Jeffrey Caplan
On Tuesday, Taya Kyle, the widow of “American Sniper” Chris Kyle, made her views on the recent NFL controversy known in a lengthy open letter to the NFL she posted on her Facebook page.
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It’s safe to say Kyle and Marie Tillman, widow of Pat Tillman, are not on the same page.
Kyle, whose husband was a United States Navy SEAL veteran and sniper murdered by a former Marine on a gun range in Texas, opened her letter to the NFL by saying the league was already a melting pot of different “backgrounds, races and religions” and that it was already “doing [its] part to bring people together and heal the world.”
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And then she got to her real point, her disgust with the national anthem protests that President Trump started railing against during his Alabama “son of a bitch” speech Friday night.
To protesters, she wrote: “Your desire to focus on division and anger has shattered what many people loved most about the sport. Football was really a metaphor for our ideal world — different backgrounds, talents, political beliefs and histories as one big team with one big goal — to do well, to win, TOGETHER.”
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She continued: “If you ever want to get off your knees and get to work on building bridges, let me know. I have found screaming about the problems in service marriages or even standing in silence in front of them, hasn’t healed even one of them.”
Tillman’s husband played in the NFL and surrendered millions of dollars to enlist following the 9/11 attacks. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Kyle has no connection to the NFL other than being a fan.
She wrote how funding the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation “has proven to make real change.”
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