Liberated by Kaepernick-supporting lefty trolls

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Kaepernick (center) kneeling for the U.S. National Anthem

Alright, the liberation to get back to writing political and social commentary! Perhaps I owe a debt of gratitude to the far left lunatics who tried doxing me in recent days.

Let's start with what actually happened.

During Thursday night's Philadelphia Eagles preseason game, backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld suffered a wrist injury, one that it was later announced would keep him out for awhile.

At the time, I was "live-Tweeting" a Phillies game for a site by the name of Phillies Nation" for which I had been the lead writer for more than a year. Basically providing updates of key moments in that game as they developed.

In reaction to Sudfeld's injury, I began to see a number of folks interjecting commentary on Twitter regarding the Eagles possibly looking at bringing in controversial former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. There were many folks who were for this happening, and many against it.

At my personal Twitter feed (@MatthewVeasey), I put out a message that stated if the Eagles were to actually sign Kaepernick, I would find it offensive and would stop watching and following the team until he was gone.

My feelings had nothing to do with race, and in fact, very little to do with football talent. I could care less that he hasn't played in three years.

What I do care about is that Kaepernick has publicly come out against American police. As a three-decade law enforcement officer, supervisor and training instructor, one who still has family and many friends in the profession, I find his messages offensive.

Socks depicting pigs wearing police hats, framing police shootings as "lawful lynchings", reactions to police shootings with statements such as "there are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

Kaepernick is no social justice warrior as he refuses to stand and respect the American flag and our national anthem. He is an anti-police, far-left radical activist. Here in America, I have a right to publicly stand against him and his positions.

Thank you, Phillies Nation, for a lifelong dream come true

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Phillies Nation made me a paid baseball writer

I'll be addressing broader issues in another separate piece to come later today. What this is, is a simple "thank you" to the folks at Phillies Nation, and to the thousands of Phillies fans who regularly follow the site.

For more than a year, I was privileged to bring my views and opinions involving the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team to a wide audience of Philly sports fans who are as passionate about the team as I am.

Last July, I was brought on board as a writer on what was then a dwindling staff, and on the Fourth of July in 2018, my first Phillies Nation piece was published.

In the 13 months since then, I provided roughly 425 pieces for Phillies Nation. Everything from simple game previews and postgame reports to more analytical breakdowns of various situations involving the team, prospect evaluations, series previews, and more.

Never once did I interject my political or social opinions into those pieces. Never once did I push those same personal values in the Phillies Nation social media feeds when I was controlling those feeds.

In fact, I have not written a single piece right here at my own blog involving anything other than baseball since March 2018. And at my social media feeds, you would be hard-pressed to find anything other than sports for the last year and a half.

I have no clue what any of the individual writers or the website owner's views are on political or social issues, and frankly, I don't care either.

Thanks to the staff at Phillies Nation for a handful of tips over this past year that I know will improve my writing going forward. Good luck to the writers who put effort into their own pieces. Most are young folks trying to get a start in an increasingly difficult industry in which to find paying work. Keep reaching for your dreams.

Thanks also to the site owner, for the opportunity to become a paid baseball writer. It wasn't much pay, especially for the amount of writing, editorial, and social media work that I provided. But it gave me a taste of a lifelong dream.

Finally, thanks to all of the Phillies fans who read my work and have interacted with me on social media, whether at Phillies Nation or elsewhere over the years.

I am not going anywhere. I'll still be writing, right here at this blog. That will, however, no longer be restricted to the Phillies and baseball, though you will still get a lot of that content. Whatever I write will be linked on my social media feeds.

Frankly, it's liberating, the thought of getting back to writing on a wider variety of topics across the political and social spectrum, as well as the Philly sports scene.