For years I’ve had a game pass package with NFL.com. Since we don’t have an NFL team in Montana, I found that I could watch games of all the teams this way.

NFL players have decided that disrespecting the flag by kneeling or sitting during the playing of the national anthem before games is a noble endeavor.

I’m not going to claim I’m the most patriotic person around, but I do have a history of the national anthem over the years.

I’ve been in athletics a good part of my life. I went to college on an athletic scholarship, so I have had the opportunity to stand and hear the national anthem before many athletic events in which I participated.

I moved to Bozeman in 1993 and a friend took me to a Bobcat basketball game at the fieldhouse. I remember looking up high in the bleachers to a bunch of kids running back and forth playing.

When the national anthem started playing they stopped, took off their hats and stood with hands over their hearts. That’s when I knew I was home.

Bozeman not only had the values I espoused, but parents here handed those same values of respect for flag and country down to their children.

The NFL And I Parted Company

Yesterday I went to NFL.com and cancelled my Game Pass membership. I’m not going to continue to support this organization with my hard earned dollars any longer.

Many would argue that these prima donnas are exercising their right of free speech and I’m a hypocrite for my distain for them to be sitting or kneeling during the national anthem by practicing that very thing.

Free Speech?

In my opinion it’s not freedom of speech at all. It's selfish, personal aggrandizement. It's sheep following sheep.

Try calling someone a name at your place of business and see how long you're employed. That's freedom of speech too. Speech or actions have consequences and you need to live with those consequences.

Why should someone pay $200 a ticket to be insulted by someone making more in a year than most of the hard working people showing up for the game earn in a lifetime?

If you don't want to stand then stay in the clubhouse and come out after. If you feel that strongly then your freedom of speech is still exercised.

But if you have to demonstrate it in public for it to mean anything — then it means nothing.

Some Final Thoughts

The one thing I’ve noticed in recent years is the sheep movement I alluded to above. One group of people block a highway and suddenly everyone is doing it.

People wear masks at demonstrations then everyone’s wearing masks.

Oppose the removal of a statue and removal of statues becomes a movement across the country. Every politician gets on board.

It’s the national cause of the week every week and most are an attack on some form of American tradition or historic culture.

My leaving the NFL is not going to affect anything. Games will go on. Players will still be paid.

This nation has given me more than I could ever possibly repay. I’m sorry a bunch of pampered millionaires don’t feel the same.

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