Football and Militarism

This probably belongs in Politics & Religion more than Husker Football, but I see why you put it here.  The conversation is going to be heavily politicized.

I am very uncomfortable with the militarization of football, especially at the college (amateur) level.  It is deliberate, and it's been noticed by a lot of people.

Football Shaped by Military

Pentagon Paid Up To $6.8 Million Of Taxpayer Money To Pro Sports Teams For Military Tributes

There's a difference between patriotism and jingoism. One is a healthy love and respect for your country - which we should all have (and if you don't have it, you have to work to make your country worth having it).  The other, jingoism, is an extremist love of country, often characterized by aggression.  Jingoism is a tool used by governments to control the people - and ours uses it to control us.  

 
Seriously... I’m currently serving my country and would like to enlighten both of you about the military. For the past six months I have barely been home. I started with aviation training to help rescue civilians incase of a natural or man made disaster took place in the United States. After I returned, I was called up to help during Hurricane Irma in Florida. I recently returned home from a transportation mission. None of these involved weapons of any sort. The majority of service members don’t want to go to war. We signed the dotted line and will follow orders. We have a volunteer force and the services have to recruit. I can tell you if someone trys to harm innocent people around me, I will tell my wife and children I love them and then would try to stop them.  Would you? I love my country and state. GBR

 
T_GBR_FAN said:
Seriously... I’m currently serving my country and would like to enlighten both of you about the military. For the past six months I have barely been home. I started with aviation training to help rescue civilians incase of a natural or man made disaster took place in the United States. After I returned, I was called up to help during Hurricane Irma in Florida. I recently returned home from a transportation mission. None of these involved weapons of any sort. The majority of service members don’t want to go to war. We signed the dotted line and will follow orders. We have a volunteer force and the services have to recruit. I can tell you if someone trys to harm innocent people around me, I will tell my wife and children I love them and then would try to stop them.  Would you? I love my country and state. GBR
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What are you disagreeing with? 

First off, everyone (everyone sane, that is) really thanks you and respects you.  At the game last weekend we shook the hands of the people in active service or those (like my dad) who have already served.  It was fun to reach around and shake their hands, pat their backs, and show them that we thank and respect them for what they did.  It was also really, really neat to see the service men & women, both retired and active duty, introduced on the field.  Bomber pilots from WWII & Korea, veterans of Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, and currently active people. We gave them one hell of an ovation, because we love and respect them.

But some people, like me, are concerned that bad people in our government (nod if you agree we have bad people in our government) have and will misuse our brave folks in uniform for their own ends.  That is what this thread, and our concern is about.

Do not make the mistake of thinking people are anti-military.  I'm not, and I don't think anyone responding so far is (OK except one guy, but he can explain his comments himself).

To answer your question - absolutely, if I saw someone harming an innocent person, I would step in.  Almost everyone here would.  You, with your training, would do a far better job than those of us who are untrained. But we'd still try. 

 
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The NFL is currently having their "military appreciation" time of the season.  Yes, it's a great gesture to honor the military and all the sacrifices that our military members and their families have done.  However, the main reason they are doing it is to sell more NFL team gear.  I walked into d!(k's Sporting Goods this weekend, and the entire middle area of their floor was military-themed Broncos gear.  It's all a sales & marketing ploy.

 
T_GBR_FAN said:
Seriously... I’m currently serving my country and would like to enlighten both of you about the military. For the past six months I have barely been home. I started with aviation training to help rescue civilians incase of a natural or man made disaster took place in the United States. After I returned, I was called up to help during Hurricane Irma in Florida. I recently returned home from a transportation mission. None of these involved weapons of any sort. The majority of service members don’t want to go to war. We signed the dotted line and will follow orders. We have a volunteer force and the services have to recruit. I can tell you if someone trys to harm innocent people around me, I will tell my wife and children I love them and then would try to stop them.  Would you? I love my country and state. GBR
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I also served. And I think it's ridiculous for the DoD to pay for tributes at sporting events. Run recruiting commercials during the game? Fine. Exploit patriotism by paying for tributes? No.

 
knapplc said:
What are you disagreeing with? 

First off, everyone (everyone sane, that is) really thanks you and respects you.  At the game last weekend we shook the hands of the people in active service or those (like my dad) who have already served.  It was fun to reach around and shake their hands, pat their backs, and show them that we thank and respect them for what they did.  It was also really, really neat to see the service men & women, both retired and active duty, introduced on the field.  Bomber pilots from WWII & Korea, veterans of Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, and currently active people. We gave them one hell of an ovation, because we love and respect them.

But some people, like me, are concerned that bad people in our government (nod if you agree we have bad people in our government) have and will misuse our brave folks in uniform for their own ends.  That is what this thread, and our concern is about.

Do not make the mistake of thinking people are anti-military.  I'm not, and I don't think anyone responding so far is. 

To answer your question - absolutely, if I saw someone harming an innocent person, I would step in.  Almost everyone here would.  You, with your training, would do a far better job than those of us who are untrained. But we'd still try. 
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Might want to check out Big Red Commies comment

 
I seem to remember there being a thread complaining about this before a couple years back. Except it was a pretty anti military minded post. This one seems more neutral......... hmmm.

Any way it's a recruiting tool. The army doesn't draft in peace time yet it needs fresh bodies in uniforms so thus the hefty advertising to attract recruits. If you don't like the advertising than boy is this the wrong sport for you.

 
Big Red Commie said:
Yeah, uncomfortable as I am antiwar/military.  They use football, baseball, etc as recruiting tools.

Troops, bombs, blitzes, territory, naw, nothing in common with war, etc....
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the anti-war sentiment you express in your post sure contrasts with your sig.   "Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun......(Mao Tse Tung)"

 
I guess it doesn't really bother me.  The military needs to advertise also, just like car makers, booze makers, pizza makers and so on.  It's an easy and effective way to get word out about joining the military, especially when you have 10's of millions of people watching every weekend.  

 
knapplc said:
This probably belongs in Politics & Religion more than Husker Football, but I see why you put it here.
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I can see that argument, but in this case it is a decision by UNL, other universities, and the NFL to agree to use their teams to deliberately promote the military, which is why I posted it here.

 
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