Justin Rohrwasser Says He's Removing His 3%er Tattoo While Crying on TV
Source - An emotional New England Patriots rookie kicker Justin Rohrwasser told WBZ-TV he’s going to have a controversial tattoo linked to a right-wing militia group removed.
Shortly after the Patriots drafted Rohrwasser Saturday with the 159th overall pick, photos circulated online showing a tattoo on his arm with the logo of the “Three Percenters,” an anti-government group.
Rohrwasser, who is 23, said he got the tattoo when he was 18, thinking it stood for support of the military. He told reporters he would cover it up.
But in an interview with WBZ-TV’s Steve Burton Monday night, Rohrwasser said he didn’t know the real meaning of the tattoo until he was drafted and started seeing the criticism on social media. He now plans on getting it removed. ...
Rohrwasser said when he got the tattoo five years ago, “it was described to me as, you know, the percentage of colonists that rose up against the authoritarian government of the British. And I was like, wow, that’s such a you know, an American sentiment, patriotic sentiment and coming from a military family, I thought that really spoke to me. I always was proud to be an American. I’m very proud. ...
"I said cover it up [to reporters], but I want to get it removed from my body. It’s shameful that I had it on there ignorantly,” Rohrwasser said, getting emotional.
“I’m sorry for all my family that have to defend me. Putting them in that compromising position is one of the biggest regrets I’ll ever have, so to them, I’m sorry. I’m going to learn from this.”
“No matter what, it’s not who I am, hopefully you’ll all find that out,” he said.
Well thank goodness for this. Our long, national nightmare is over. All the problems of the country are solved. Peace in our time. Swords can be hammered into plowshares. Lions can once again lie down with lambs.
This is it, right? Justin Rohrwasser has said and done all the things he had to in order to put this behind him so the nation can move on, if I'm not mistaken. So we don't need to spend his entire NFL career hearing that the tattoo he got when he was 18 means he's secretly plotting to initiate Kristallnacht in Brookline Center and planning to open his own Klan chapter in Foxboro once he gets his signing bonus.
I believe this to be the case because Rohrwasser checked everything on the Celebrity Tearful Apology punchlist. Mistakes were made. Shameful. Ignorant. Sorry for my family. Anyone I may have offended. Not who I am. Hell, it's more than we've gotten out of the governor of Virginia, who appeared in his college yearbook dressed either in blackface or as a Klansman. He won't say which. But Rohrwasser pretty much had Famous Person Apology Bingo.
Say you're sorry. Emphasize that you didn't mean to hurt anyone. Regret your actions. Gain acceptance. It worked for all these people:
Jimmy Kimmel literally put his hands together and bowed over a skit where kids were talking about killing everyone in China:
Jonah Hill cried the buckets on Jimmy Fallon for F-bombing a paparazzi.
And all their careers not only survived, they thrived. Not that I have any delusions that Rohrwasser will ever live this down. The people who will hate a guy for having a pro-2nd Amendment group's tattoo are going to hate him long after his laser removal surgery scars heal. Like Jason Whitlock says, you can be anti-government, but you have to be the right sort of anti-government.
Why? Because the country is broken. I think permanently. The massive upset over the ink on the arm of a football kicker who has never had a single instance where somebody was bothered by his beliefs, his words or his deeds in his four years at Marshall isn't the cause, it's a symptom. It's clinically proven medical evidence that the patient U.S. of A. is terminal, and there's barely enough time to get its affairs in order before the inevitable happens.
Still, nice try, Rohrwasser. But I don't think even the sincere, tearful apology of a 23-year-old and the removal of a tattoo can fix what's wrong with America.