INDIANAPOLIS – Jim Saddler is sorry. That’s the first thing he wants you to know. Not sorry for being angry — he’s still pretty angry — but for the way he handled his anger when he saw a volleyball player kneeling during the national anthem. As an Indiana High School Athletic Association licensed official for more than two decades, he knows he has an obligation to honor his commitments.
It’s just like being in the military, the Air Force veteran said.
“In the Air Force, you have a duty, and you do it,” Saddler, a retired Presidential Flight Attendant on Air Force One, told IndyStar on Thursday. “The same with sporting events. I guess I went AWOL. I feel bad about it.”
But in the heat of the moment, the 67-year-old Carmel resident and Indiana Pacers usher couldn’t help himself. As a veteran and someone with many friends who lost their lives defending this country, he has little tolerance for people he thinks are disrespecting them or what they died for.
That’s why when he saw a North Central girls varsity volleyball player kneeling before an Oct. 9 match he was supposed to line judge, he couldn’t stay and do his duty.
He was barely able to contain his anger when he saw fans “sitting on their butts” during the national anthem, but once he saw the player on a knee, he had to leave.
Saddler calmly walked to the scorer’s bench, turned in his flag, then approached the North Central coach to inform him why he couldn’t stay.
As he was walking out, Saddler said, North Central assistant athletic director Andy Elkins shouted to him.
“You have a contract!” Saddler said Elkins hollered. Elkins then reminded Saddler that he was walking out on high school kids and that he had been paid $20 to line judge the game.
Saddler walked over to Elkins, handed him $20 and left.
He’s regretted it ever since.
He has standards and expectations. He is not wrong. If the organization that he is volunteering for does not have the same standards he might be better off leaving them.
I really wonder if the $20 a game was more of a hobby and not needed and it’s just something to fill his schedule. I’m glad he’s maintaining his standards.
The first time you’ve ever been in a foreign nation in uniform, and they play YOUR anthem first?
Still brings tears to my eyes.
I just hope a military trained sniper doesn’t go postal on kneelers.
We live in a time and age where each of us has to consider what we will do in certain scenarios BEFORE we encounter them whether it be this anthem foolishness, the “knock-out game,” or active shooter situations. None of us can afford (sigh) to slouch through our days anymore in public.
He was right and I salute him (and the commissioner who suspended him as well) despite the punishment.
These so called protests are no more than tantrums thrown by immature and spoiled brats. I only wish they would threaten to hold their breath until they turn blue so that I could offer encouragement.
A volleyball takes a knee to protest “social injustices?”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ROTFLMFAO!!!
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
I CAN’T BREATHE!!! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂volleyball PLAYER🤣😂🤣😂
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
What might he have done otherwise?
Could he have ejected the kneeling player for unsportsmanlike conduct? It would be interesting to search the rules for that.
As for me, a spectator, I might respond like this (and be removed from the game):
“HEY! FREE MEN STAND AT ATTENTION WHEN THE NATIONAL ANTHEM IS PLAYED. SLAVES KNEEL IN PREPARATION TO SUCK DICK FOR THEIR MASTERS. ARE YOU SAYING YOU WANNA SUCK MY DICK??
That ought to get someone’s attention.
The only regret he should have is giving the $20 to Ellison.
It is a disease of the United States, injected and nurtured by Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, BLM, Antifa, socialists, Marxists and democrats. Shameless.
If respecting your country is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.