Dear Coach Ferentz

Thank you for your service and volunteering to defend our right to think and do what we want.

If the QB play improves just a little, you’ll be missing out on watching a pretty damn good Iowa team.

Go Hawks!
 
Thank you for your service. As a fellow veteran, I support freedom of speech, and listening to the voices of others. I am extremely proud of how this team and program have bounced back, and I believe the team will be more united in the future. That's the thing about freedom. You are free to stop watching Iowa and have an opinion about kneeling, and so are the rest of us. Good luck being a NW fan!
 
Just wanted to say thanks for the memories. Iowa football will never be the same to me.

You have the statue of a man that died serving this great country right outside your door. How did you honor him, his family, and all other veterans this year?

You honored him by vandalizing the statue. By staying in the locker room during the National anthem. By taking a knee during the National anthem.

But it was the lack of a decal on a helmet that broke this Marines heart. Last weekend when I didn't see it I held out hope that maybe we would be displaying it Friday, but sadly I was mistaken.

That American flag tigerhawk is something that means a great deal to our Hawkeye vets, families who have lost loved ones, children with a missing parent, veterans with a missing limb, etc, etc...and you chose not to display it this year.

I'm guessing time will heal and someday I'll come back and start watching Iowa football again, but for now I just can't do it.

Explaining to my 5 year old son(who just got his room painted black and gold) why his Dad doesn't watch the Hawkeyes play football anymore will be the toughest part. You chose to take your knee, now I will take mine.

So long.

Sincerely,
Clownkilla
Thank you for your service, clownkilla. I'm right there with you. When stations don't cover the national anthem because it might upset some people, then something is wrong with how to go about protesting.
 
Your feelings are hurt by the choices a football team makes? As someone else pointed out, neither the coaches or players vandalized the statue. They actually came in and helped clean up the statue, stadium and other areas. Several came from out of state to do this.

As far as kneeling or not coming out for the anthem, I could care less and don't understand why you care so much. I find it hard to believe that any one player or coach did this with the intent of disrespecting the flag, our country or especially the military.

And just because they have had the flag on the helmet for Veterans Days in the past doesn't mean they need to do that every year. I am sorry your feelings are so tied into the Hawkeye program that you feel offended when a team doesn't go out of their way to put a flag on their helmet.

Sorry if I sound insensitive, but I just don't get it.
 
ClownKilla,

I going to go on record that there isn't a person on here that doesn't respect and thank you for your service. I know I do. You did something that requires strength, courage, and fortitude. You deserve our thanks.

One of the things you fought for was our country's ability to protest, and demand that their voices be heard, especially from those who may be unfairly discriminated against. Their voices need to be heard as it's at the heart of our democracy. It's not in any way a rebuke of the military and those who fought to protect our freedoms. That is a manufactured narrative by the Republican Party and Trump in particular to divide and garner support and votes...plain and simple...and it's freaking disgusting. Peaceful protest is critical to making sure our democracy works. The vandals and looters aren't protesters...they are criminals and should be in jail. Don't confuse the two.

I leave you with one thought during this time around Vet's Day. John McCain. Here is a guy that fought for our country and showed incredible bravery by flying missions over enemy targets in Vietnam. I've studied Vietnam and trust me, the Russian's were providing serious anti-aircraft weapons...those guys knew they were flying into a hornets nest. Those pilots had balls. I hated John McCain's politics...but I had the utmost respect for the man as a soldier, and a man who loved this country and what it stood for.

To see what Trump has tried to do to his legacy is one of the most disturbing things in American politics. A four time draft dodger who has no understanding of sacrifice and service, who chummed around with Jeffrey Epstein, a pedofile, while veterans are fighting and putting their lives on the line. Where is the outrage from your fellow vets? Where is the outrage from the Republican Party?
 
When can sports just be about sports? I have never understood why we have to use sporting events in order to demonstrate patriotism. If you feel that you have to go to a football game to demonstrate your patriotism then, fine, but I'm also fine if you feel you must use a football game to protest something. Me, I'm there to enjoy the game. You all fight it out, let me know who wins. In the meantime GO HAWKS!
 
I've modified my stance on all this. What I will say is posers like Colin Kapernick who did 0 for years about oppression and celebrated Fidel Castro has NO clue and deserves 0 respect. When the NBA shouts systemic racism (which is false) and then swallows their tongue with abuses in China because they want the Chinese yuan in their pockets you get 0 respect back. All most of us are asking is if you believe it, believe it and be consistent not some media whore and only woke when convenient.
 
I don't expect you to get it. If you ever lost a buddy on the battlefield, or came home without a leg you would though. I can promise you that.

Guess that makes me a "snowflake" haha okay then. Just not going to support a team that disrespects country and flag anymore is all.

"Love it or leave it!" -Stanzi

Teams do not have to come out for the National Anthem's playing and a lot of teams have been staying in the locker room even before kneeling started. Yes, thanks for your service but so far I have not seen anything bad the Hawk team and staff have done off the field or while play is not in progress.
 
I don't expect you to get it. If you ever lost a buddy on the battlefield, or came home without a leg you would though. I can promise you that.

Guess that makes me a "snowflake" haha okay then. Just not going to support a team that disrespects country and flag anymore is all.

"Love it or leave it!" -Stanzi
Grow up.
 
I've modified my stance on all this. What I will say is posers like Colin Kapernick who did 0 for years about oppression and celebrated Fidel Castro has NO clue and deserves 0 respect. When the NBA shouts systemic racism (which is false) and then swallows their tongue with abuses in China because they want the Chinese yuan in their pockets you get 0 respect back. All most of us are asking is if you believe it, believe it and be consistent not some media whore and only woke when convenient.

Oh, you mean Kapernick, the poser who sacrificed everything (career, contracts, etc) for something he believed in. Ok.

Poser...I do not think it means what you think it means.

No, the real poser is Trump in this equation. You know, the draft dodger, the one who has sacrificed thousands of lives to keep try to keep the economy humming. Yet through his idiocy, he failed to do the right thing early on. Just get people to wear masks, shut down for 4-6 weeks, then control what's left. Similar to what alot of other smart countries did.

Instead, you got this moronic patriotism about wearing a freaking mask. It's so freaking stupid it's going to go down in history as one of the most moronic failures in the history of our country. It's worse than casinos failures, and his 6 bankruptcies...but right in line with his history of failure. Yet the cult continues to worship and the Republican eunuchs just keep callowing in fear. Weird.
 
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I don't expect you to get it. If you ever lost a buddy on the battlefield, or came home without a leg you would though. I can promise you that.

Guess that makes me a "snowflake" haha okay then. Just not going to support a team that disrespects country and flag anymore is all.

"Love it or leave it!" -Stanzi
No, I haven't been in your situation, but I can't imagine if I did, I would be worrying about what a football team does or doesn't do during a national anthem. I never called you a snowflake, but if the shoe fits.

I don't pretend to know your politics, but what did you do or say when Trump has made negative comments about or soldiers and military, or when he has goofed around and made gestures during the national anthem. What are your thoughts on him dodging the draft multiple times. Just wondering? Whatever your thoughts, I would say he disrespects the flag and country more than any football player kneeling or a team deciding not to make their emblem with flag colors. Hopefully you were even more disgusted with Trump than you are know.

Peacefully celebrating our right to free speech and demonstration is one of the most American things someone can do.

"Love it or leave it!" The Man, Ricky Stanzi
 
I haven’t been able to be on the board as much as I want to the past few days because of some pressing commitments out of my control, but don’t do this shit in the football forum. Seriously.

I’m going to start deleting instead of moving. You folks posting this stuff have been here long enough since the board was changed to know that 1) it doesn’t go there, and 2) you have been given a purpose built outlet for it in a dedicated forum where you can effectively run wild.

99.99% of you have been awesome when it comes to the rules, but this post was done by the OP to raise hackles of people on the board who don’t want to see it, not discuss a point.
 
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These kneelers and locker birds are protesting police brutality.

They are NOT disrespecting the flag or our veterans who defended it. That's a big difference.
 
So just to be sure I understand this correctly (1) we're blaming the football players for disrespecting Nile Kinnick and the statue in front of the stadium named after him (2) visiting teams staying in the locker room as some form of protest to the flag (3) players kneeling to disrespect our military and (4) not putting a decal on a helmet being a sign of disrespect?

My thoughts...
(1) Kinnick stadium is more of a home to the football players then it is to any of us regardless of who its named after. And those football players who had nothing to do with it being vandalized were there cleaning it up. Were you?
(2 and 3) You're against the protest, we get it and that's totally your right, but never once have I heard a player addressing the matter as doing it out of spite to the veterans who died for our country.
(4) It seems petty to me to criticize a team for wearing their normal uniforms and not putting a decal on the helmet.

As stated by many others we all appreciate your sacrifices for this country and your status as a veteran, but you seem like a hypocrite to me. Calling yourself a "Hawkeye vet" and then attacking and wrongfully accusing those within the program of "vandalizing the statue. By staying in the locker room during the National anthem. By taking a knee during the National anthem" as ways of them "honoring" vets not knowing a damn thing about any of these kids who may be the children of vets or from a family that lost a friend or loved one in a war. In my opinion, you have no problem of attacking and accusing the players within the program of being prejudiced toward the military, but seem to ignore the fact that your equally prejudiced against the players.

I think it's probably in your best interest to find another program to support, because from the sound of it while they've made it perfectly clear from day 1 that they're protesting police brutality and in no way shape or form intending to disrespect the veterans who fought for the flag, you seem to be totally on board with disrespecting the program and those in it.
 
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Free country my man. Choice is yours (within the law that is) because of the democracy we keep alive. Damn glad it it this way. Separates us from dictatorships, autocracy's of the world.
 

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