‘The Military is Cowering’: Fox Sports Radio Host Rips Pentagon Decision to Let Navy Grad Cameron Kinley Pursue NFL Career
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced Navy grad and football prospect Cameron Kinley can delay his military service to pursue a career in the NFL.
The United States Naval Academy graduate signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent earlier this year. Last month, acting Navy secretary Thomas Harker denied Kinley the ability to delay his military servers. But with assistance from his agents and politicians including Senator Marco Rubio, R-FL, Kinley convinced United States defense secretary Lloyd Austin to overrule the Navy.
Fox Sports Radio host Ben Maller blasted Austin’s decision to veto the Navy as a “mistake.” “I am not surprised that the Navy big shots caved because of the world that we are in today in the court of public opinion,” Maller said on his national radio show.
“For all of those aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines that are representing the United States Navy, the military is cowering off in fear of bad publicity on social media,” Maller continued. “It’s fascinating that that kind of military power is worried about algorithms.”
“He signed on the contract with the military there and you gotta serve the time when you sign…and for him it was at least five years upon graduation,” Maller said of Kinley. “It’s not like this was a surprise…I think this is still one of their slogans, ‘Honor, Courage, COMMITMENT. You bend the rules for one, you end up bending the rules for everybody.”
But Kinley is not the first military servicemember to have their commission period delayed in favor of a career as a professional athlete. Keenan Reynolds and Malcolm Perry both set the precedent in recent years, of Naval Academy athletes who entered the NFL after graduating.
In 2019, the Department of Defense issued a new policy, allowing service academy athletes the ability to pursue professional sports immediately after graduation. It requires the athlete to get approval from the defense secretary and either eventually fulfill their active-duty service time or repay the costs of their education.
Kinley participated in rookie offseason programs with the Buccaneers, and after receiving approval from the United States defense secretary, he has the opportunity to compete at Tampa’s NFL training camp this summer.
