"I'm a soldier"

So I was talking with my boy Danny about some ideas for the blog and he started asking me about my thoughts on the fallout from Kobe's commercial for Call of Duty. If you haven't seen the TV spot, check the video below.



This post isn't really about Kobe Bryant, but the reaction of the public about a basketball player advertising for a "mature" video game. Specifically, people are up in arms about the tag line, "There's a soldier in all of us". First, I feel it necessary to tell you a little bit about myself to explain where I'm coming from. I was born into an Army family, my Dad was in the Army and two brothers served in the Army as well. I never served in the Armed Forces so my opinion is somewhat limited, but sufficient to say I've spent a lot of time around soldiers. With that being said let me get into the crux of this subject.

Bomani Jones on the show 1st and 10 equated Kobe's commercial to essentially the same thing as Kellen Winslow saying, "I'm a soldier"; I think he's reading too seriously into commercial. Don't get me wrong, I hate when players say we're going to war out there. Clearly, it isn't war, and to equate playing a game for millions of dollars to the same thing as the average American risking his life in service is disrespectful. Several players have gone to the Middle East and visited soldiers and have had their paradigm changed. I can't remember which NFL player it was, but upon returning from the Middle East and visiting soldiers he said he'd never refer to a game as war again. I feel like it was Ray Lewis or Osi Umenyiora, but for the life of me I can't find the quote. If you remember who it was let me know. Whether you agree with the war or not, everyone cares for the soldiers safety and respects their service. So in my opinion, to say you're going to war or that you're a soldier is wrong and shouldn't be done. This makes me a hypocrite, but I might give a pass to the Miami Hurricanes' 1987 Football team, but only because they made me laugh so hard with this stunt.



Alright, it wasn't the coolest thing in the world, but you gotta give them credit for committing!

With that being said, I don't think Kobe Bryant crossed that line in his commercial. The commercial was mostly light hearted as you can see people smiling, getting phone calls, or laughing. I think the advertisement is very humorous, it represents the diversity of people who play the game. I believe that's what the tagline was referring to, that a wide variety of people enjoy playing the game. There isn't a soldier in the commercial, they don't show average people fighting against soldiers. That's why I don't think there is an inference in the commercial to being a real soldier. So if the commercial itself doesn't diminish the role of a soldier then the video game must right? Not in my experience, like I said I've spent a lot of time around soldiers and I know many who enjoy playing the game. Furthermore, I haven't heard one person disparage the game. So who's banging the drum up on this? The only people I've heard say anything about it are largely the equivalent of shock jocks in the sports entertainment industry like Skip Bayless. In that same segment of 1st and 10 Skip starts talking about "Kobe smiling while holding an assault rifle when we have soldiers overseas doing this for real". I don't know Skip Bayless' personal life or if he has loved ones overseas, but he seems to be trying to take a moral high ground that I don't see people directly effected by the situation take. If he has family over there I'll cut him some slack, because from personal experience you're probably more sensitive about war than the actual soldiers are. My Brother told me he loved being over there "where the rubber meets the road looking for bad guys". My Dad would tell you it was one of the more difficult things for him to deal with. So if Skip has loved ones in the "Sandbox" (Middle East), I'll let his response slide because I've been there. Some of my buddies from HS might remember me almost swinging on a kid in the middle of class for making disparaging remarks about soldiers when my brother was in the Sandbox. So I can't throw stones since I was oversensitive myself.

What I take away from this commercial is that Kobe Bryant enjoys playing a video game, he enjoys it enough to put his face behind it. There is nothing wrong with that, Kobe isn't out there degrading what soldiers do on a day to day basis. We need to stop holding professional athletes to a standard that is unattainable. They are imperfect people and are not a substitution for the people who should be socializing the youth. From a young age I was exposed to real guns and violent video games, but I also had people there to explain the reality of things to me. I was fortunate, I know that everyone doesn't have responsible parents or siblings to socialize them appropriately. Kobe Bryant is a fantastic basketball player, but for those who don't have responsible people in the home, I hope they can find someone better than Kobe for a role model. There are teachers, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, religious leaders, and any number of other sources. So take it easy on Professional athletes about this trivial stuff, they do enough dumb stuff for us to get on them about without wasting time on things like this.

That's all for this week, thanks for the idea Danny. If anyone else has something they want to talk about, hit me up in the comments or any other way you can.

Breezy