Mattis Ends Military Academy Athletes Immediately Turning Pro
Before considering offers from the professional sports leagues, all graduates of the Military Academies and Reserve Officer Training Corps must serve two years of active duty.
“The military academies and ROTC exist to develop future officers who enhance the readiness and lethality of our military services,” Mattis said.
“During their first two years following graduation, officers will serve as full-fledged military officers carrying out normal work and career expectations of an officer who has received the extraordinary benefits of an ROTC or military academy education at taxpayer expense,” he said.
This comes on the heels of Air Force Academy grads requesting waivers to join the Ready Reserve, and pursue careers in the NFL.
The policy will take effect this year, according to Pentagon spox Danna White. She also noted the Defense Department “…has a long history of officer athletes who served their nation before going to the pros, including Roger Staubach, Chad Hennings and David Robinson.”
Some academy grads have been allowed to enter the NFL draft prior to completing their two-year obligation, with Navy’s quarterback Keenan Reynolds being the most recent.
Personally, I’m all for it. My tax dollars aren’t supposed to be used to further professional sports.
Category: Politics
Hear, hear!
Absolutely! If they get a four year college education on the taxpayer’s dime they need to serve before running off to the National Felon League.
Your an ass-hat. I have sat back for long enough. Every comment you post on TAH is either about homosexual activity or racists. Why is it always about hate with you? What the hell happened to you as a kid, or on your TWO tours (I’m soooo impressed – thank you so much for constantly reminding us all haha ) to the Middle East? Have you ever noticed how others here on TAH rarely comment on your original posts?
Additionally, you randomly use vocabulary that is a beyond your last completed grade-level. Were you the NCO that would always say “behoove” to look smart in their briefings? You know how I know that you aren’t smart? The picture in the TAH members gallery says it all – no one with any sort of intelligence would ever wear FiveFingers shoes.
I have been a long time reader here at TAH and I enjoy the articles as well as the commentary. In fact, there are numerous commenters who actually post relevant and intelligent material (e.g. Ex-PH2, Air Cav 2/17, Hondo, etc.) which adds to value to this blog. I recommend reading some of their past comments for examples as to how to add to the conversation.
*you’re . ** racist. I blame it on auto-correct
Zonk13. How about you don’t stay hidden in the woodwork but join in now and then. All of us who comment frequently have folks who wish us the very worst of all things. My point is, come in, partake, and, at the very least, you can refute API and anyone else anytime, rather than stew about it.
You make a good point, 2/17.
BTW, my last grade completed was college Junior.
Hey! Zonk! Yeah! You! The Asshat!
Point out to me, exactly, what was said by API, in the above post, that is racissssss or homophobic. Shouldn’t take long. The post is only two sentences, 25 words, two punctuations.
I was wondering that too, DBW. Seems to me that felons come in all races and genders.
I was referring to his past comments. The most recent comment just had me fed up enough post. Also, the assumption that most NFL players are felons is ludicrous. Once again, proving my point that generalizations are usually doled out by nincompoops.
I never hinted that most NFL Players are felons, I was hinting at the manifold wrongdoings we see a number of them doing, things like OJ Simpson, Michael Vick,…
I admit that I shouldn’t have used “every”
Go fuck yourself. His comments are great unlike yours in which was nothing but self righteous bullshit and hilariously stupid accusations. We get enough of that from the media and other scumfucks.
Intelligent response.
Shut up Grunt.
interesting…can’t say that in 24 years of active duty I ever saw someone claiming to be a Marine run around calling people “Grunt”
I can say from my time in the Army that the title of “Grunt” is worn with pride by many a US Army Infantryman.
That was why I find it odd, considering it is a title proudly worn among so many that a real Marine would sling it around repetitively here as an apparent insult. Seems contextually suspicious…like the person using it is out of his element.
I think it was IntelPog messing with FatCircles0311 more than anything else much like Platoon and Company members screw with each other, trade insults and play head games on each other just for shits & giggles.
perhaps…but it isn’t just on this thread or in response to one person.
Zonk,
I suggest you sit back and lurk some more if that’s all you can add to the discussion
I agree with you. It seems that my rant fell flat (on deaf ears if I was speaking), and added more to conversation about nonsense that clearly is irrelevant to my original post.
I really do enjoy this blog, and I think that it’s commenters add tremendous value because of the insight they provide to articles/stories that are usually written by the lame-media. However, my original point of the pointless spewing bs in comments still is relevant. If readers rely on commenters insight to broaden their understanding on a topic that may be foreign to them, shouldn’t ridiculous/irrelevant comments be ridiculed?
As I said before the value in a blog is the information that is disclosed and discussion that follows.
I appreciate your time, Just an Old Dog. Thank you.
I would vote that your rant fell flat and not on deaf ears.
Starting with “your an asshat”, isnt what I would call a smart opening comment, but hey, your choice.
Agreed. I stooped to the very level that I was ranting about. I guess this makes me an asshole. Like I said, I am new to the blogging game.
SERIOUSLY Zonk13, did you come onto a milblog thinking it was all going to be happy-happy-joy-joy with unicorns shitting Skittles, farting rainbows and cotton candy? That hints to me that you’re a college student. I myself am a college dropout and I make more in the Blue Collar Sector than I would have with the degree I was pursuing.
“Like I said, I am new to the blogging game.”
Then here’s a little advice. Click on and read the TAH FNG FAQ section at the top of the page.
Perhaps that will help you understand what this site is all about and keep the big AMF wolf away from your door.
You sound like a disciple of Babbles McButthead aka Lars, Zonk13. Yes, I said the National Felon League because of the number of their players that have indeed been convicted of felonies as well as their conduct as well. Pop off any time you want, I’m sure I’ll get a laugh out of it. Now let the butthurt flow, Snowflake Sparkle Pony!! 😎
“As well as their conduct as well”. What does that even mean? 🤦♂️ Also, just keep proving my point that you can only resort to childish babble and insults while you make your point.
“As well as their conduct as well”
Simply put, I didn’t bother to proofread when I was posting in a hurry. And BTW, yeah I did two Middle East tours after I came back in after a nine year break in service, my first three years were AD when I did a tour in Korea within spitting distance of the DMZ.
“As well as their conduct as well”. What does that even mean? 🤦♂️ Also, just keep proving my point that you can only resort to childish babble and insults while you make your point.
Okay Zonk. I see you’re kinda stuck in this thread. Here’s the deal. If first impressions mean anything, yours wasn’t good. API has contributed much to TAH and is, believe it or not, one of the brighter people here, in my view. And I mean that. I can tell when someone has a tuned intellect and when someone doesn’t. So, poking him may be mental masturbation for you but, understand, it’s more revealing of you, not him. We know about API. We don’t know about you. Are you a Vet? A college student? A man? A woman? An undecided? And you might try branching out to other threads of interest. Just some advice. Take it or leave it.
He seems awfully thin-skinned and it’s easy to pop his proverbial balloon, I think he must be a college student.
Back to the subject of National Felon League. The NFL has an Arrest rate of a little over 2% which is actually lower than the average population. The biggest problem they have is DUIs. Anything they do as far as criminal action hits the press pretty quick they do live in a bubble.
However they all have many privledges as well.
They have almost all been given a chance to obtain a 4 year degree at a Division 1 college, and get a MINIMUM salary of 650,000 a year with the average being 2.2 million.
I believe if you compared the records of NFL players with those College Graduates of the same age who make the same type of Salary you would find that if nothing else these NFL players are guilty of Felony Stupidity.
“The NFL has an Arrest rate of a little over 2% which is actually lower than the average population.” How about the arrest rate of a company employing 1,696 people? Or how about the arrest rate for people making 1.6 million per year, which is the avg NFL salary?
WTF are you talking about and WTF are you talking to? you take your pills today???
Do you even read the posts that you comment on? It seems that everyone else was able to comprehend who and what i was typing about.
Zonk13, your rant is tone-deaf, at best. Read more, post less.
Good job API, you’ve triggered a snowflake.
Now we’re all going to have to sit through snowflake sensitivity training. With an extra hour thrown in for safe spaces.
Does that mean we’ll have to suffer through a few
power point presentations, too?
Time to break out the coloring books. Anybody got a spare puppy for Zonk?
My hate card is current. Just got my annual stamp last Thursday.
The PowerPoint comment actually made me spit up my beer. Good burn.
Death by Power Poimt
How I don’t miss it
I miss Power Point every bit as much as I do my last toothache!
Not a snowflake, just anti-hate. Nothing wrong with being a positive person.
Oh yeah, you’re just a ray of fukking sunshine and positivity. FFS
–
What’s hateful about point out that guys who get paid millions, if not tens of millions, to play a fucking game seem to have such a problem saying out of jail or off the hippie lettuce (or worse?)
So based on your post I am assuming that you never watch any NFL games? If so, that’s pretty impressive; if not, then you are actively supporting those child-game playing “felons”. So, if you support the NFL and its players, why the condiscending tone?
Funny, I didn’t realize Home Depot sold brushes that broad.
And yeah, you can count on one hand the number of hours (not games, HOURS) I dedicate to sitting in front of the TV when pretty much any professional sport is on.
I don’t know you personally so the hours that you actually spend watching football or any other sport is irrelevant to me – people can make up anything they want on the internet. I was just making the point that if you watch football you technically support its teams and the players. That’s all.
“I was just making the point that if you watch football you technically support its teams and the players.”
Technical support as in IT? No, I didn’t think so, but your point is just as wrong. If I watch a game on TV in a bar, I am supporting the NFL? How? If I buy a product that advertises on stations carrying the NFL, but I never watch a game, I guess I am supporting the NFL, too, right? How about if I watched H. Wide Load Clinton and Bernie the Old Commie, oh, last October. Was I supporting them b/c I watched them?
And that’s per year.
Finally, it’s spelled, “condescending.” If you’re going to come in here and try to act superior, at least you can at least spell.
It’s also really funny considering the previous rant at API included, if I may quote, “Additionally, you randomly use vocabulary that is a beyond your last completed grade-level.”
Agree with you on the misspell – no excuse for that error – but I don’t think that I was out of scope as far as vocabulary use goes. Anyway, thanks for identifying the error.
It’s Murphy’s Law of grammatical criticism. It gets ya every time.
Oh and it’s spelled “staying” not “saying” out of jail. I guess nobody’s perfect
Oh and one more: “at least you can at least spell” … thoughts??
I don’t know if This would qualify to be a run-on sentence or not. It seems to get squirrelly after the word “seem” Also, I think you meant to type “pointing” rather than “point”. Hope this helps.
I forgot a period after “seem”. My fault.
WTF is positive about your post? You are deluded!!
I was saying that I am a positive person. However, even positive people who read nonsensical drivel for over two years can become frustrateD. My post was negative, but hey, that seems to be the gist of things here.
Is THAT another reason why we can’t have nice things? 😜
Hey, wait a second!
If it is the “National Felon League”, would not the act of joining the NFL be called “Going Con” instead of “Going Pro”?
‘Cause they are pros at conning folks into believing that the outcome of the game matters.
And before Zonk goes zonkers on me, I don’t watch professional sports, haven’t in more than 30 years.
I seldom even attend a college game.
That and $5 will get you a small drink at Starbucks.
Long overdue.
Howeveer, some (if not all) service Academies in the past have (1) ordered grads to active duty at the Academy who are talented and have athletic eligibility left with duty as “assistant coaches” as a fig leaf to allow them to compete while serving on active duty, and (2) kept folks around an extra part-year as a Cadet/Midshipman just to play, then “graduated” them after the season. If the SECDEF will explicitly ban those practices also, I’ll be even happier.
Don’t laugh: in the past, the USAFA has engaged in practice (1), while the USNA is known on occasion to have engaged in (2). I don’t know of any occasions where USMA had done either, but I also wouldn’t be shocked to find out they have.
Every academy has done one and two. It’s not uncommon for folks to wait months for training slots anyway.
I’m not all that sure about this, mostly because I am not familiar with the process.
I’m assuming this is a small percentage of graduates.
The military relies on volunteers and that involves presenting a favorable public image.
If a graduate is so athletic that he can actually go pro it can be argued that his abilities are a perishable skill susceptible to decline over time.
If the graduate in some way through a reserve commitment or a return to active duty in a timely manner (what is the longevity potential for these grads on average?)then considering the favorable perceptions of the public as potential recruits, parents, persons of influence etc. of potential recruits could that not in some fashion be calculated for evidence of what the most beneficial course of action is?
It is a return to the policy in place prior to 2016. Reynolds was the only person to go pro under the immediate ready reserve option. All prior dis rhier two years, usually as a graduate assistant coach then to a part time reserve unit with 2 years for every one they were supposed to do active duty commitment.
I got that, thanks. I was questioning whether such a return was the best option given all concerned.
I love some of the outrage I am seeing on this. Up until Reynolds, a few years ago, this was the policy. Now people are acting like Mattis is being an asshole. No one graduating now entered a service academy without rh this as the policy in place.
That our taxpayer funded academies even have intercollegiate sports teams is in and of itself ludicrous
If the US taxpayer knew what we spent on an academy graduate compared to the return on investment they would be livid
The average American thinks the Academies are producing Pattons, MacArthurs and Eisenhowers when the facts couldn’t be further from the truth
I had to attend the national victory parade in DC a few years back and they put us up at the Naval Academy. It is an amazing campus.
One summer during my AD days my platoon was sent to West Point as part of the Summer Cadre which trains Cadets during the summer between their Freshman and Sophomore years. We stayed on the USMA campus at night and I was quite impressed, VERY nice campus!
I attended the graduation of one of my former Scouts at the Naval Academy some n-teen years ago. It is an amazing campus. The chapel is beautiful as well.
If the US taxpayers knew what Uncle Sam spent on Uncle Sam, they would be livid. It’s not just the academies; everything the government buys from itself (with the possible exception of Unicor)is expensive. When I was a Tech School instructor, I was shocked to find out how Sammy pays for training. It’s little or no exaggeration to say Harvard would have been cheaper. Although the building we used was built in the Roosevelt administration, the cost of the building was figured into the amount Sammy charged himself per student. The students did all of the janitorial work; but, janitorial work was figured into the cost.
It’s not just training that’s expensive. I had to send two E-6’s TDY for a week to a base three hours away; the transportation officer told me it was cheaper for them to drive one of their own cars and get reimbursed than it was for them to sign a car out of the “motor pool”.
I always said Uncle Sam is Uncle Sam’s most expensive customer.
O-4E: I’ve wondered for decades why the Service Academies didn’t have Div III athletics. That would seem to be more in line with their mission than attempting to play with the NCAA’s “FBS” (AKA old Div I) teams.
The Service Academies will never be able to compete directly with the NCAA “big dogs” when it comes to NFL- and NBA-level talent. They will on rare occasions get someone who is an elite talent – but only rarely. The vast majority of the time they’ll simply be a “W” on another “big time” program’s schedule.
Agreed.
Our service academies are at a serious disadvantage because they don’t recruit athletes like the large schools with the huge programs do.
You can be dumb as dog shit and still get into a Div 1 School as a gifted athlete.
Also those who want to play as a lineman in College ball are usually well over the HT/Weight standards of the military, and probably couldn’t pass the running portions of the PFTS.
Discounting a few quarterbacks and an exceptionally few other position players, most football players who make it into the NFL would not be academically qualified to attend any service academy.
“You can be dumb as dog shit and still get into a Div 1 School as a gifted athlete.”
Yep, like OU during the Barry Switzer years.
What? Actually require athletes to fulfill their legal and moral obligations?
What a concept.
Don’t bother me none if they do what they were hired to do. If they wanted to play football pro, they should have picked other schools, not the academies.
Amen….. nuff said
Word
Problem is most are DIV III and DIV III level athletes getting the chance to play DIV I
Which is in itself another story of BS concerning the academies
Absolutely agree Ex. Good to see Mattis getting us back where we need to be before it had time to get ingrained.
Bout damned time. We give these young men a great opportunity and education…to serve their country in our military, not become pro athletes. When their Academy obligation is completed, then by all means see if a team still wants you, but until then, ruck up and move your asses out.
Ditto that, whatever happened to “Duty, Honor, Country”?
Bravo Mattis! This shit isn’t complicated. You get free room, board, books, a quality education that costs a bundle and, if you are graduated and commissioned, you must fulfill your end of the bargain, just like your classmates. The gamesmanship of protecting an NFL/NBA prospect undercuts the deal. There are sufficient numbers of basketball and football factories that graduate barely literate athletes. The academies don’t need to supplement them. Duty, Honor, Country, Pro Sports.
Two years? I seem to recall a five year requirement after graduation …
Yeah, I just checked. Don’t know about the other Academies but West Point is still five years.
It’s still 5 for all of the academies. Just they already had a special deal where they would serve 2 active, mostly as a graduate assistant coach, then the remaining 3 would be converted to 6 years in the regular, not ready, reserve. This was the policy until 2016, when they changed it so USNA’s Keenan Reynolds could be drafted by Baltimore. So basically the policy Mattis is changing from was in effect for less than a year.
Correct – provided that by “5” you’re referring to 5 years active duty obligation. Since Sep 1980, the total obligation for the Service Academies is 8 years – 5 active, remainder reserve – just like anyone else who joins the military. And if I recall correctly, the time spent as a Cadet/Mid doesn’t count if the individual graduates and accepts a commission.
That’s how I remember it – 5 years active duty, then three reserves. I don’t recall if it was active or inactive reserves.
I’d like to offer a counterpoint. As a grad of one of the afore-mentioned institutions, I would like to see each potential pro athlete handled on a case by case basis. Academy sports, especially football, are the single greatest recruiting tool the schools have. If we actually had a cadet with the talent and skill to make an NFL team & contribute, then I think allowing them to directly enter the reserves would be worth the cost of lost active service time – due to the gain in positive publicity. I would, however, require the athlete to wear their Class A service dress uniform to/from every game, as a constant reminder the individual is serving in the military. Also, if the athlete doesn’t make the primary roster and is assigned to the practice squad – no deal.
How much do we spend on the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds? Couldn’t our line F/A-18 and F-16 squadrons use more good jets, pilots or mechanics? When is the last time the Thinderbirds or Blue Angels performed for 3 hours on national television? Why then, do we bother with the demo teams? The answers to these questions reveal why I think a uniquely talented service academy athlete should have the CHANCE (not right) to go directly into the reserves and NFL.
I see your point, but I think every individual should honor their commitment. No exceptions, exemptions, or excuses.
I guess I’m old fashioned that way.
Maybe they could exempt academy athletes from academic standards as well. After all, they might not need to know all that technical stuff if they make it to the pros while turning their backs on their military obligation.
(Yeah, that was sarc.)
I do not see your point, i respect your academy education, but the purpose of service academies and ROTC is to provide with educated and trained military officers, not professional athletes. If that is the goal of an entrant there are plenty of colleges that would be happy to give them a full ride scholarship. Duty FIRST, people always!!!
Provide the nation, damn fingers
“Academy sports, especially football, are the single greatest recruiting tool the schools have”
Sorry, not buying it. Got data?
The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds can be converted on very short notice back into combat aircraft and aircrews. Professional athletes, not so much.
Old Herc Driver. I was waiting for that recruiting point. The Army/Navy game is probably those services greatest recruiting instrument, not the occasional cadet or midshipman who is drafted by the pros. If a DI quality high-school athlete thinks he has a chance of going pro, he most likely does not apply to an academy. He goes to Bama, Auburn, Clemson…etc, not to an academy.
You are correct, damn few blue-chip prospects seriously consider the academies. It has happened, however. I’m the same age as Danny Wuerffel, who won the national championship and Heisman Trophy at Florida. His father was an Air Force chaplain at Hurlburt Field during Danny’s high school years – and he nearly went to USAFA to play football. Once in a while, a kid comes along with huge talent and a direct military connection. (Shaquille O’Neal, for another example). I would just like a better chance at snagging that talent. I think it’s a win-win.
I seem to recall that active duty troops that are accepted to all service and Olympic teams get to do so without extending their enlistment for the time involved on those teams.
Napoleon McCallum was a USNA grad that played in the NFL and served on the USS Peliliu during the 1986 season. He was transferred to the USS California, served him obligation and then returned to the NFL. Career cut short due to a knee injury.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_McCallum
Yep. And if memory serves, McCallum is precisely the individual I was referencing with my “keep the individual an extra year to play, then graduate them immediately after the season” comment above.
A person who applies to one of the Service Academies knows their commitment from day one if they finish the program and graduate. The mission isn’t athletics – it’s the education and development of military officers.
Not only at taxpayer expense, but they are given E-5 pay for that 4 years. They are getting PAID to go to school for 4 years to potentially become a pro-athlete. ROTC students do get a stipend as well, so no sympathy.
If they NFL wanted to reimburse taxpayers for the actual cost of “educating” a cadet/midshipmen, I’d be fine with them forgoing service to play foosball. Especially since the NFL is already a tax free organization.
Actually, Service Academy Cadets/Midshipmen get less than 1/2 the minimum possible base pay for an E5 (e.g., E5 w/<2 yrs service). Academy Cadets/Midshipmen receive $1062.30 per month in base pay - or less than 72% of the base pay of an E1 recruit (<4 mo service).
https://www.dfas.mil/dam/jcr:0066b0ac-2d02-47a6-8b78-1cdc91b56ef7/2017MilitaryPayChart.pdf
I must be thinking of ROTC and OCS types then for that E5 thing. I know we had cadets at our unit getting E5 level pay, so must’ve been thinking about that for academies too.
But, they’re still getting paid.
I haven’t said it in a while, but where the heck were you when I really needed a solid barracks lawyer buddy? Gosh!
Yes, students at the Academies do get paid. And it’s in reality a helluva good deal. But it’s hardly “easy street”, financially or otherwise.
Seems to me I’ve read that at one point, Cadets/Mids also paid for all their uniforms vice received them as gratis issue; paid for laundry service and paid a flat, mandatory monthly fee for haircuts; and paid for textbooks as well (they were allowed to keep them as a result) – all out of that basic pay via debt accrual. I believe I’ve also read that at one point, it took most of the first year simply to get out of debt associated with first-year textbook and uniform issue. Meals and lodging were, however, provided gratis. (smile)
Don’t know if that’s changed or not. Been at least a couple of decades since I read that, and things could well have changed in the interim.
After spending a week at West Point to assist one of the professors with a class assignment, I know they definitely don’t have it easy.
I saw the “typical” schedule for a cadet and every minute of their day is accounted for. Many of the Cadre there I talked to had one big issue with their schedule. Instead of training them to do certain tasks really well, they shove all they can down their throats so they learn about “everything” at least a little bit.
Not an Academy graduate, but my former bro-in-law is. When I asked him about all that, he said it is because the primary mission of West Point was to produce combat leaders and a large part of the weeding/training process was to overburden a cadet so as to induce maximum stress … and learn to function despite everything or get dismissed from the Corps of Cadets.
All true. We were paid and then most of it was taken back. Including a fee for tickets to all of the sporting events. Before the big raise in ’96 is to 1082 as a freshman I got $60 A month takehome.
I think we just have to accept that sometimes there can be multiple, necessary uses for the same “thing”. Paratroopers are trained to jump from my beloved C-130 and kick ass, yet we have the Golden Knights. F-16s provide close air support and other combat missions, yet the Thunderbirds do ‘loops to music’ at air shows. And yes, the Academies provide the military with officers at great expense to the tax payers, but there might be one grad every few years who better serves his nation catching a touchdown pass from Tom Brady and being a reservist PA officer than whatever AFPC/MOS he would otherwise have. Just my opinion.
I would have thought that contractual service on active duty went without saying when you attend one of the academies, seeing as how it’s a degree paid for with tax dollars. It’s not supposed to be a free ride.
awwwwwwwwww the free ride is over with.
GOOD!
No.
Mattis can suck a dick on this one.
If these men/women have the talent to play at that level, let them.
Extend the contact x3 to the CS or CSS.
Its is called a recruiting tool. Plus these men/women made it through the academy playing a sport.
The Army almost never has this problem of athletes going pro 😀
That’s kinda what I was thinking….though I understand your joke. If it’s such a small number with such talent I just kinda figured as Herk was saying, i.e. that it seems realistic to handle it case by case.
Think of it like the All-Services, Olympic teams, PEP programs or other such special opportunities. It’s not my circus, but it just seems like a chance for some positive marketing/advertising/relations.
But it does more often that the other academies. When it comes to Army and pro athletes, the Army stands well above the rest. Let’s start with football/baseball player Colin Mooney. A West Point grad (2008), he served three years and was released to go into pro football, which he did. Josh McNary (WP 2010) served two years active duty before joining the NFL. Alejandro Villanueva, another West Pointer, served a couple of tours in Afhanistan as a Ranger, and was signed by the Eagles in 2014, where he still plays. Caleb Campbell signed with the Detroit Lions in 2010. Then there was Robbie McAda who was drafted by the Packers in 1997. There are many more Army athletes. These were just some of the football players.
Small correction: Villanueva plays for the Steelers.
He was cut by the Eagles in August 2014 and eight days later signed by Tomlin and the Steelers.
CIB and a Bronze Star. Following in the footsteps of Rocky Blier.
Oops, screwed up. That should be Bleier.
“Small correction: Villanueva plays for the Steelers.” It ain’t small for Steeler fans. Thanks.
Go Steelers!
For those who consider going pro athlete as an excuse to not fulfill the military obligation, what other excuses might be acceptable to you? Surely there are others just as good, like maybe Daddy dies suddenly and the cadet needs to take over the family business, How about the cadet gets an offer from a professional ballet company? Or a dog training enterprise? Are there limits to the possibilities? Any one of those ideas could mean financial gain for the cadet and maybe some sort of feel good experience for the academy that grants the early out.
Can you cite any instances of those examples ever occurring? Lol…yes kinda entering the realm of reductio absurdum otherwise
Wasn’t it Jim Webb who as Reagan’s SecNav directed David Robinson to duty instead of playing in the NBA?
One of the good guys, and among all time great college/pro basketball players. David sprouted an incredible 6 inches from 6’7″ to 7’1″ between his freshman and junior year. Robinson graduated the USNA in 1987, and reported to his first duty assignment. Robinson served on active duty from 1987 to 1989 before he was granted early release to play for the San Antonio Spurs in mid 1989. The Navy, and the Spurs got a great public relations bonanza in “The Admiral”. The guy was so much more than a hall of fame baller.
I remember his “I am a Navy Lieutenant” commercial.
I helped an old guy with his retirement project some time ago. We documented pro athletes who interrupted their careers to serve since WWI. It was a pretty fun project, and you can imagine the post WWII list was pretty skinny. I’ll see if I can’t find that and send it in.
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