"Sad situation you leaders have allowed."

For whatever it’s worth, I just sent this to John Elway and the Denver Bronco’s Football Club.
Guest post by COLONEL CURTIS D. DALE, PhD, USAF (Ret)
11523 Sagewood Lane, Parker, CO 80138
28 Sept 2017
Mr. John Elway
President, Denver Broncos Football Club,
13655 Broncos Parkway
Englewood, CO 80112
Dear Mr. Elway,
I will be respectful but very frank in this letter. I’m incredibly disgusted with the organization we call the National Football League, and that includes the Denver Broncos. I have incredible respect for the Flag of the United States and for the National Anthem. I spent 27 years in the United States Air Force, flew three combat tours in Vietnam, completing 153 combat missions. I and many of my comrades to arms are now suffering from Agent Orange, and we are the lucky ones who got to come home. I lost dear friends over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I was shot at, rocketed and fortunate to be among the survivors. I cannot abide what I was seeing of a high percentage of the NFL players, coaches, owners, leaders and staffs of the various teams. I consider it despicable to the highest order.

The term “players’ is appropriate to you men who get dressed in pretty uniforms and go out on pristine fields and deign even getting a grass stain on those prissy outfits. It’s really kids play by great big, muscular men who earn huge amounts of money for chasing around the field with or chasing after a weird looking pigskin covered ball.

The truly uninformed refer to all of you who play(ed) football as HEROES. Naw, that’s a gross representation of what the term means. Merely entertainers, no more, no less. Major Hank Brauner, a dear friend killed over the Ho Chi Minh trail by a rocket that shot down his AC-130 Blackbird and scattered him and the crew all over some part of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, is a hero. My Uncle Jim who was killed on the beach at Anzio in WWII is a hero. Uwes Torston Scobel, a friend with whom I was flying in 1959 was shot down in an Bird Dog FAC airplane over the Central highlands. A real hero. A squadron mate, Major Gerald O. Young, with whom I worked in Cheyenne in the Atlas ICBM, returned to flying helicopters as the Vietnam War started. He was killed when his helicopter was shot down in a heroic rescue attempt, carried out, but he didn’t survive his injuries. He is a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Captain Arthur Bollinger, my student as a Navigator and Mission Director, checked out as a top notch crewmember in the EC-47Q for Electronic Reconnaissance over Vietnam. He was flying a mission in the last plane shot down over Vietnam, a final mission over the trail at war’s end. He left a beautiful young wife and two children. His dog tags were recovered. Now these people I mention are heroes. I consider every man I flew with in Vietnam a hero.

The closest relationship I see between behavior about those real heroes and behavior on the football field is a bucket of water over the head or a hosing down on the “fini” flight. On my 153 missions, I crawled out the airplane, got the bottom of the stairs and was drenched. Not much of a hero, but it did cool me off.

You, Miller, Braxton, et al, are not heroes, just entertainers with athleticism, not even the super patriotism you seemed to have in past years. Guess money suppressed it!
I thought you were a patriot when I sat behind Mitt Romney and heard you endorse him at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum. In fact, your knee was in my back as you and Mrs. Elway came up into the seating. I even gave you and her a hand as you traversed the bleachers. I’m the old Vietnam Vet who sat right in front of you with a vest full of Republican campaign badges. I was proud to sit next to you because I had a picture to give my son, and he saw us on TV. Alas, when the hard decision was on the line, you didn’t stand up for honoring Old Glory and the National Anthem.

My son has been a huge Bronco fan for years. I, however, was a fair weather fan at best, but supported him and the rest of my children who were fans. Three weeks ago, when the Broncos joined the disgusting protest, he wrote me, “Dad, I’ll wish my Broncos luck but I won’t be watching any more. I’ll root for West Virginia University.” I got sad notes from the other children with the same sorts of sentiments. You all overplayed your hand in supporting what you perceive as political correctness. It’s purely liberal destruction of our national pride, patriotism and sovereignty. Money speaks to loudly to you employees of the NFL. Jerry Jones wimped out with the Cowboys.

I went out for the team a couple of years at WVU, but soon learned that I hated the game after being blasted a few times too often by Sam Huff, Bruce Bosley, Chuck Howley, Stubby Carr, etc. I quit and never watched another football game for 30 years until I was passing the TV during a game and you did something pretty spectacular. So I joined my son in watching. Since then, I’ve been a Broncos fan. But that just ended, big time. Sad situation you leaders have allowed.

I feel President Trump has it perfectly right. I’m a non-profane Mormon, but the President said exactly what I wish I could say to all of you in the NFL. I won’t even wish the Broncos good luck. I don’t think any team in NFL deserves any luck, only my abhorrence.
Curt Dale