This is according to Attauyo 'Ty' Nsekhe (right), a St. Louis Rams' practice squad offensive tackle. Obviously, as veterans ourselves, we believe the exact opposite and take...excuse the pun...offense.
Nsekhe's words came in response to a counterpart's tweet that read, "Hard to believe that a player in a helmet defendin’ a football makes more money than a soldier in a helmet defendin’ his country.” Hat tip to tweeter Morgan Reed for the true words there.
But Nsekhe's comment back? Wait for it...
“It doesn't take much skill to kill someone.”
How does it make you feel to hear a [practice squad] NFL player say this about the military, when we have sacrificed so much over the past 12+ years?
Sound off with other current and former servicemembers on RallyPoint.com, where this discussion is happening right now.
These guys are lucky to last three hours without an owie that sends them to a safe rest area on the sidelines.
ReplyDeleteYeah footballers are tough and strong. Their skill set, endurance, and mind-set isn't even in the same ballpark as a combat arms soldier.
Go for several days without sleep in 100+ or -20 degree weather and then perform a complex mission. When it goes wrong, no one blows a whistle so the baddies stop trying to hurt you.
When it's done, eat a cold meal, grab a couple hours sleep in the dirt, dust, and mud where you are. Get up and do it all over again. For at least twice the length of an entire football season.
What a dumbass punk. But he can probably whip most GIs one on one outside the seedy bar he gets drunk in.
He wouldn't last in combat. I would like to see him trying to duck bullets whistling over his head.
ReplyDeleteBen is right. Talk is cheap. Prove yourself on the battle field.
For a degreed individual that is one of the most stupid things I have ever heard...kudos to the original tweeter, Kevlar trumps a shiny Bonnet every time!
ReplyDeleteHis comment might be more credible if he actually played in the NFL but he is just a live tackling dummy on the practice squad
ReplyDeletein a nutshell: I've seen the greatest of players miss game(s) over turf-toe. Turf-toe!!!? Man, I'm 5 feet nothing and a hundred and nothing, but I have finished timed road marches full combat load with shin-splits (vertical hair-line fracture(s) the "S" is important here) My two sets of wings trump any ring.
ReplyDeleteWhere is he from? I have a 14 year old kid in my High School who is an African Prince. He has seen more in his lifetime than I have during a 20 year career. The statement, “It doesn't take much skill to kill someone” may not be what we want to accept, but is true. Granted this jackass was not born in Africa and has no clue how tough Soldiers can be.
ReplyDeleteI reject your statement that it is true.
DeleteFirst off the context of the poster was that just the act of killing someone was the main stay of what it is to be a soldier. Killing someone is not even in the top 10 things involved with being a soldier as it relates to the job, and you should know that. Agreeing with that context is enabling ignorance and selling short every single person who serves, be they cooks, supply clerks, mechanics, to operators. Such positions give way to other separators like those who work outside the wire being some how greater than those who work behind the wire insuring that all of the team is able to function at their best with the best support.
Second is the context you add on top with your comparison of what you did vs a 14yr boy who grew up in some place of chaos. It takes more than being shot at or shooting back to define what it is to be experienced or to show skill in working in such environments. Character, Honor, Valor, Commitment, Duty, Code, Ethics still are more of what it is to be in the military than getting shot at or shooting at someone. Although years in an impoverished or violent area will forge a spirit in toughness, it doesn't often shine up to be any of those aspects of life.
The basic ignorance of this statement, notwithstanding, let's mention just a few of the actual, literal skills, each of them extremely complex, that the military employs in just killing people: small arms marksmanship, small unit tactics, airborne weapons delivery, ACM, Tomahawk Strike Coordination, etc, etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteI guess a fundamental lack of appreciation for the layers of complexity involved in every skill is probably the type of thing that separates a practice squad player from a true NFL star player.