Many of us were surprised to hear the Department of Defense has been entering into contracts with the National Football League to pay teams for honoring the military and its members.
Former presidential candidate and current Arizona Senator John McCain isn’t having any of it. McCain (R), one of the most powerful lawmakers in the United States, proposed an amendment on Thursday to ban the Department of Defense (DOD) from entering into contracts with professional sports teams.
“Along with sports fans across America, I was appalled to learn last month that many of the ceremonies honoring members of our armed services at NFL games are not actually being conducted out of a sense of patriotism, but for profit in the form of millions in taxpayer dollars going from the Department of Defense to wealthy NFL franchises,” McCain said, via CBS Sports. “In fact, NFL teams have received nearly $7 million in taxpayer dollars over the last three years from contracts with the Army National Guard which include public tributes to American troops.”
The amendment has bipartisan support with fellow Senators, Jeff Flake (R) and Richard Blumenthal (D), sponsoring the bill. It draws the conclusion that any organization looking to honor the military should do so on a volunteer basis.
While it was a shock to learn that the DOD pays to “advertise” with the National Football League, this isn’t really all too uncommon when it comes to the military.
However, McCain takes exception to a huge organization such as the NFL profiting from the military itself:
“The NFL raked in revenues totaling some $9.5 billion dollars last year,” McCain said. “The absolute least they can do to begin to make up for this misjudgment is return those taxpayer dollars to charities supporting our troops, veterans, and military families.”
We couldn’t agree with you more, Mr. McCain.
The NFL should do this out of the kindness of its own heart, and with the absolute knowledge that the only reason it’s able to exist on the grand scale that it does is due to those fighting for our freedom abroad. It shouldn’t even be given a second thought.
Do the right thing, Roger Goodell and company.
Photo: USA Today Sports