The thoroughgoing militarization of professional sports is carried out through the collusion of the NFL, MLB and NHL cartels, paid for by the Pentagon.

An overall inside view of Raymond James Stadium November 11, 2013 in Tampa, Fla. before an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The promotion was nationally televised on Monday Night Football. 50,000 cards were provided to fans by USAA, the official military appreciation sponsor of the NFL | David Drapkin/AP images for USAA
Super Bowl 50 – a “sporting event” held on February 7 in San Francisco featuring the Carolina Panthers, the Denver Broncos and the Pentagon. coated in military promotion and jingoism, from flypasts of military jets to ads for “Captain America” of Marvel comic book fame at $5 million for a 30 second spot. The event is an orchestrated assault on the social consciousness of the American people: the CBS broadcast was watched by an estimated 111.9 million USians; according to Neilson, 49 per cent of all households with a TV were tuned in. The thoroughgoing militarization of the US Superbowl is hardly exceptional.
Overall, from 2012 to 2015, 18 NFL teams received more than $5.6 million from the military. Fifty teams across the five major professional leagues had contracts with the military, including ten MLB teams that took nearly $900,000, and eight teams each from the NBA and MLS that had similar contracts. Six NHL teams received money, and the Air Force paid more than $1.5 million to NASCAR. – TS
DAVID SWANSON* (Photos and captions added by TS)
(February 6) – Super Bowl 50 will be the first National Football League championship to happen since it was reported that much of the pro-military hoopla at football games, the honouring of troops and glorifying of wars that most people had assumed was voluntary or part of a marketing scheme for the NFL, has actually been a money-making scheme for the NFL. The U.S. military has been dumping millions of dollars, part of a recruitment and advertising budget that’s in the billions, into paying the NFL to publicly display love for soldiers and weaponry. Continue reading