My brother-in-law is a retired Army Ranger and very supportive of veterans causes in general. For Saturday's Army Navy game at Gillette, he pulled together an amazing shindig. Sourced about 30-40 tickets to what was the 5th toughest ticket ever to get at Gillette (behind 3 Swiftie concerts and Tom Brady's return with the Bucs). He took a loss on a lot of the tickets and really took care of vets who otherwise couldn't afford to go to the game. Just really went all in for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Massive tailgate, all free, etc.
My son and I were fortunate to be able to go. What an amazing environment! From the pageantry, to the obvious mutual respect between the fans and players, it was a great sports bucket list item for me.
Everything done with military precision. Pregame schedule had the Navy jet flyover scheduled for 3:05 pm. And the Army helicopter flyover scheduled for 3:05 pm and 45 seconds. Lol. And damned if they didn't occur exactly at those times.
And paratroopers from both branches dropping into Gillette. Probably half of the paratroopers touched down within a few yards of the 50.
The cadets all looked amazing. Perfectly groomed, great posture, polite, respectful. All that's right with America.
Some good natured ribbing of course. At the coin toss the Navy cadets spelled out Nuke Army on the backs of their uniforms. The Army cadets spelled out Eat Squid on the backs of theirs. Good stuff.
Kinda a snoozer of a game for the first 3 quarters but a great 4th quarter ending in a tackle of what could have been Navy's tying TD at the 6 inch line with 3 seconds left on the clock. Army then takes an intentional safety to run out the clock and end the game. And the 2 points from the safety put the game over the 27.5 over-under. By half a point. Lots of cheers in our section as many played the over.
After the game Gillette security let the Army cadets charge the field. The Navy cadets stayed in their sections and watched. The Army players and cadets were jumping around and super psyched. Then the band started playing the Navy fight song and they all stopped their celebrations dead in their tracks and stood silently out of respect for their brothers and sisters in the Navy. Then the band played the West Point alma mater and the Navy players and cadets stood respectfully and watched that.
We just couldn't get over how "right" everything was. From the hard nosed but disciplined play of the teams (minus a bunch of false starts), the organization of the days events, the pageantry and traditions, the amazing presentations during the many TV timeouts, etc etc.
One of my better game day experiences ever. Very proud to be an American today and hopeful for the future.
My son and I were fortunate to be able to go. What an amazing environment! From the pageantry, to the obvious mutual respect between the fans and players, it was a great sports bucket list item for me.
Everything done with military precision. Pregame schedule had the Navy jet flyover scheduled for 3:05 pm. And the Army helicopter flyover scheduled for 3:05 pm and 45 seconds. Lol. And damned if they didn't occur exactly at those times.
And paratroopers from both branches dropping into Gillette. Probably half of the paratroopers touched down within a few yards of the 50.
The cadets all looked amazing. Perfectly groomed, great posture, polite, respectful. All that's right with America.
Some good natured ribbing of course. At the coin toss the Navy cadets spelled out Nuke Army on the backs of their uniforms. The Army cadets spelled out Eat Squid on the backs of theirs. Good stuff.
Kinda a snoozer of a game for the first 3 quarters but a great 4th quarter ending in a tackle of what could have been Navy's tying TD at the 6 inch line with 3 seconds left on the clock. Army then takes an intentional safety to run out the clock and end the game. And the 2 points from the safety put the game over the 27.5 over-under. By half a point. Lots of cheers in our section as many played the over.
After the game Gillette security let the Army cadets charge the field. The Navy cadets stayed in their sections and watched. The Army players and cadets were jumping around and super psyched. Then the band started playing the Navy fight song and they all stopped their celebrations dead in their tracks and stood silently out of respect for their brothers and sisters in the Navy. Then the band played the West Point alma mater and the Navy players and cadets stood respectfully and watched that.
We just couldn't get over how "right" everything was. From the hard nosed but disciplined play of the teams (minus a bunch of false starts), the organization of the days events, the pageantry and traditions, the amazing presentations during the many TV timeouts, etc etc.
One of my better game day experiences ever. Very proud to be an American today and hopeful for the future.
