Here’s what Army football player Mike Viti said this week of people who think maybe it’s a touch unfair he doesn’t have to fulfill the service commitment he made in exchange for the free ride to one of the best schools in the country:
“People have their opinions, but I didn’t go to West Point to further my pro career,” he said. “This is an alternative. There are different ways of serving your country. If you don’t see that, you are a fool.”
Well, either I’m a fool or Viti, who just signed a contract with the Buffalo Bills, compared playing in the NFL to active duty service in the Army, whether that be in a desert hellhole in Iraq, a mountain hellhole in Afghanistan, or any of the 500 dangerous and/or humanitarian missions someone in the Army could participate in.
To paraphrase Viti, some people serve their country in the searing heat of a Baghdad summer, while others do it on the icy gridiron of a Buffalo winter. Granted, there are probably far fewer drug addicts, wife beaters and serial paternity cases in the Army than there are in the NFL, and football players are no strangers to gun play, but there’s markedly fewer suicide-bombings in football, unless you count the Philadelphia Eagles, who roll over and die on a regular basis.
The Army says its program to allow “talented” people to skip the service requirement in exchange for a job as high-profile, part-time recruiter is a valuable way to shore up enrollment. I think my colleague Justin Rodriguez in the sports department is on to something when he says it’s probably more about getting better football players to beat Navy.
Whatever the reason is, it’s abominable, and reinforces the last message our society needs to hear - be good at something that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of the world and the world will shift its rules and expectations just for you.
Meanwhile, we’ll keep loading up on poor and uneducated people as insurgent fodder, and you, the really talented bio-chemist from West Point, you have fun in Iraq, too.
Mike Viti’s gotta go play him some football. Fool.
Filed under: Idiots and Jerks, Iraq
[...] Problem Solved wrote an interesting post today on Our Latest Military Disgrace, or I’m a FoolHere’s a quick excerptGranted, there are probably far fewer drug addicts, wife beaters and serial paternity cases in the Army than there are in the NFL, and football players are no strangers t…Well, either I’m a fool or Viti, who just signed a contract with the Buffalo Bills, compared playing in the NFL to active duty service in the Army, w… [...]