Blowouts hurting rivalry

December 6th, 2008 | Army/Navy game Military Times sites: | Posted by Mike Hoffman

Army Navy games have traditionally been close. That is until former coach Paul Johnston showed up to restore Navy’s football program in 2002. Since then, Navy has won by an average of 28 points, and they are right on track this afternoon up 27 with four minutes to play.

As John Feinstein said two weeks ago when he sat down with the blog, “it’s just not Army Navy if the game isn’t close.” I just walked through the cadet corps and the disappointment of another loss is written on their faces. A third straight West Point senior class will graduate without seeing Army beat Navy with this loss.

Permalink | December 6th, 2008

Comments

1. Sports analyst Says:
   December 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am

   I don’t understand — the kids at both military academies learn to hate each other from the first day they step onto the campus. They want the games to be lop-sided. A crushing Navy victory, as was the case with this game, rewards the fanaticism built into the kids from plebe year on. A crushing Army defeat only redoubles the super-zealotry at West Point. And, in a few years, when Army restores its gridiron dominance, the reverse will be true. The game is most useful to Annapolis and West Point because it teaches the pure, un-distilled warrior hate that soldiers and sailors need to forget everything else but destroying their enemies. The Army needs its occasional Kasserine Passes and the Navy needs its occasional Java Seas so they can learn, adapt, regroup and attack again. Normal college athletes are mercenaries, and if the Bama offensive line happens to also hate the Auburn defenders, that’s just a convenient plus.

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