Army Football Removes Longtime Slogan After Being Told of White Supremacist Ties
Army’s football team is looking for a new slogan now that West Point officials have found the team’s most recent one had its roots in white supremacy.
In recent years, the initials “GFBD” have been written on Army’s black skull-and-crossbones flag. The initials stand for “God Forgives, Brothers Don’t,” ESPN reported.
The players got the motto from the movie “Stone Cold,” where it was used in the film by a white supremacist biker gang — something West Point officials did not know until this fall.
The motto migrated to Army’s football team in the 1990s. It became prominent in 2014 when one of head football coach Jeff Monken’s staffers saw the skull-and-crossbones flag with the initials on it shortly after he took over the program.
West Point said in a statement that a “thorough investigation” showed “that the Army football team began the use of the skull and crossbones flag with the initials in the mid-1990s. The football team continued to use the motto until leaders at the academy were made aware that the phrase is also associated with extremist groups.”
“The motto was originally used to emphasize teamwork, loyalty, and toughness,” the statement said, according to The Washington Post. “The academy immediately discontinued using it upon notification of its tie to hate groups.”
“It’s embarrassing, quite frankly,” Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, superintendent of the United States Military Academy, told ESPN.
“We take stuff like this very, very seriously. Once I found out about this goofiness, I asked one of our most senior colonels to investigate.”
The two-month investigation revealed the roots of the slogan.
The investigation found the team adopted it without knowing its antecedents and that its adoption did not have anything to do “with the views or beliefs of white supremacist groups or any other disreputable organizations with which they might also be associated,” the investigation’s final report reads.
Prior to the motto being discontinued, at least one future soldier said it symbolized the players’ attitude.
“We live by the meaning behind that black flag — the never-say-die attitude; the kill or be killed mentality. Coach Monken instilled that in us and we take pride in being tougher and more physical than our opponents,” linebacker Cole Christiansen told The Baltimore Sun in 2018.
The executive summary of the West Point investigation said the team is considering creating a new motto for a “new era” of football.
The motto was the second one to be scrapped this year among America’s service academies.
Navy’s football team dropped the motto “Load the Clip” after team officials were asked about its appropriateness in the aftermath of a 2018 shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, according to The Post.
The motto was abandoned after the team discussed the issue.
“It was a one-minute meeting,” Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo said at the time, according to the Gazette. “I explained that some people had deemed the motto to be insensitive. Our captains didn’t need to hear another word. [The captains] immediately said, ‘Coach, let’s just change it.'”
“We sincerely apologize if it upset anyone, but it was not meant to be taken the way it may have been by some,” he said.
“We understand that it probably wasn’t appropriate considering the current climate and certain things that are happening in our society.”
Army and Navy play their annual football game on Dec. 14.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
