For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked forward to watching football on Sunday afternoons.  If I was having a bad week, I always knew that Sunday was coming, and football would be there.  The recent and ongoing controversy over who is taking a knee this week, and who is standing up, has changed football, and changed me.   As a veteran who willingly took the risk of coming home in a box, under cover of our flag, I find it quite unsavory that professional athletes, living the American Dream, feel it is appropriate to take a knee during the playing of our National Anthem.  I also find it unsavory that after receiving a massive and negative response for their actions, players and teams are trying to explain what they were really protesting.  If you have to explain what you were protesting after you have protested, you’ve already lost the argument.  Regardless of what you claim to be protesting, if you kneel during the playing of our National Anthem, you are disrespecting America and dishonoring every man and woman who has died in defense of  our country, our freedoms, and our founding principles.

Many of these spoiled millionaires are claiming that they are simply exercising their First Amendment right of free speech when they take a knee.  The First Amendment protects your right to make an ass of yourself, but it doesn’t shield you from the consequences of exercising that right.  The fans are staying home in droves and viewership is declining precipitously.  If the players and owners don’t have a problem with fewer and fewer fans willing to buy what they are selling, then, by all means, continue kneeling.

In the big scheme of things, football simply isn’t that important.  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness trumps (pun intended) football 7 days a week.  The NFL controls its own destiny.  Unfortunately, the more than 3,000 unborn children who will be murdered in America’s abortion mills tomorrow don’t have a choice in the matter.  If the “all knowing” players in the NFL want to protest something, may I suggest that they protest the fact that America’s taxpayers are forced to dole out over $500 million to Planned Parenthood every year?  If they like taking a knee, take a knee and pray for every unborn child whose tomorrows will never come.

In my opinion, when you accept the fame and fortune that come with being a professional athlete , you accept the responsibility of being a role model, like it or not.  If the players of the NFL are unable to accept that obligation, walk away and let someone who is willing to do so, step forward and stand up.