Tuesday, November 6, 2007
The Chance to Play Against Notre Dame
Not all the best sports writing is about baseball.
It's Election Day, as if you hadn't noticed. The weather is practically perfect in Utah Valley. It seems like a good time to mention . . .
Football.
College football, that is, not local high school football, tarnished as it currently is by criminal investigations into recent disturbances at American Fork High School playoff games.
College football, where Navy was more blessed by South Bend's celebrated Touchdown Jesus than Notre Dame was last Saturday.
John Feinstein's commentary in The Washington Post delighted me. Here is one excerpt, but for full effect you should read the whole article.
Notre Dame has every advantage a football power can possibly have: an 80,000-seat stadium; its own TV network; arguably the greatest tradition in college football history ("win one for the Gipper," Knute Rockne, Touchdown Jesus, the fight song); more money than it knows what to do with; and a great academic reputation.
What does Navy sell to recruits? The chance to play against Notre Dame.
Or maybe it's the chance to wake up at 6 o'clock every morning; the chance to be screamed at by upperclassmen; the chance to lose your weekend liberty for carrying a book-bag improperly or for being 30 seconds late to class. Not to mention the chance to get shot at when you graduate.
Enjoy.
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Copyright 2007 by David Rodeback.
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