An Open Letter to NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell

Ret. Marine Col. Jeffery Powers wrote to the NFL commissioner.

Commissioner Goodell,

I’ve been a season pass holder at Yankee Stadium, Yale Bowl 
and the Giants Stadium.

I missed the ’90-’91 season because I was with a battalion of 
Marines in DesertStorm. 14 of my wonderful Marines returned
home with the American Flag draped across their lifeless bodies.

My last conversation with one of them, Sgt.Garrett Mongrella, 
was about how our Giants were going to the Super Bowl.  He 
never got to see it.

Many friends, Marines, and Special Forces soldiers who worked 
with or for me through the years returned home with the American
Flag draped over their coffins.

Now I watch multi-millionaire athletes who never did anything in
their lives but play a game, disrespect what brave Americans fought 
and died for. 

They are essentially spitting in the faces and on the graves of real men, 
men who have actually done something for this country beside playing 
with a ball and believing they’re something special! They’re not! 

My Marines and Soldiers were!

You are complicit in this! You’ll fine players for large and small infractions
but you lack the moral courage and respect for our nation and the fallen to 
put an  immediate stop to this.

Yes, I know, it’s their 1st Amendment right to be have in such a despicable
manner.

                          

What would happen if they came out and disrespected you or the refs publicly?

I observed a player getting a personal foul for twerking in the end zone after 
scoring.  I guess its much worse than disrespecting the flag and our National  Anthem. 

Hmm, isn’t it his 1st Amendment right to express himself like an idiot in the 
end zone?

Why is taunting not allowed yet taunting America is OK? You fine players for wearing 9-11 commemorative shoes yet you allow scum on the sidelines to sit, 
kneel or pump their pathetic fist in the air. 

They are so deprived with their multi-million dollar contracts for playing a freaking game!

You condone it all by your refusal to act. 

You’re just as bad and disgusting as they are. I hope Americans boycott sponsors who supports that rabble you call the NFL. 

I hope they turn off the TV when any team that allowed this disrespect to occur, without consequence, on the sidelines. 

I applaud those who have not.

Legends and heroes do NOT wear shoulder pads. They wear body armor

and carry rifles.

They make minimum wage and spend months and years away from their families. 

They don’t do it for an hour on Sunday. They do it 24/7 often with lead, not footballs, coming in their direction. 

They watch their brothers carted off in pieces not on a gurney to get their knee iced. Many don’t have legs or arms.

Some wear blue and risk their lives daily on the streets of America. They wear fire helmets and go upstairs into the fire rather than down to safety. On 9-11,hundreds vanished. They are the heroes.

I hope that your high paid protesting pretty boys and you look in that mirror when you shave tomorrow and see what you really are, legends in your own minds.

You need to hit the road and take those worms with you!

Time to change the channel,

 Ret. Marine Col. Jeffery Powers 

Powers originally sent his letter to former Florida congressman Allen West. West then posted the letter to his news website.

As of last week, at least 18 NFL player had protested the anthem by either kneeling during the anthem or raising their fists, according to USA Today Sports.

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