A salute to redundancy

Home truth: You hear the train coming long before you see it. You know that scene in "Stand By Me" where the boys are gingerly making their way across the railway bridge, and Gordie senses something and kneels down and wraps his hand around the rail, and feels the vibration of the as-yet-unseen train?

This is kind of like that.

This is me kneeling down and wrapping my hand around the metaphoric rail, and feeling the vibration of disfavor. This happens sometimes. You type something knowing as you do it people are going to take it the wrong way.

And so, this: I don't understand why the NFL found it necessary to declare Sunday a military appreciation day.

Oh, sure, I get it. But I don't, you know, get it.

This is because, from where I'm sitting, every NFL Sunday is Military Appreciation Day. After all, there has always been an unnerving symbiosis between football and the military, the former taking so much of its terminology from the latter. Hence the endless martial parade of giant American flags and military flyovers and live bald eagles wheeling gracefully over end zones, and Salutes to the Troops.

Understand, I'm not saying there's anything inappropriate about any of that. Our servicemen should be recognized for their service, and often. But there's a fine line between recognition and quasi-worship, and more and more we seem to be a nation shading toward the latter.

This is not to say Saluting the Troops has become almost a secular religion in this country. That's probably going too far. But when the NFL sets aside a Sunday to do what it already does every Sunday, you wonder if perhaps Saluting the Troops hasn't become just more excess in a nation devoted to excess in all things.

See, as much as all those khaki team hats you saw on NFL sidelines Sunday were a nice tribute, they also carried a whiff of appropriation. I often wonder what veterans really think about athletic teams playing dress-up in military camo. The vets, after all, earned that camo. So do they consider it an honor, or trivialization?

I suspect at least some see it as the latter. But of course I could be completely off-base about that.

Which is why I can hear that train, a-comin' down the track.