A U.S. Navy veteran told the New Orleans’ Saints to shove their Peoples Health Champion Award where the sun don’t shine because he was upset over their kneelers.
A retired US Navy veteran has turned down an award that was to be presented at the next New Orleans Saints game.
Cdr. John Wells was selected to receive a a Peoples Health Champion Award on November 5 before the Saints take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
The award is handed out to people over 65 years of age who have achieved significant accomplishments after reaching “senior citizen” status.
As the director of the national organization Military Veterans Advocacy, Wells qualified for the award, but he decided he couldn’t accept it due to the recent “take a knee” protests that have swept across the NFL.
Daaaang that’s cold, bro.
Well, the Saints weren’t havin’ none of that. So they shot right back, however respectfully.
Respectfully and honorably, we chose Mr. Wells for the Peoples Health Champion Award purposefully for this game to bring to light the exact issues that he and his organization represent – the health and well being of our military, veterans and their families. Unfortunately, he has chosen very publicly not to accept this honor and refused the opportunity to promote the very cause for which he was being honored and distract from awareness we hoped to build throughout our community. We respect his decision, he has that right, and we thank him for his service to our country and his past efforts on behalf of the military and veterans.
Throughout Mr. Wells’ media appearances today, he has stated he no longer supports NFL football. That is unfortunate and disappointing considering the New Orleans Saints’ unwavering 50-plus year commitment to honor, support and recognize our servicemen and women and veterans. We will not allow Mr. Wells’ decision and subsequent media appearances to distract our players and organization from continuing to honor and support our military and veterans. We, as an organization, have decided to move on from this sad and divisive discourse and focus our attention on supporting our military and veterans. In lieu of honoring Mr. Wells, we will use the time allotted for the Peoples Health Champion Award to highlight non-political military advocacy programs and encourage our fans and community to join us in contributing to these groups who directly support our military and veterans.
They go on like this for like another three paragraphs!!! Ugh what a mess. I’m frankly sick of both sides of the issue – I just want to see them play the game….