Army-Navy, The Most Important Game
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ARMY-NAVY THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME
For a time there, the Army-Navy game seemed to lose its luster. In the minds of some, including me, it was a neat, quaint game at the end of the college football season between two mid-range programs filled with gutsy kids who weren’t blinded by the thoughts of an NFL future.
It seems the one who was blind all those years was me. I had to be, regrettably this country had to be, reminded in a very terrible way of the importance these two service academies are to our nation, to our protection, and should always be a very deep, sincere source of pride.
We had to have two jets smash into a pair of financial pillars eight years ago in New York to wake us up and get it. To know what these special young men and women represent and how important they are—all of them, to all of us.
I can say I get it now. It took some time, I had to shed some ignorance in getting to this destination, but I can say I get it. I get it because now young men like Jeff Vanak, who played for Archbishop Carroll, played for Navy in the Army-Navy game, was soon shipped to Iraq. It hits home. It should hit home for everyone.
Vanak was shipped there for me, shipped there for you. Sent there to defend all of us.
Because special young men like Jeff Battipaglia, Kevin Eckel, Neil Doogan, who lives five minutes from me, may be sent over there so we can get up each morning and read our morning paper with coffee, surf the internet, get in our cars and drive to work, without concerning ourselves that something could blow up around us.
It’s young men like them, and Alex Carlton, Frank Allen, Michael Walsh, John Michael Nurthen and Joe Buckley, diligent, caring-for-more-then-just-themselves young men we all should thank.
Let’s throw aside politics when it comes to the people who volunteer to defend us. These are people we know, people who we count on to protect us. It’s why the Army-Navy game should hold a sacred place with all of us, because if wasn’t for them, we may not have anything.
It’s why the Army-Navy game is the most important game.
Here’s a bold salute to all of our local players who will be playing in Saturday’s Army-Navy game:
Army
Alex Carlton, Wilmington, Del (Newark High School)
Frank Allen, Palmyra, N.J. (Holy Cross High School)
Navy
Joe Buckley, Downingtown, PA (Malvern Prep)
Neil Doogan, Collingdale, PA (St. Joseph's Prep)
Kevin Eckel, Havertown, PA (Archbishop Carroll)
John Michael Nurthen, Phoenixville, PA (Great Valley High School)
Jeff Battipaglia, Newtown, PA (St. Joseph's Prep)
Michael Walsh, Newtown, PA (Notre Dame)
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com.
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