Opinion: The use of major sporting events — specifically the NFL and the Super Bowl — to promote military propaganda is a symbol of a declining democratic state into one fueled by glorified war and militarization.
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On Sunday, Feb. 12, the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII by a field goal with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter. However, the turf battle between the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles was the least eventful moment of the day.
Super Bowl Sunday is the nation’s largest day for advertising. Companies spend upward of $6 million for their 30 seconds of fame, hoping to reach the more than 100 million viewers of the game.
These ads, designed twofold to target both the traditional football fans and those who attend watch parties for their social utility, have traditionally been lighthearted and fun.
This year, though, the commercials were different. Besides the bizarre John Travolta T-Moblie ad, this was the first year where religion was brought into the picture. Through two 60-second commercials, HeGetsUs urged viewers to promote inclusion and forgiveness as Jesus did, despite being funded by the Signatry, an evangelical anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ group.
For an organization to spend $20 million dollars on such a controversial topic seems extreme. And while the implications of this could get its own 750 words, the largest and most controversial sponsor of advertising is overlooked each time Super Bowl commercials are discussed: the U.S. military.
In 2015, a report done by Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake found that the Department of Defense had spent more than $10 million in marketing contracts with the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS. This doesn’t include contracts with NASCAR, which would total up to $100 million.
While some of the contracts were created as a legitimate recruiting effort, the majority of the contracts were created as “paid patriotism,” a term McCain and Flake used to determine egregious acts of “paid tributes [that] included on-field color guard, enlistment and reenlistment ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, full-field flag details, ceremonial first pitches and puck drops.”
Looking at the NFL alone, 18 NFL teams received contracts. The Atlanta Falcons received the highest contract at $879,000 for four years, but the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens all received more than $500,000. Other teams, including the Cleveland Browns and the New Orleans Saints, received amounts from $10,000 to $472,875 respectively.
As a result of this report, the NFL audited itself the following year and returned more than $700,000 to the DoD. And while the DoD no longer pays for acts of patriotism, the NFL will still accept money from the department in the form of advertisements.
This only serves to prove the cemented tie between the U.S. military and the NFL. It goes beyond a financial incentive.
Look first to the NFL’s Salute to Service Initiative, “the NFL’s year-round commitment to Honor, Empower and Connect with our nation’s service members, veterans and their families. It is grounded in deep partnerships with military and veteran support organizations which include the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Pat Tillman Foundation, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, United Service Organizations and Wounded Warrior Project®.”
This initiative may not reach the same level as paid patriotism, but it glorifies the military free of charge and sheds light on the ultimate military propaganda for the NFL: Pat Tillman.
Hidden among the list of organizations the NFL lists in its Salute to Service Initiative above is the Pat Tillman Foundation, a foundation designed to “unite and empower remarkable military service members, veterans and spouses as the next generation of public and private sector leaders committed to service beyond self.”
For those who watched the Super Bowl, or have heard about the Pat Tillman Foundation before, it doesn’t outwardly appear to be military propaganda. But how could it when it portrays Tillman in a fundamentally different regard to who he actually was and what actually happened?
Tillman was a former starting safety for the Arizona Cardinals in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And in light of the 9/11 attacks, Tillman chose to put his NFL career on pause to enlist in the U.S. Army with his younger brother Kevin. The two were deployed as part of the 75th Ranger Regiment to Iraq, and later Afghanistan.
According to the foundation and the NFL, the story ends here: “On the evening of April 22, 2004, Pat’s unit was ambushed as it traveled through the rugged, canyon terrain of eastern Afghanistan. His heroic efforts to provide cover for fellow soldiers as they escaped from the canyon led to his untimely and tragic death via fratricide.”
The real story goes much deeper though.
When Tillman enlisted, he believed he would be fighting directly against Al-Qaeda. Instead, he was sent to Iraq, which he strongly opposed on the basis that it was “illegal” and was the use of the Bush administration’s aggression.
Shortly later, Tillman and his brother were sent to Afghanistan where Tillman would be killed, not by enemy ambush, but by his own government.
Tillman was killed by three shots to the head as a result of deliberate friendly fire; an act used by the U.S. government to promote its war efforts among opposition.
Following his death, his uniform and belongings were destroyed, his family was lied to and the government covered up the event for years.
Despite all of this, Tillman is still seen as the poster boy for the NFL and the U.S. military because of his ties with both. For these organizations, it doesn’t matter what Tillman stood for or the circumstances of his death; they seized on his story and continue to use it to their advantage.
Prior to the coin toss for this year’s Super Bowl, the NFL aired a special about Pat Tillman and four recipients of the foundation’s scholarship, only referring to Tillman’s death as the ultimate sacrifice that must continue to be honored and celebrated.
All of this bought, and now free, advertising is not without consequence.
Regardless of a person’s views on the military, using the NFL as a platform gives it direct reach to everyone. It inundates Americans with positive depictions of the military, ignoring all of the violence and trauma of war, and creates an American-centered war machine, incapable of criticism.
