the "new patriotism" and sums up most football games pretty well.
 

jaxvid

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I was just thinking about this the other day as I have a son who is quickly approaching adult age. I will never encourage or send him in the direction of the military. He has zero interest in it, thankfully. This whole "military love" blitz the past few years by the NFL is all just designed to sell tickets and apparel.

Fathers don't send their kids to the military. You have to be 18 years old. Adults can make decisions for themselves. And despite the misuse of the military and the rampant PC war being waged against and inside of the armed forces, it is still better then the dyke run college, the black worshiping work place, and their parents basement (where they are usually stuck due to the off-shoring of jobs and the importation of cheap labor). Semper fi dude.
 

FootballDad

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Fathers don't send their kids to the military. You have to be 18 years old. Adults can make decisions for themselves. And despite the misuse of the military and the rampant PC war being waged against and inside of the armed forces, it is still better then the dyke run college, the black worshiping work place, and their parents basement (where they are usually stuck due to the off-shoring of jobs and the importation of cheap labor). Semper fi dude.
Here, here! While I am no fan of the misuse of the military by the PTB, the individual servicemen are really just typical small-town young men. Most do not join for machismo, but for whatever the opportunity that they see. I have a good friend from high school that joined the Navy shortly after floundering about for a year in college. He ended up retiring from the Navy, and now has a pension, all of his education paid for (he now has an MBA), etc. He traveled the world in a submarine, gained lifetime friends and generally had a blast.
 

celticdb15

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Not many benefits if you end up dead in a desert . Fighting in a phoney war run by elites and Jews. I have no problem with people choosing military as career. I have several cousins and uncles who chose this path and I respect that.To me there is Too much risk. What good is sending some of our best young white men to fight in middle east? All the while America continues to fall apart. Saturated with hood rats and anchor babies.
 

celticdb15

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Considering18year olds as adults Is hillarious. Especially considering the year before in High School as 17 year olds they have to raise their hand to ask permission to go to the bathroom..
 

jaxvid

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Considering18year olds as adults Is hillarious. Especially considering the year before in High School as 17 year olds they have to raise their hand to ask permission to go to the bathroom..

Legally 18 year olds are adults. Heck most 30 year olds are not adults as far as maturity is concerned. But if an 18 year old wants to sign up. You can't stop them. And I don't think there are many fathers dragging their sons to the recruitment office, although for some kids it would be a good idea.
 

Carolina Speed

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Legally 18 year olds are adults. Heck most 30 year olds are not adults as far as maturity is concerned. But if an 18 year old wants to sign up. You can't stop them. And I don't think there are many fathers dragging their sons to the recruitment office, although for some kids it would be a good idea.

When I told my father I had enlisted in the Marines, he was disappointed. I volunteered. I had always wanted to serve my country in some way, so I chose to join.

My grandfather served as a Marine and survived Iwo Jima and my uncle was a Marine, serving in Korea and Vietnam.

I believe this country is lacking in young men who have the courage to serve in the military. No the military isn't perfect, but we do have to have men willing to defend whatever freedom we have left!

In the old days, even movie stars and professional ball players would leave their profession and volunteer for service, now movie stars and athletes protest the military. Pat Tillman being the one exception.
 
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