Sportscaster Dale Hansen delivered one of the most powerful speeches about protests around the NFL and beyond during his segment on Monday:
Dallas broadcaster who served in Vietnam offers powerful praise for protesting athletes
You need to watch this.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Hansen, who works for WFAA8 in Dallas, is a former Vietnam War veteran who lost a close friend in the battle. He’s inherently qualified to speak from both the angle of a sportscaster and a military veteran — and he didn’t hold back:
“I served in the military during the Vietnam War, and my foot hurt too — but I served anyway. By best friend in high school was killed in Vietnam, and Carroll Meyer will be 18 years old forever, and he did not die so that you could decide who is a patriot and who loves America more. The young black athletes are not disrespecting America or the military by taking a knee during the anthem — they are respecting the best thing about America.”
Hansen’s three-minute delivery is so on point you just need to watch it for yourself. He closed with an all-time legendary mic drop:
“Maybe we all need to read the constitution again. There has never been a better use of pen to paper. Our forefathers made freedom of speech the first amendment. They listed 10, and not one of them says “You have to stand during the anthem.” And I think those men respected the country they fought for and founded a great deal more than the self-proclaimed patriots who are simply hypocrites — because they want to deny the basic freedom of this great country, a country they supposedly value and cherish so much.”
Dang.
