Army coach Rich Ellerson greets incoming international cadets every summer. The welcome is among these students’ first moments at West Point, and the academy’s passion for the Navy game is their first impression. “This year we had one from Tunisia and one from Jordan. They’d never been out of their countries. They didn’t know football from third base,” Ellerson said. “By the time they come through the gate and get to my house, they know I better beat Navy. They don’t know what that means, but they know I better do it. It’s always in the backdrop of our lives at West Point.”
The Army-Navy game comes to the Washington area for the first time in 112 meetings Saturday at FedEx Field. It’s one of the great sporting events on the calendar, even when both teams have losing records like this season.
More often than not, the game has been in Philadelphia, considered a neutral midway point between the academies. That includes the past three years and 83 times overall. Philadelphia gets the game again the next two years before alternating with Baltimore through 2017.
Even though FedEx Field isn’t far from Annapolis, neither team is claiming an advantage in the nation’s capital. Washington may be a government town first, but it’s a military town second.
“It’s going to feel like a home field for both of us,” Ellerson said. “It’s entirely appropriate this game gets played here time to time. There is a special connection between both of our institutions and the nation’s capital.”
Said Navy fullback Alexander Teich: “America’s game. Having it in D.C. will be a cool experience. It’s a good way to go out.”
Teich will train to become a Navy SEAL once he graduates, which makes football seem tame. Still, he’s trying to improve to 4-0 against Army in his career at Navy, which has beaten its rival nine straight times. Washington Redskins fans may joke that a 2-14 record is fine if the wins are over the Dallas Cowboys, but that rivalry is nothing compared to Army-Navy.
“You say ‘Beat Army’ from day one,” Teich said. “This is our kind of Super Bowl of the season. It’s why you come here and play the game.”
The rivalry is bigger than one school stealing the other’s mascot. A general and rear admiral nearly dueled after the 1893 meeting. Showtime is creating a docu-drama called “A Game of Honor” about Saturday’s meeting.
“There are a lot of great rivalries, but they’re regional,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “But one could truly argue this rivalry is worldwide. You have people from both services who are around the country.
“There’s no other game like this. We have a heated rivalry with Air Force, but this is the game. We’ve been to a lot of big stadiums, Notre Dame, Ohio State, South Carolina, played in a lot of bowl games, but the Army-Navy game there is a difference.”
The pageantry makes the game special before kickoff. Both academies march into the stadium. There’s flyovers and “prisoner” swaps of exchange students. There’s pushups and frenzied celebrations in the stands after each score.
It’s more than a game. It’s an experience.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
