The NFL Won't Allow The Cowboys To Wear Decals Honoring The Fallen Dallas Police Officers
Fox News – The NFL denied the Dallas Cowboys’ request to wear a decal on their helmets during the season that would have paid tribute to the five police officers killed last month in an ambush.
The team had been wearing a decal with the words “Arm in Arm” since the first day of training camp this summer. Dallas police Chief David Brown and Mayor Mike Rawlings paid the team a visit on that day, according to Fox 4 News.
“Their concern for the families of our fallen officers, the Dallas Police Department, and the City of Dallas is what matters most, and we know that support will continue for the immediate and long term future,” the department said in a statement.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and tight end Jason Witten, who created the decal, said they were disappointed with the league’s decision but said they believed the stickers already served its purpose.
TMZ has quotes from an officer who heads up the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation who was less diplomatic, saying they feel like the NFL does not “fully support us.” And overall after the emotional trauma that was watching Deflategate unfold, I’m as tired of the “Goodell is a dictator” news items as anyone can be. But it’s unbelievable how tone deaf the NFL continues to be on some things. We can have an entire month of the teams covered in pink for an organization that only gives 20.9% of its funds to researching its cause and that’s fine because the NFL wants to push it to seem like good guys but a real situation that occurred in the home of a flagship NFL franchise
gets ignored because it violates uniform policy. This is and will continue to be a major thing for people down there and especially the officers who I’m sure have done a TON for the NFL, especially for the Super Bowl a few years back. It’s shitty.
Not to mention the fact that the situation between NFL teams and local communities is probably as frayed as its been in years with the rising costs for fans, personal seat licenses, publicly funded stadiums, why wouldn’t you want teams to embrace the people who show up week after week and treat your players like Gods when they see them in the street? Let Dallas have a cop decal, maybe Tampa wants a rainbow in support of Orlando, these are all major things that have affected so many people and when the NFL can use its platform for good it simply chooses not to time and again.
Plus selfishly as a Cowboys fan, this is exactly the kind of thing that could have defined their season, so much positive juju with how much they did with the cops. Teams always play better when there’s some real-life cause driving them to be better. I’ll never forget being on a bachelor party a few years back when USC was a possible national title contender with a new head coach and going to play Boston College. Except that was the day BC honored 9/11 victim Welles Crowther, BC played out of their minds while Sark probably drank from a flask in his headset, the crowd went nuts and it was a magical moment for everyone but me watching on a 10-inch TV in some shitty Myrtle Beach seafood bar. These decals could be the difference between an 8-8 season and 12-4 with a bye. The people of Dallas need that to heal, as do the people across the country who made bad decisions in their youth to rebel against their Giants fan parents.
Oh and ruff ruff buy a hat:
