In 2013, America lost a true hero — Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the “American Sniper.” As Mark Alexander wrote in 2014:

Kyle’s first long-range kill was against an Iraqi suicide bomber who was walking toward a group of Marines with a hand grenade. Of that kill, he said, “The woman was already dead. I was just making sure she didn’t take any Marines with her.”

During his four combat tours as a SEAL sniper, he recorded 160 confirmed kills and 95 probables, and became known as the “Devil of Ramadi” by al-Qa'ida and other Iraqi insurgents. His longest shot was taken in 2008 near the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, where he arrested an RPG-carrying insurgent at more than 2,000 meters.

Over the course of his 10-year military career, Chris was shot twice and survived six IED explosions. He earned two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals.

We recall Kyle’s heroism and sacrifice because his widow, Taya, so thoroughly took down Nike over the company’s disgraceful ad featuring unemployed former NFL quarterback and social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick. In a blistering public letter to Nike, Taya Kyle wrote:

At best, that is all Colin sacrificed… some money and it’s debatable if he really lost his career over it. Maybe he sacrificed the respect of some people while he gained the respect of others. Or maybe he used one career to springboard himself into a different career when the first was waning. I don’t know. What I do know is, he gained popularity and magazine covers he likely wouldn’t have gotten without getting on his knees or as you say, “believing in something.” I’m also thinking the irony is that while I am not privy to the numbers, it’s likely he gained a lucrative Nike contract. So yeah… that whole “sacrificing everything” is insulting to those who really have sacrificed everything.

You want to talk about someone in the NFL sacrificing everything? Pat Tillman. NFL STARTING, not benched, player who left to join the Army and died for it. THAT is sacrificing everything for something you believe in.

How about other warriors? Warriors who will not be on magazine covers, who will not get lucrative contracts and millions of followers from their actions and who have truly sacrificed everything. They did it because they believed in something. Take it from me, when I say they sacrificed everything, they also sacrificed the lives of their loved ones who will never be the same. THAT is sacrificing everything for something they believe in.

Indeed, the one who sacrificed everything isn’t the ingrate millionaire who hates his country despite his success and who turned a failing football career into social justice martyrdom and a lucrative ad campaign. It’s America’s Patriot Armed Forces and their families — particularly the ones who lost their lives serving the country they love. It’s men like Pat Tillman and Chris Kyle.