Peter King Asked A Veteran "How Many People Did You Kill?" In What Was Supposed To Be A Feel-Good Story In His Column

MMQB – Twice in Afghanistan, [34-year-old veteran turned NFL prospect Nate] Boyer felt he came close to death—including just before he returned from his last deployment in 2014. Understand that this final tour was the Special Forces’ version of a summer job. Before his last season at Texas, he deployed to Tajab, near the Afghan-Pakistan border, searching for Taliban. One day, in a firefight with some Taliban forces, the captain of the Afghan forces, fighting next to Boyer, was shot in the throat and died. That battle is when the bullet came three inches from Boyer’s face. He actually had the presence of mind to tell me it was better him in such danger than a peer with a family. “I’m not married, and I don’t have any children,” he said. “Better to have me there.”

“How many people did you kill?” I asked.

“I am not going to answer that,” Boyer said, after a pause. “I honestly don’t know. I can tell you I am no Chris Kyle. But you don’t really know because—well, you are in these battles, and you come back, and, last year, we had one firefight with 30 enemy KIA [killed in action], and you never know for sure who got who.”

And the tweets go on…and on. I read Monday Morning QB every week because there is sometimes relevant information in there amidst discussion of coffee and Peter King reminding us of how important Peter King is in the NFL spectrum. And at the same time Peter King gets beaten to death here and elsewhere on the Internet to the point where I honestly want to feel bad for him. But jesus dude is it even possible to be more tone deaf than he is? Like hey maybe the dude with the inspirational story wants to not talk about the ONE THING that people vehemently opposed to our military throw in troops’ faces incessantly? Honestly blows my mind (though good for Peter King omitting his followup question asking how much Nate Boyer’s wife weighs).

Nate Boyer handled it with class but this dude summed it up pretty poetically on behalf of our troops:

The full profile on Nate Boyer is still worth a read, though. Spoiler alert if you get to the end of the column: Peter King probably had a citrus-y IPA this week and found it “delightful” as well as “a great bit of local flavor.”