Falcons Owner Outrages-a Teachable Moment

Falcons First Game

As a kid of eleven, in 1966 I attended the very first Atlanta Falcons game, a loss to the Rams 19-14.  That was during a time when any number of war veterans were playing in the league.  

Researching the subject, I learned some interesting facts.  For example, well over 1,000 NFL players have served in the Armed Forces.  During World War II, 995 NFL players quit football to serve their country. 23 died.

Over 200 NFL players fought in Korea. 

28 NFL players fought in Vietnam.  Several have fought in the Middle East, three of them, so far, giving the ultimate sacrifice.  Among them was former All-Pro Pat Tillman, who after 9/11 left the NFL in his prime to fight in Afghanistan, and who was unfortunately killed by friendly fire.

Tom Landry B-17 Pilot

The late NFL Hall of Fame Coach Tom Landry was a B-17 pilot.  He flew 30 missions over Europe during WWII.  Landry’s first Dallas Cowboys quarterback, and former Atlanta Falcon executive Eddie LeBaron, quit pro football, volunteering to fight in Korea, where he was injured twice, earning the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. 

Rocky Bleier

After playing one season in the NFL, former Pittsburgh Steeler running back Rocky Bleier was drafted to serve in Vietnam, where he was wounded and decorated.  He once compared his experiences in combat with those as an NFL player, offering, “In combat… when you're put in harm's way…There might not be a tomorrow, and that is always the question that lingers in one's mind… Will I be able to survive this combat? In football, there will always be next week.”

Until I read Arthur Blank’s statement Sunday morning, I had an entirely different commentary to publish this week.  But Blank’s remarks, in response to recent Trump comments, so outraged my senses, that any other subject seemed pale in importance.   Issuing those comments, the Falcons owner took a step onto a very slippery slope with his fans, publishing an irresolute statement which, while not approving of various NFL players actions disrespecting the American flag, supported them nonetheless.  

During the national anthem in Detroit, thankfully the Falcon players showed class and respect, standing arm and arm with owner Blank.  Before the game, however, Blank doubled down in support of league players who choose to disrespect the flag and kneel for the national anthem, again, having it both ways. 

So let’s try to make sense of this.  It is the NFL’s policy to raise a flag and sing the national anthem before each game. Yet it is the NFL’s practice to allow its vaunted employees to disrespect that same flag, as they raise it.  Really?  Now why conduct a ceremony designed to induce humility, patriotism, and acknowledge a greater meaning than any mere game, when you allow your most treasured employees to publicly disrespect it at the same time?  Why raise a flag at all if the league allows its players to hold it in contempt?  Something does not make sense here. 

Ahhh, but it does make sense.  The NFL raises a flag it allows its players to disrespect because the owners are fearful of a dispute with the NFL players union.  The best way owners like Arthur Blank can see to deal with it is to allow everyone involved to “do what feels right in their hearts” and hope the fans will get excited enough by game end to put it all aside.  Maybe that will work for them.  Maybe this will all go away.

But Mr. Blank’s telling remarks, at least, offer a teachable moment I won’t ignore.  Blank wrote, “demonizing viewpoints…undermines our ‘collective ability’ to achieve the ‘ideals of our democracy.’”  Mr. Blank should know; I, along with many others like me, am not concerned with any group’s “collective ability.”  I am no fan of “the collective.”  I am a fan of the individual.  Individuals form teams and channel energy toward achieving a goal, and that is good.  Collectives, however, formulate purposes largely out of ignorant self-interest.  Subsequently, democracies measure those interests as a means of making societal decisions, polling those of cross-purposes, the winner emerging as the more popular of the two.  The American flag stands for none of that.  The American flag stands for a nation guided by exalted principles deriving from the Laws of God, not anyone’s personal opinions or uninformed egocentricities. 

The men and women who volunteer to defend our country have my respect.  And my respect for those who founded this country, and who have fought and died to preserve it over the years, requires that I always stand up for the flag and National Anthem.  Those heroes deserve no less and I can do no less.  It is really not much to ask anyway, to simply stand, as an able-bodied individual, to honor those who have sacrificed for us and our country, regardless of any political agenda one may support.

Perhaps after all this is over, the NFL society will learn at least one invaluable lesson:

Respect those who earned what you have and gave it to you.