Army - Navy Game

[Just_A_Mom]

My Guess - The Commander-in-Chief will be in attendance.

Who came last year - gee I can't remember, Early Alzheimer's is kicking in. I think it was Rumsfeld. And Cheney. Was Dick Cheney there? Anyone remember?

Weather:
At 8 am it is 35 degrees in Baltimore - today's high will be about 41 degrees.

I am so glad I am waiting to go until next year - the long range forecast is for 60 degrees in Philadelphia!

A little birdie told me:
There are various people wandering around the Inner harbor drinking beer (yep it is 8 am ) informing arriving West Point Cadets that the Army is paying people to come see Army play.

 

[The Commissioner]

A little birdie told me:
There are various people wandering around the Inner harbor drinking beer (yep it is 8 am ) informing arriving West Point Cadets that the Army is paying people to come see Army play.

If the beer is free, I can believe it!

My son is going to the game so I expect to hear crowd noise over the cell phone as I spend 5 hours in the car driving home for the weekend.

 

[Just_A_Mom]

From today's Baltimore sun:


http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...01dec01,0,7511588.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout

 

[jamzmom]

JAM, great mids think alike. I was just getting ready to post the same exact story. Loved the following quote:

"There's a purity to this game because of the selflessness of those playing," said John Cartwright, Navy's record-setting quarterback 40 years ago. "To these guys, it's not about what'll happen in the next NFL draft. Football is just a sidelight to what they do. They have a higher cause."

So sorry Commissioner. Hope you can find it via radio. I got lucky & my plans changed so I can be home to watch this game! Beer and donuts probably go pretty well together this morning.

 

[Just_A_Mom]

Beer and donuts! Sounds perfect!

I hope The Commissioner can make it to Philly next year - we will both have plebes who KNOW how to march!

 

[The Commissioner]

I hope The Commissioner can make it to Philly next year - we will both have plebes who KNOW how to march!

Yeah, I'm more interested in attending a game in the City of Brotherly Love than in the Capital of Crabs.

 

[The Commissioner]

JAM, So sorry Commissioner. Hope you can find it via radio. I got lucky & my plans changed so I can be home to watch this game! Beer and donuts probably go pretty well together this morning.

I got lucky too. My rental has Sirius satellite radio which carries the Army games. I'll get to hear the game from the Army announcer's point of view.

 

[Just_A_Mom]

Tough half for Army...... 21-3 behind Navy at the half.
Two scores back to back didn't help - that Reggie Campbell is fast.

Let's see what the second half brings.

 

[Just_A_Mom]

Not posting the final score - it was Army 3, Navy - something. Let's just leave it at that......

Ahhhh well there is always next year! So what did everyone think?

 

[WAMom68]

I was disappointed the game wasn't closer. When Army didn't score on that first drive I had a bad feeling.

I got a phone call after the game from my son. He said even though they lost he still had fun. He also said Army "won" the march on contest, so at least they won something. His said his hand made it onto national TV, I told him that I didn't recognize it.

They left West Point shortly after 1 a.m. and had a police escort the entire way. I asked how many buses it took and he didn't know but said there were a bunch.

During the game he met up with his best friend from last year at NMMI. His friend is a plebe at Navy. They had fun visiting.

Best story from him...Each time Navy scored the Navy goat (guy in the costume-not the real goat) and the flag bearer came over in front of the Corp of Cadets to gloat. The last time they came over one of the Firsties had enough. In full dress gray he jumped out of the stands and chased down the flag bearer and tackled him to the ground. Then he got up and tackled the goat too. The Corp went crazy! Right after that happened the Sec. of the Army and the Commandant came over to where the Corp was in the stands. At first the cadets thought the Firstie was in trouble, but they just came over to cheer him too and get the Corp to be even louder.

 

[jamzmom]

I feel for my Army girls. When 69 gets back, you know what will be coming. When it starts just don't forget why we like him so much. He's our very own real live crusty salt.

Man, those kids looked awesome today. What happened at half time? Fly over or anything exciting? My Mom came in with Big Macs interrupting the whole thing & since I don't allow hubby to eat those except when he sneaks, I had to repremand her then steal his fries.

 

[The Commissioner]

Best story from him...Each time Navy scored the Navy goat (guy in the costume-not the real goat) and the flag bearer came over in front of the Corp of Cadets to gloat. The last time they came over one of the Firsties had enough. In full dress gray he jumped out of the stands and chased down the flag bearer and tackled him to the ground. Then he got up and tackled the goat too. The Corp went crazy! Right after that happened the Sec. of the Army and the Commandant came over to where the Corp was in the stands. At first the cadets thought the Firstie was in trouble, but they just came over to cheer him too and get the Corp to be even louder.

My son told me he was standing close to where this happened and there was a conspiracy involved. All the cadets knew what was coming before the guy jumped the rail. A general approached the guy and gave him a high-five!

 

[Antoinette]

Jamzmom,

During halftime, Lee Greenwood sang his Proud to Be an American song and a very large American flag was unfurled as he sang the song. Large stars were unfurled around the flag and were twirled. Amazing and beautiful. The sound system at the Ravens stadium is awesome. The USNA band also performed.

I will always remember the Navy mids' rendition of the National Anthem and how silent and respectful the crowd was during the singing of both Alma Maters at the end. First Navy stood with Army as the cadets sang theirs and then Army went and stood with Navy as the mids sang theirs.

Congratulations to Navy. I look forward to the next football game!

GO ARMY! Beat Navy!



P.S. The flag bearer was taken completely by surprise by the tackle...

 

[USNA69]

A general approached the guy and gave him a high-five!

An Army cadet jumps out of the stands and attacks the Navy cheerleading squad for doing their job. A WP General applauds him. During pre-game rhetoric Army players promise to break Navy player's leg and then rough him up after the whistle on the first play. Is this traditional classic becoming just another college brawl game?

 

[Just_A_Mom]

Oh Gee whiz. Get a grip- surely you can't be serious.
From this timing of your post looks like you made this about 2 am - on the Monday AFTER the game - you just gettin' home from or just sobering up?

Obviously, sitting in the stands you (and the referee) failed to see the pass interference (face mask) that was not called on Navy -

 

[USNA69]

Oh Gee whiz. Get a grip- surely you can't be serious.-

Fans jumping out of the stands is serious business. Plebes are not allowed to do pushups at A-N because they are not allowed on the field. Fans on the field where they are not allowed to be is not good.

The flag running, which every college team in the nation does, including Army, should they have accientially somehow scored enough to be able to observe, is a normal event. Due to the fact that the mids were sitting in the corner and they could not run down the sidelines due to the players location, they were limited to the end zone. For them to furl the flag, they had to run by the cadets, who shared the same endzone. Sure, stuff like this happens. Hooligans do it all the time. Sometimes it emptys the stands. For it to be endoresed by a WP general, whoever he was, and if the accounts are true, is unacceptable.

Obviously, sitting in the stands you (and the referee) failed to see the pass interference (face mask) that was not called on Navy -

Are you trying to turn an inadvertent face mask call which the ref missed into a flagrant intentional personal foul? Pass defenders do everything they can to keep the receiver from catching the ball. Interrupting his field of vision with his hand is one of those methods. It happens. Nothing flargrant and nothing personal. Just a face mask call. However, the following is not just football. Jordan Murphy threatened before the game to break Adam Ballard's leg (which they did last year which is why the score was so close).

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/12_02-29/NAS

Ballard carried on the opening play from scrimmage and was immediately roughed up after the whistle blew by middle linebacker Brian Chmura. Murray and some other Army defenders started jawing at Ballard and he noticed they all had his No. 22 scripted into their eye black.

Again, sportsmanship which could be attributable to the way AF plays, but not the Army of the past.

 

[Zaphod]

Oh Gee whiz. Get a grip- surely you can't be serious.

...and yet some BG called the MP's because a Navy fan said "Whoop Ass".

 

[The Commissioner]

An Army cadet jumps out of the stands and attacks the Navy cheerleading squad for doing their job. A WP General applauds him. During pre-game rhetoric Army players promise to break Navy player's leg and then rough him up after the whistle on the first play. Is this traditional classic becoming just another college brawl game?

I'll let you know when I have a chance to attend the game in the next few years. There is only so much to be learned from listening on the radio or getting reports from people in the stands.

 

[usna1985]

I think most people (including the Navy crowd) found the cadet vs. goat incident somewhat humorous (and the Navy guys came out ok in the end). It was quite the talk in the hotel, especially among the Army crowd, who were debating whether or not the cadet would get in trouble. And, this sort of thing (more or less) does happen at Navy home games, with mids occasionally going after the opposing mascot.

If you haven't seen the stadium, it's not like Navy/Marine Corps stadium. It's not easy to get to the field from the stands and just making the jump is a bit dangerous. And, because the cadets and mids were almost side-by-side, the typical run with the flag naturally would take the Navy guy (or the Army guy if they'd had reason to run) past the cadets.

USNA69 makes a fair point. It's not a good thing to encourage physical violence toward cheerleaders doing what cheerleaders are supposed to, and allowed to, do. A few pranks here & there are part of the game but there should be a line at inciting violence -- and this incident came right up to that line. Whether the line was crossed probably depends on your perspective.

At the end of the day, the event gave the otherwise very depressed Army fans something to "cheer" about. However, it would have been much better for all if that cheering came because the game was well played by the Army football team rather than a rogue cadet decided to attack the Navy cheerleader and mascot.

 

[WAMom68]

During pre-game rhetoric Army players promise to break Navy player's leg and then rough him up after the whistle on the first play.

In my opinion this is totally unacceptable and they should be disciplined for it.

…some BG called the MP's because a Navy fan said "Whoop Ass".

That is just ridiculous. If they think “ass” is bad, they wouldn’t want to hear some of my language while watching the game.

An Army cadet jumps out of the stands and attacks the Navy cheerleading squad for doing their job. A WP General applauds him.

Oh come on…it sounded to me like this was all in fun. I doubt the cadet was trying to hurt the guy. If a midshipman had tackled the Army mascot I wouldn’t be all worked up about it.