Tim Kennedy, the famed UFC fighter who served in the army and later in the 7th Special Forces Group where he was a sniper, sniper instructor, and the principal combatives instructor for C Company, 3rd Battalion, deploying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, said Special Forces members that he spent time with this week were furious about the Nike ad with Colin Kaepernick in which Kaepernick said he had “sacrificed.”
Speaking to TMZ, Kennedy began, “There are problems. There are huge problems in the city; urban problems, police problems, crime problems, and they have to be addressed and something needs to be done about it, but not by disrespecting the flag and somebody making a few million dollars off a sponsorship. Come on.”
When TMZ asked, “Will you wear Nike ever again?”, Kennedy responded, “No, no.”
Kennedy continued by describing the atmosphere when Special Forces members saw the Nike ad:
I’m at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, right now, home of the Special Forces. I’m here for military school, if you haven’t surmised it from the accommodations I’m in or my haircut. Man, when I walked into the team room this morning, there were some people that were fuming, I mean, chairs were not being thrown, but like, pretty … well, first of all, you can’t go around that room and not ask a guy if he couldn’t list, on his two hands, friends that have died from Special forces. Every single person in that room has lost ten friends at least. Every single one of them. Every single person in that room.
And then we walk in with a new Nike poster that’s going to sell at Hot Topic or Barnes and Noble or wherever it’s going to be a sell at.
Kennedy added disgustedly, “Talkin’ about giving sacrificing, you’re just like, ‘Oh, man!’”
TMZ asked, “So these guys are aware, even though they’re training and they have a lot of stuff going on, the guys you were in contact with, they’re aware of Colin Kaepernick and the Nike ad and they’re infuriated by it?”
Kennedy answered, “I’m not going to speak for them, but there was no one happy about it in the room.”
Kennedy added, “Let’s talk about sacrifice: I’m in a room of a bunch of heroes that went in a heartbeat to die for Colin’s right to do what he’s doing. That’s sacrifice. I’m not talking about giving away some position even though I’m not good enough to fill it because I’m not very talented as a quarterback; I just want to keep my name in the news; I’m just gonna keep talking about it; I’m not talking about that.”
He concluded: “I’m talking about real heroes. And I’m surrounded by a bunch of them right now.”
Video below: