Sports Illustrated: Pence "stole Manning's last great day as a Colt"

[highplainsdem]

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/08/mike-pence-vice-president-anthem-nfl-colts-walkout-peyton-manning

Approximately 23 players for the 49ers kneeled. Pence walked out. By 8 p.m. Sunday, the top five stories on the Indianapolis Star website were:

• VP Pence leaves Colts game after 49ers players kneel
• Swarens: Throw the flag on Mike Pence’s walkout
• VP Mike Pence tweets same picture from Colts game
• Doyel: Pence uses Colts for political purposes
• Veterans, activists respond to Pence’s Colts walkout

No popular headline about Manning’s number 18 retired by the Colts or his induction into the team’s ring of honor. Judge for yourself about the motives of Pence, a native Hoosier, at the glorious celebration of one of the greatest athletes in the history of the state. He could have stayed away from Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday. It's a disgrace that Pence copied his boss and hogged a spotlight he had no business even sharing, never mind owning.

But the Vice President of the United States slapped Manning and Pence's beloved Colts in the face. Whether he's a puppet for the President or his own man, Pence trumped a day that belonged to the greatest football hero the state of Indiana has ever seen, and he did it for political purposes. He stole Manning's last great day as a Colt. Mike Pence will have to live with himself for that.

[riversedge]

1. The whole Pence-Trump saga is sick.

[Paladin]

2. I love it. Pence fucks over Indiana, one more time. (nt)

[nolabear]

3. Wasn't Manning floating the idea of running for office?

Did I imagine that?

[volstork]

16. Yes.

Rumors had him potentially running for Corker's Senate seat. He's great football player, but a right-wing tool.

[Not Ruth]

4. Didn't he already retire a while ago?? Can't they reschedule the ceremony? And ban Pence from games

Perfect resolution

[Bleacher Creature]

5. Manning is a long time GOP donor who played golf with Trump a few months ago.

It’s crappy that Pence pulled that stunt when Colts fans genuinely wanted to appreciate the Manning era, but I don’t really feel bad for Peyton himself.

[dlk]

6. Trump Isn't the Only Toxic Narcissist in This Administration

Pence's stunt was a huge waste of taxpayers' resources, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars merely to give a big middle finger to the NFL. So much hypocrisy from the party of "fiscal responsibility."

[mountain grammy]

7. Meantime, Manning is trump's golfing buddy..

so he should be enjoying the clown show..right?

[vlyons]

8. Today's republicans are a degenerate bunch with no sense of decency

In the case of Pence and his "Christian" ilk, decency is a bigoted holier-than-thou bigotry and arrogance that shouts, "God loves me, but not you." "I am more godly than everyone else." "My religion is the only one that counts."

Let's face it, Fundamentalist Christianity has become degenerate without even the pretense of loving kindness, tolerance, compassion, patience, generosity, justice etc. As a Buddhist, I really try not to judge Christians as stupid and evil, because I know that there are many Christians that practice loving kindness. But the fundies have been led astray into downright perversion. What can I say, except that's what I see.

[riversedge]

9. It is a good article to read..............

Vice President Mike Pence Upstages Peyton Manning With Orchestrated Anthem Walkout


https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/08/mike-pence-vice-president-anthem-nfl-colts-walkout-peyton-manning
Peter King October 08, 2017

When Peyton Manning was drafted by the Colts in 1998, Mike Pence—born in Indiana, raised in Indiana, college-educated in Indiana—was a conservative talk-show host and avowed Colts fan. When Pence was elected to Congress in 2000, he moved away from Indiana for the first time but continued to root hard for the Colts in the Manning glory years. When Pence was elected governor in 2012 and Manning left for the Broncos, Pence continued to root for Manning when he played the Patriots, presumably because of the rivalry between the Colts and Patriots; Pence even tweeted his best wishes to Manning before a Denver-New England game several years ago.

So it surprised no one when Vice President Pence announced last week that he would be attending the ceremony in Indianapolis on Sunday when Manning’s number would be retired at halftime of the Colts-49ers game. Pence would be in Las Vegas on Saturday to honor the victims of the murderous gun rampage there, and he would be moving on to California for a vice presidential appearance on Monday, but he would fly on Air Force 2 with his traveling party for the 1,600-mile trip from Las Vegas to central Indiana to pay tribute to Manning at his halftime ceremony.
NFL
Vice President Mike Pence Leaves Colts Game Due to National Anthem Protests

With Pence’s trip, of course, there would be a traveling press pool of about 20 and a traveling Secret Service detail of approximately 10 with Pence and about 20 more doing advance work to sweep Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indianapolis hotel where the VP’s party would stay on Saturday night and Sunday morning. There would be an ambulance in front of Pence’s motorcade and a trauma team on alert at a local hospital. There certainly would be other manpower needs associated with a vice presidential trip, at a significant cost to U.S. taxpayers.

Meanwhile, at some point during the weekend, President Donald Trump and Pence spoke, and Trump told Pence—he admitted as such on Twitter—that if there was a demonstration with players kneeling during the national anthem on Sunday, Pence was to leave the stadium.

If there was one certain thing at the 49ers-Colts game, it was that some 49ers would demonstrate during the anthem. This is the only team since the start of the 2016 season to have one or more players either sit or kneel for every game—preseason and regular-season. There was absolutely no chance that this game would go off with 45 Colts standing on their side of the field and 45 members of the Niners standing on their side of the field. For at least the previous 26 games that the 49ers played, first with Colin Kaepernick sitting and then kneeling, and this year with safety Eric Reid leading players in some form of demonstration, the team did something during the anthem. Last week in Arizona, about 30 players kneeled.

So why did Pence show up? This was a fait accompli—that some Niners would kneel, that Pence would walk out, and that it would turn into the story of the day in the NFL.

And in the process, it would cast a gigantic shadow over the ceremony Pence even tweeted about Sunday morning.

[Initech]

10. They could have saved time and money and just given us the finger directly.

But that would have been too easy.

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. Pence is a piece of shit.

Fortunately, Manning is a piece of shit, too. So I don't have to feel bad about Pence stealing his thunder.

Sometimes, you reap what you sow.

[pintobean]

12. Meh, the Colts kicked Manning to the curb

well before his time. These "honors" have to be bitter-sweet for him. But, I don't believe Pence stole anything. Every football fan is aware of what happened, and certainly every Colts fan. If SI has a problem with the coverage, they should blame the press, not credit Pence.

[bronxiteforever]

14. I believe Pence stole taxpayer money to perform a Trump stunt

[sharedvalues]

13. This is huge - Trumpers love football and this will hurt him

[QED]

18. the hard core Trumpers i know are anti-nfl right now.

All that faux patriotism had them spouting all kinds of crap. One even said those who support the nfl should be arrested.

[sharedvalues]

20. Ha ha. DJT has miscalculated.

I stopped watching the NFL over concussions. I didn't expect that watching it again would be making a progressive political statement


This is going to turn off the unengaged but Trump leaning Fox news watching NFL fan. DJTs approval is around 34% now. I bet 15% are hardcore trumpets and 20% are relatively disengaged. If this NFL stuff turns off the 20% -- watch out below!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Finally, an article about the real victim here.

[Perseus]

17. "Whether he's a puppet for the President or his own man"

Are you kidding me?

Pence just proved that HE IS A PUPPET for the man-child...that is not a question. He, Pence, answered it by playing stupid and doing the dirty child work of his boss.

I have such a hard time understanding how these people can go ahead and ridicule themselves in front of the World, that they can show they are nothing but puppets...what makes these people accept that kind of humiliation? This is something that I cannot process, I try to see different angles to try to understand it. You have to love yourself, at least a little, you have to have principles and pride...it is mind boggling...

[Takket]

19. Would love it if the Colts banned him from the stadium

[gratuitous]

21. "Mike Pence will have to live with himself for that"

Oh please. On the list of Mike Pence's sins against sports, the state of Indiana, and the United States, stealing Manning's last great day as a Colt isn't going to crack the top 1,000.