My Father Died in Afghanistan, and I Support Colin Kaepernick<br />Once the band finally reached the end of the song, instead of singing “home of the brave,” the entire stadium screamed “home of the Chiefs!” They had replaced<br />“brave” — a word that, to me, represented my father, a man who spent 24 years in the military and gave his life for the country — with a mascot.<br />At my first Wildcat football game in Bill Snyder Family Stadium, as I barely held myself together during the national anthem,<br />the purple clad K-State fans shouted “Chiefs” in place of “brave.” We’re not even at a Chiefs game, I thought.<br />When we got to our seats after spending pregame on the field, I knew the national<br />anthem was coming — and I knew how hearing this song would make me feel.<br />I went to my first Kansas City Chiefs football game in December 2010, six months after my<br />father, Army Col. John McHugh, had been killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan.<br />So many better ways they could be helping their “cause” they could use their time and money to make their point or make a difference, but oh wait …<br />that would require some sort of effort or sacrifice on their part.<br />“Get off the field, you’re drunk!” yelled a woman behind us who sported red-and-yellow face paint and seemed drunk herself.
