Army-Navy mixes pride, sportsmanship

David Poe / Northwest Guardian

Give us a leather ball and a stick to draw plays in the mud and we’ll play football. I was reminded of the simple fact that America does love this game while covering the Army-Navy flag football game near Bremerton last weekend.

Whether they have Texas Stadium or a lumpy backyard as their confines, whether it’s for money, pride, fun, exercise, or all of the above, Americans have a unique kinship with football. We’re a nation with a pedigree laid by builders and producers — factory workers in the Midwest find it nearly impossible to relate to the surfer or the soccer player. They want to see big shouldered men who look like them, go through the struggles of battle, just like them — all with a respectful modesty.

I saw that modesty in JBLM’s Army team last weekend. My first time around them since they held tryouts just a few months ago, these guys were ... quiet. Few people talking in the locker room, lots of people listening. There was order.

They took the field the same way. Humble. Some of the most loved professional football greats have that humility; guys like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees would be the last guys in the NFL to tell you what they did right, but the first people to tell you what they did wrong. Soldiers and Airmen have that, the better ones I’ve met anyway. That ability to never settle or quit before their time.

Americans love that in their football players, and also in their military, being the warriors everyone wants to be in some way.

JBLM’s Army team played smart football Saturday and brought home a piece of hardware because of it. Not just smart in getting the Xs and Os right, and having the right athletes to utilize those Xs and Os, but because of how they played together. Nobody had a name on the back of his jersey, and they played it as such.

I was also reminded Saturday that the longer our American history continues with the game of football, more of us will quickly dial back to our youths when we see a pigskin, or a two tight-end set, or long socks.

Old people, young people, everyone was the same as they enjoyed Saturday’s game. Twelve-year-olds dreamt of the days when they’d be big enough to battle like warriors, while everyone else remembered what it was like to be 12 ... and play football.

Meanwhile our warriors of the day performed for us, and for each other, and for their service, and they too were stuck on 12. Touchdowns, hooks and ladders, 42-yard field goal tries and high fives abounded. Far from children, most of these Soldiers were battle tested, but if you looked closely enough, the eyes never lied. William Alley’s eyes didn’t lie when he intercepted that pass in the fourth and sealed the game for Army this year. Nothing was hidden in Col. Thomas Brittain’s eyes either when, swept up in the moment, he was flagged for excessive sideline celebration during Alley’s dash for the end zone. They were happy for a moment, as we all were for being a part of that moment. We were all warriors and maybe it’s these moments, whether it’s Texas Stadium on Monday Night Football, a West Sound high school stadium with military camaraderie and a lot of flags, or in our own lumpy back yards, we — as a country — love football.