A Game With Meaning

Submitted by Joe O’Neill

Every year for the past 111 years two teams rife with history and tradition line up for a not-so-friendly game of football. This year’s edition, the 112th, takes place this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on CBS. The annual Army, Navy Football Game is the stuff of legend, and it’s coming straight at you this weekend.

Currently, Navy leads the series 55-49, with 7 ties between the two programs. Each school regards any tie game as a loss and a stain on its own record. It is a game steeped in rivalry and competitveness that plays itself out in campus skits and parodies that are good naturedly sent back and forth between Mids and Cadets by virtue of the internet, email, and video’s. You can check many of these out yourself by going to “You Tube” and searching for Army, Navy skits or parodies.

The thing that makes this a truly American classic is that, ultimately, both of these schools fight together against our nation’s enemies. But, at least once a year, for three hours, on a Saturday, come what will, the military academy world, and much of our nation’s armed forces, stop just long enough to watch two teams lock in the fiercest of rivalries on a football gridiron. Many of our sailors and soldiers watch intently, or secretly listen through an earwig, or get updates sent to their duty posts, while we here at home enjoy the peace and sanctity of a quiet saturday afternoon, tailgating, prepping for a party, and enjoying an American pastime. All the while we are doing this, some of America’s finest are standing watch over us, making sure our lives are not disturbed. It’s almost as if they say to us, “Go ahead, America, enjoy the game. We got you covered.”

To be a Cadet or a Mid is the highest of honors that comes with a very high price tag. Years of prepping in school, studying, playing sports, and serving your local community.  Rigorous entrance examinations of tests, questionaires, interviews, essays,  letters of recommendation, and the vetting of a senator’s  or congressional representative’s select committee. In 2010 alone, over 24,000 applicants to Navy waited to see if they were in the lucky 1,300 chosen by way of a coveted “Appointment”.

What makes a young man or woman vie so hard for the right to go to a school of extreme challenges academically, personally, professionally, and militarily? At Navy, there is a popular saying, “Everyone wants to say they’re from the Naval Academy, not in the Academy.”  Such is the stress and pressure of the work and expectations that go with an appointment to Army or Navy. Weekly, on a regular basis, it is not uncommon for Mids or Cadets to get to bed at one or two in the morning and be up at 5:30 a.m. getting ready for a new day. After four years of this “grind” then each Cadet or Mid must serve another five year commitment. With this commitment comes the virtual certainty, in this era, of seeing overseas duty and possible combat.

One of the great traditions that this game embodies is the comaraderie and respect that exists between these two storied programs. The most enduring tradition is that of the post-game alma maters. After both teams spend their competitive time trying their best to disembowel the other, they each do homage and honor to the opponent’s school by walking together to each team’s student body and singing that school’s alma mater together. In the 2009 game, at the game’s conclusion, there was a poignant instance of where an active duty Navy Admiral went down onto the field and among the Army team and praised and encouraged their players after an extremely hard fought game.

Americans should be proud of their servicemen and women. We should honor all those who serve. However, when Saturday rolls around, and if you dare take the time to watch the game, know that you’re looking at the “Tip of the Spear” of America’s finest young people. They chose a different path in life, a path of, as West Point proclaims,  “Duty, Honor, Country.” All of these young men and women are enlisting in the cause of America, to serve her as our next generation of leaders who stand between us and those who would deprive us of our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.  Saturday’s game will produce another winner and loser, but, Americans are the true recipients of the blessing of having a nation of young warriors who represent the best of what America is all about.