Taya Kyle, the widow of American Sniper Chris Kyle, wrote an open letter to the NFL to tell them they’ve lost her support over athletes kneeling for the national anthem.
Kyle argues that Americans have been football fans for so long because the NFL was about “celebrating each other based on skills, talent and a joint vision without regard to color and religion,” but now the NFL is choosing to “focus on division and anger.”
“Your desire to focus on division and anger has shattered what many people loved most about the sport,” Kyle says. “Football was really a metaphor for our ideal world — different backgrounds, talents, political beliefs and histories as one big team with one big goal — to do well, to win, TOGETHER.”
“Simplicity in a crazy world was pretty awesome,” she continues. “You dear NFL, have taken that. You have lost me here.”
Kyle ends the letter by encouraging NFL players to do their political and community activism outside of their paying job–in the off season. On her own time, she runs the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, which works to strengthen the relationships of military and first-responder families.
“If I can do it while I raise two kids as their only parent and work through the greatest pain of my life, let’s see if they can do it for the issues they say they care so much about,” she concludes.