No Runny Eggs

(H/T – Neptunus Lex, who I really need to get on the bloated roll lest a mutual friend come up from Jacksonville to kick my ass)

David M over at The Thunder Run reports that, unlike previous recent years, the NFL will not let the military color guard (this year, the Marines) stay to watch the game after presenting the colors at The Championship Game That Cannot Be Named™. From an e-mail David received from a Marine Mom:

My youngest Marine called me this morning. In the course of the conversation he made mention of being part of the Color Guard for the ceremonies at the Super Bowl. He has been part of other Color Guards at other games and has been able to enjoy the entire game after presenting the Colors. HOWEVER, this will not be the case this time. The 12 man/women color guard will be presenting the Colors and then will be escorted out of the stadium and therefore not allowed to see the game. Steven and the 11 others are quite upset about this and have asked that I see if I could contact someone and have that changed.

David already went to the Tampa Bay Host Committee, who told him that all game-day decisions rest solely with the NFL, and that he should contact Mallory Steinberg (Mallory.Steinberg@NFL.com). As of now, David has not received a response.

I know I don’t have all that many readers, but I humbly ask that you kindly ask the NFL to reconsider their course of action.

Revisions/extensions (7:40 pm 1/23/2009) – David M has an answer from Greg Aiello of the NFL via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

The members of the Color Guard have always been our guests at a Super Bowl party in a compound on the stadium grounds where they watch the game on big-screen TVs and enjoy food and beverage. That is how we have done it every year.

That last sentence is rather important. The NFL has done it this way for quite a while. Moreover, Florio notes that Aiello states there has been no complaint from the Marine Corps Color Guard, but that the NFL would be talking with theiir military liason.

There’s a further update from Dad29 in the comments that says that the Color Guard will be in the stadium. The relevant portion of the comment (quoting the e-mail he got from the NFL):

Since we had not heard about this directly from the military, we contacted our military liaison for the color guard immediately to discuss the issue. After speaking with our military liaison for the color guard, we will host the members of the color guard (12 people) in the stadium.

The background is this:

The members of the color guard have always been our guests at a Super Bowl party in a compound on the stadium grounds where they watch the game on big-screen TVs and enjoy food and beverage. That is how we have done it every year. The military provides an intra-service color guard as part of our pre-game tribute to the military that also includes the military fly-over of the stadium. Then we arrange a place for the color guard to watch the game along with other pre-game and halftime show participants (more than 2,000 people).

Thank you, NFL.