For absurdity, how about those four Navy F-18s flying over the stadium – with its retractable roof closed? Everybody inside could only see the planes on the stadium’s video screens. It was strictly a two-second beauty shot. Know what it cost taxpayers? I’ll tell you: $450,000. (The Navy justifies the expense by saying it’s good for recruiting.)
What are we supposed to use those planes for, war? No. We must use them to make children’s games played by millionaire adults seem important. At any cost. Because if pro football was not treated as the most important thing in the world, most Americans would realize they really have no reason to live. [WP]
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What's half a million dollars among plutocrats?
A trillion here, a trillion there. Soon you're talkin' REAL money…
Make recruiting videos, not war!
~
Why do they even have a domed roof in Texas? It's not exactly known for its rain or cold. Hey, Green fucking Bay plays without a dome in below zero weather; Texas football players must all be a pack of wimps.
You ever put on a full set of pads in a Texan fall and played ball? Shade's a mighty fine accomodation, pard.
"You ever put on a full set of pads in a Texan fall "
Texas players are menstruating?
When it's cold, just say "Put on a coat, Tex."
Think "air conditioning."
So yes, wimps.
Exactly. Football lasts from September to January; August to February if you include the preseason and Superbowl. It's meant to be played no matter how bad the weather is; hot, cold, raining, snowy, it shouldn't matter. A team that insists on a dome is a bunch of wimps.
Lunging and sprinting in shoulder pads and helmets is not really the point. Have you ever tried to eat a cardboard tray of nachos and drink a Miller Lite in 104 degree weather? The cheese liquifies, and the beer can reach British-like temperatures.
Recruiting? Who? Everyone knows the winger patriots in Texas avoid military service like the plague.
At least the ones who can afford to go to the Super Bowl.
Maybe they were looking for all the underage prostitutes shipped in?
Were they taxpayer dollars, or did the NFL lease them for the afternoon? Last I heard, that there Superbowl earns enough money that they could throw a huge goddamn tip in a general's hat for the show.
And yet the billionaire owners are still threatening a lockout and no 2011 season rather than pay the players a little bit more. Maybe they'll bring in the scab players again like the last time.
Let 'em. My life went on in 2010 without watching a single minute of football.
Same here, smack. Fuck em!
Maybe they should have made it an extra 99 cents so that Christine Aguilera could download the National Anthem on her iPod and learned the lyrics.
What an ignernt cunt.
They were on their way to practice bombing a wedding, so it was just a short detour.
Explains why the aviators were in the Ready Room singing: "Highway to the Blunder Zone."
That's all of them? I thought that was just McCain? Either that or Dave Matthews 'Crash'.
♪ America. Fuck yeah! ♫♪
If Xtine Aguilera had only just sung that, her rep would remain untarnished.
Another area where the Chinese could have taught us a thing or two:
If no one's going to actually witness the overflight, except on TV screens, save yourself $449,995.00 by renting Top Gun from Blockbuster and showing clips of that instead.
A lot of the Blockbusters in TX are closed, and the NFL fucked around before clicking "ADD" and was therefore too far back in the Netflix queue to get the DVD in time for the game.
Why do you people hate our freedumbs so much?
"Peee-roud tuh be a 'Murkan!!"
I don't blame them. I've watched military jets flying over Iraq and Afghanistan, and like everything else about actual war, it's pretty fucking bleak and depressing.
The Navy just needs to shop around a little. Around here, "beauty shots" can be had for $10. $20 if you want to ride bareback.
I thought the F-18 was the native bird of Texas.
Kind of an expensive way to knock the ice off of the roof. Texas, land of the overkill.
They do this at every super bowl. Stop blaming Texas for everything.
The government went cheap. Run the costs of moving a fleet of Boomer Subs in formation underneath the stadium. Much, much more expensive.
Add to it the Aguilerian voice of God to that mess, and dear BeJesufuck, the cost in human lives is exponential.
At least the people that were not allowed in could see the planes for realsies! http://www.newsok.com/article/3538755
Nice!
Well, yeah, it was expensive, but you are all missing the fact that it was MILITARY spending, which we all know is the only kind of government spending that improves the economy. You know, as opposed to money on infrastructure and bridges, or to offset state budget deficits to keep them from having to lay off teachers and policemen en masse. All of that money disappears into a black hole, never to be heard from again.
Also, funny story, the two highest-paid federal employees are two coaches for this children's game played by adults, at two of our military academies. Because when it comes to football coaches, but not financial or environmental regulators, it's VERY IMPORTANT that we pay competitive wages to the private sector, so that we get the best talent. But on the other hand, once again, MILITARY SPENDING, so it doesn't count.
The coaches at the military academies are paid by private athletic booster associations that raise money from TV, ticket sales and concessions. They're not paid all that money by the government.
Meh, that kind of change is in the Koch Bros couch. Not that they would pay for it.
Considering that Dallas is at least 350 miles away from the nearest body of water capable of floating a carrier in, it's not a good use of naval aircraft to do this. They likely had to refuel, too, as the F/A-18 doesn't have the "legs" that other aircraft have.
And by the way, it's worth $450,000 to make the Navy look stupid to the other services. I bet every pilot in the Air Force is laughing his/her ass off right now.
VF-201, an F/A-18 squadron, is located at Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, which is, what, 15 miles from Arlington? I think a Hornet can fly that far.
This story is complete and utter bullshit. That flyover saved the Navy money; the pilots involved have to get a certain amount of flight hours to stay qualified, and they got a free TV commercial that would have cost $2.6 million.
Try again: "VFA-201 was officially deactivated on 30 June 2007, and all hardware assets transferred to their sister squadron, VFA-204," VFA-204 is located in New Orleans, even further away. But here's real story about these aircraft:
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/military/Copy_of_Oceana-p...
They came from four squadrons based in Virginia, asshole. Yes, the pilots need flight hours, but that's not why these guys were sent. It's just more Super Bowl bullshit and PR for the Navy. The Navy spends lots of money on recruiting advertising during sports events. Flyovers are stunts, soon forgotten. Airshows are where the recruiting happens, because you can go look at the planes and talk to the crews.
Bottom line though, is that the pilots didn't watch the Super Bowl. Fags.
How many dead Iraqis would $450,000 feed???
I understand that dead Iraqis don't eat all that much.
We do not do body counts.
All of them?
Couldn't they just have had Lee Greenwood perform at halftime for much less?
Stop griping ya liberaltarians. $450K is practically nothing. It would only fund ten teachers for a year. You can't compare that with 2 seconds of teevee time at the Stupor Bowl.
"Jean Teasdale" of "The Onion" is a better writer than this columnist known as "Sally Jenkins" of the Daily Beast… I mean, "The Washington Post".
In Texas, isn't it hard not to have a military jet flying over?
And, surely, the NFL could front the cost of this, or do they hate our troops?
Call me a cranky old fart, but I think it is irresponsible in the extreme to intentionally maneuver an aircraft directly over such a tightly populated environment for any reason. We had one go down locally into an apartment complex a few years ago. Not pretty.
A few miles north of the Cowboys stadium, in the suburban town of Allen (pop. ≈ 75,000), the high school is currently building a $60 million football stadium. This is Texas, y'all.
We're just trying to bring a giddy little thrill to their gray little lives.
$450k? Srsly? The pilots are already paid for. They count those flyovers as training hours, so you'd already have to pay for that. The only expense is the fuel. I mean, JP-8 is expensive, but it ain't $450k expensive. The recruiting guys don't have that kind of money, trust me.
Here's the story about these aircraft:
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/military/Copy_of_Oceana-p...
They came from four squadrons based in Virginia. Yes, the pilots need flight hours, but that's not why these guys were sent. It's just more Super Bowl bullshit and PR for the Navy when it comes to getting congressional budget share. The Navy already spends lots of money on recruiting advertising during sports events. Flyovers are stunts, soon forgotten, and this stunt was screwed up by having the roof closed. This is why it is a story. Besides, airshows are where the recruiting happens, because you can go look at the planes and talk to the crews. Their excitement about flying and service is what makes the sale.
wait!! we do have a reason to live?
I read somewhere that the Navy has more aircraft than the Air Force. Plus they can launch and land them in a lot more places. As the Naval Aviators say, "If you ain't tailhook, you ain't shit."
It's one thing to play their game, another entirely to believe their bullshit. Maybe because I was a military brat, (AF Chaplain), maybe because I'm just hard=headed, I never bought the bullshit, even at l8.
Knew a guy on the ship that had a sad story. He was in the deck force, which consists of a lot of paint chipping and cleaning and painting and sweeping. He seemed to be a pretty smart guy, for a deck ape. Turns out he had told his recruiter that he wanted to be the guy like in the ads that told the planes to take off, thusly: http://www.aviationspectator.com/files/images/Dou...
The recruiter was evidently pretty unscrupulous, and said "Yeah, that's an Operations Specialist [OS]. You can do that." So the guy signs up, goes to boot, then on to tech school. Well, an OS does this: http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/51063326.jpg?v=1...
The guy finally figured out he'd been fucked by the recruiter, caused a fuss and was kicked out of OS school, and ended up scraping paint. Pretty far cry from being the Catapult Officer. I guess the navy REALLY NEEDED OS's back then.
Serves one right for attending one of those overpriced clusterfucks.
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