“That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover,” Aikman, the Hall of Fame quarterback, mused. A senior military official told The Post that the cost of those flights came from money already allocated in the Pentagon budget. ADMilitary displays at sports events became more prominent after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. No sports league has more actively cultivated an association with patriotism and the military than the NFL. Although athletes never characterized the demonstrations as protests of the military, President Trump and others often falsely linked the two, raising a debate over the value of the pregame pageantry.

Source: Washington Post October 20, 2020 14:04 UTC