Another ridiculous NFL rule perplexing Broncos

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ENGLEWOOD, Colo – Even when it seems the NFL is something right, they find a way to cheapen it.

Throughout November, the league is running its “Salute to Service” campaign which, on the surface, is a great thing. Our military absolutely deserves to be recognized, and some really cool things come out of the campaign.

On Thursday, the Denver Broncos welcomed in 75 members of the Warrior Transition Program to practice. Those heroes met their heroes, they took selfies, got autographs and joked around with people like Von Miller, a really cool gesture from the team.

But the NFL is the NFL.

No, this isn’t going to be all about the league’s wildly modest actual donation to the troops or the fact that you better believe every team store in the country is stocked to the brim with camouflage sideline gear.  This is about the league saying to its players, “Salute our troops, but only on our terms.”

Badges of the five military branches (The Army, the Navy, The Air Force, the Marines and the Coast Guard) are available to players to stick on their helmets and honor the troops, but it comes with a catch—you only get to honor one branch—because… well… two, three, four or five would just be too much honor?

At press time, the league could not be reached for comment and a search for why the players could only wear one emblem mostly returned links to buy “Salute to Service” gear.

“Why can’t we have all of them, you know what I’m saying?” Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall asked BSN Denver rhetorically. “It’s about the entire military so—I don’t know, man—the NFL is crazy… It would be dope to have them all, but I guess they only let us do one.”

Marshall has chosen the Navy emblem every year; his grandfather fought with the Navy in World War II.  Safety Darian Stewart rolls with the Marines emblem, “I think that’s a bad group of men that I really look up to,” but he also looks up to the Navy SEALs.

“I think if you want to wear multiple you should have a chance to,” he explained. “You never know, you might have people who have more that one family member or friend that’s served in the military. I think that should definitely be allowed.”

“No Fun League,” said Von Miller of the issue.

But Miller—who hails from one of just six universities in the country with a full-time, volunteer Corps of Cadets who study alongside civilian undergraduate students—has found his own way to salute the entire military.

“I actually put all of the emblems on the inside of my helmet,” he said with a smirk.

Imagine that. In order to honor the United States Military as a whole, Von Miller has to sneak the emblems onto the inside of his helmet. A grown man has to act like some high school kid sneaking his “F*** the Government” pin on the inside of his jean jacket with an enclosed anarchy “A” on the back.

Von can show his friends when the teachers aren’t looking.

“Huge respect to those guys, I’ve been over to Afghanistan and met real superheroes,” Miller concluded. “I respect those guys to the highest level.”

Just don’t respect them too much.