By Lisa Peterson
Engagement Insider

NFL Player Engagement team has often recognized the brave men and women who are involved of all aspects of our national defense.  As we launch the Women’s Resource Initiative, we wish to recognize, commend, and salute the courageous women in the military who have chosen to make their own sacrifices, and the struggles they have faced as a result.  We fully acknowledge the precious gift of freedom received from their dedication to protecting and defending our nation.  Certainly, one of those freedoms is the pursuit of happiness which includes the opportunity to play, watch, and enjoy a good game of football. 

Women serving in our military often put on hold marrying and raising children because of the defense assignments that separate them from their families for many months.  Military husbands and wives, for example, sometimes are  sent to two different countries not knowing when their assignments will end.  Women may desire to have children, but must put their assignments ahead of this dream so commonly taken for granted by civilians. So often the marriages themselves are unable to be continued due to the constant stresses experienced in defense related environments.

Then, there are the mothers of young children who are assigned overseas duty only to return and have their little ones not recognize them, knowing they have missed out on a precious part of their kid’s lives. Sometimes, the strains of deployment result in families splitting up, and returning wives struggling to regain their position of motherhood. There are many challenges for women in service that reach well beyond the call of duty. 

Their grueling training has enabled them to operate in our current wartime situations, taking and giving commands and being able to think sensibly in the midst of explosions, gunfire, and a world seemingly falling apart around them.  They become stronger, smarter, brighter stars when they return to civilian life, leaders in our communities, professionals, wives, mothers, true American heroes. We recognize this to only have been achieved through the disciplined, commendable, and sacrificial road they had courageously chosen to travel.

The NFL Player Engagement team thanks you and salutes you for the freedom we have because of what you continue to sacrifice, and the women you have become in service and in citizenship.