WELCOME TO THE PATRIOT GAMES 🇺🇸

Like a meteor heading straight for its destination, there was no stopping the Patriot Games.

Because the day has FINALLY arrived, and I am still in disbelief that after all the questions, all the “surely they are not actually doing this” moments, we somehow made it all the way to August 9 and nobody stopped along the way and said, “You know what, maybe putting teenage boys and girls into something called the Patriot Games is a little too on the nose.”

But nope. Here we are.

WELCOME TO THE PATRIOT GAMES. One boy. One girl. One day closer to the Capitol. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Now y'all might remember I first wrote about this back on June 28 after my best friend sent me the application, and at the time I spent two days trying to figure out why every time I told myself the internet was getting carried away with the Hunger Games comparisons, I would find another little detail that made me understand exactly how everybody got there.

The one thing we didn't really know back then was what the actual games would look like.

Well, wonder no more, ESPN released the schedule, and y'all, I am starting to think somebody is messing with us.

I started reading through the schedule and for a minute everything was going just fine because I was seeing dodgeball, kickball, basketball and tug of war, which is pretty much what I expected to find when I went looking at an athletic competition for teenagers, and I actually remember thinking, “Okay, see, maybe once this thing finally gets here it’s going to look a whole lot more normal than it sounded when they first announced it.” Although I will say, anybody who grew up when I did and remembers those red rubber dodgeballs coming across a school gym at approximately 900 miles an hour knows some of us are still carrying emotional damage from that particular event, but otherwise there wasn’t anything there that made me stop and think twice.

So I kept reading.

And that’s when I got to something called Operation Endurance. I had to read it a few more times to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me. But nope…. there it was… Operation Endurance. And y’all my brain didn't even buffer. It went straight to excuse me!

Because that name has the man in charge written all over it. It is all about optics for him.

Seriously, you cannot watch people spend six weeks comparing your Patriot Games to The Hunger Games and then casually throw something called Operation Endurance into the schedule and expect nobody is going to notice.

I also learned that these kids are also going to be put through what ESPN describes as a “military-inspired boot camp circuit.”

And apparently we're starting this morning with the Presidential Qualifier, because at this point why the hell wouldn't we be?

I don't know about y'all but I would love to see the man in charge complete this first. Better yet every last person in his cabinet.

He already has his ass in his hands because people keep comparing this spectacle to the Hunger Games. And to that I say this is what happens when all the details started sitting side by side.

Now eventually the competition will get widdled down to eight finalists. Those eight will face off on an obstacle course that will test their athletic ability and strategy. ESPN will be streaming this little gem before ABC gets their hands on it.

Then they’re going to take three days of competition and turn it into a one-hour primetime special on August 13.

Three days into one hour...

Whatever could we possibly miss?

I mean, I’m no mathematician, but unless they have somehow figured out how to squeeze three entire days into sixty minutes, somebody is going to be making some pretty big decisions about what America sees and what America doesn’t see. And maybe that’s nothing. That’s how television works. They film a whole lot more than we ever end up watching. But considering how much of the original application focused on these kids telling their stories, and how much of this event has been wrapped around patriotism and America’s 250th birthday from the beginning, I can’t help wondering what those sixty minutes are eventually going to look like when somebody decides which one hour tells the story.

Good thing we can watch the rest for ourselves.

So y'all...

Welcome to the Patriot Games.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

If this piece got you thinking, there are three simple ways you can help support what we’re building here on the Porch.

First, share this write-up.

Every share helps another person find the Porch, pull up a chair, and join the conversation. The best conversations don’t stay with one person… they get passed along.

Second, if you haven’t already, we’d love for you to subscribe to the Southern Punk Project.

Every subscription gives us more time to keep researching, reading the source material, asking difficult questions, and writing investigations like this one. It helps us keep the Porch independent and the Porch light on for whoever needs it next.

For less than 34 cents a day, you’re helping give the truth a place to live... with receipts. You’re helping ensure every investigation, every conversation, every laugh, and every uncomfortable question comes from us… not from somebody telling us what we’re allowed to say.

And finally, if you feel led, you can always help support the Porch light over on Buy Me a Coffee.

https://buymeacoffee.com/southernpunk

Every cup helps us keep researching, writing, creating, and pulling up another chair for the next conversation.

However you choose to support us, thank you for being part of this Porch. We couldn’t do it without y’all.

This IS the People’s Porch…

The Porch Is Where We Gather.

The Resistance Is What We Become.

— Southern Punk