Army-Navy is always a special day for America

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BALTIMORE — At first glance, it looks and feels like any normal college football Saturday.

Folks in the parking lot, imbibing on adult beverages, grills fired up with a vast array of items. Footballs filling the air. Friendly banter and stories about glory days past being told among friends.

But then you get to and inside the gates of M&T Bank Stadium and you suddenly realize this isn’t normal.

Secret Service casting a watchful eye as fans enter the gates. The pregame parade of Midshipmen and Cadets. The game ball being delivered by parachutists. Mascots (Navy’s Goat, Army’s Mule) are watched closely out of fear of being kidnapped by the other side. Ditto for students themselves. Hey, don’t forget, these guys and gals train for this kind of espionage stuff.

And then, kickoff. Nobody in uniform is getting NIL money. No one came to either institution via the transfer portal. Just guys playing for love of the game, and of country.

They played the Army-Navy Game for the 126th time Saturday and for 60 minutes, the Black Knights and Midshipmen were trying to bash each other’s brains in. And when it was over, they stood shoulder to shoulder as each school’s alma mater was played.

It appeared Army was going to prevail after it led going into the fourth quarter. But Navy forced a turnover, drove down to the Army 1 and eventually scored on 4th-and-goal from the 8 on a pass from Blake Horvath to Eli Heidenreich, the Middies’ career leader in receptions, for what would be a 17-16 victory on a cold late fall afternoon in front of 70,936 shivering fans.

Army thought it had forced a turnover with 2:15 to play when Horvath appeared to fumble and the Black Knights recovered. But Horvath was ruled down prior to the ball coming out, Navy retained possession, gained the necessary yard on 4th-and-1 and that was that as the Middies won their second straight and improved to 64-55-7 head-to-head.

It was a bitter pill for Army coach Jeff Monken and his team to swallow. They’ve lost several close games this year, but this one hurts worst of all. The postgame walk from where the Cadets were standing to where the Midshipmen stood is about 100 feet. For Army’s players, it must’ve felt like a 100 miles making that walk to stand for Navy’s alma mater.

But that’s what makes this the game it is. The mutual respect each side has for the other. The joy and elation for the victors, the pain and sorrow for the losers. There’s nothing quite like it. Hopefully, that won’t change anytime soon. For it would be a shame if the last bastion of true collegiate athletic competition would be corrupted by greed and commercial benefit.

Of course, you can’t have an entirely pure environment these days when it comes to college football at the FBS level. The game is televised nationally on CBS, which pays millions of dollars to the two academies. There’s a title sponsor, USAA, an insurance company which has been a long-time presenting sponsor and likely pays a good chunk of change to both schools. So there are big bucks being distributed here.

Granted, every school has its own traditions and they’re all important to that institution. But this feels and looks different. You’ve got generals. You’ve got admirals. You have cabinet members. And sometimes, the President himself makes an appearance.

Donald Trump loves sports. Saturday, he was in Baltimore for Army-Navy. The first time I remember seeing a President at Army-Navy was 1962 when John F. Kennedy was at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia and I was watching from my living room in New Jersey with my dad. The next year, Kennedy was dead, and the game was pushed back to Dec. 7, another infamous day in American history.

We went to Michie Stadium in 1965 to watch Army play Colgate. Even though my dad served in the Air Force, he thought it was important that his 9-year-old son see what West Point is all about. The statues of the generals — Eisenhower. Grant. Patton, among many. The immaculate grounds. The fabulous view of Michie Stadium overlooking the Hudson. Those gold helmets with the black stripes glistening in the autumn afternoon sun.

So while I have nothing against the Navy or Annapolis, there’s a part of me that feels a connection to the Black Knights that goes back to 1965.

As for 2025, well, you had two teams in a desperate struggle to prevail. Both still have one more game to play this season — Navy against Cincinnati in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2 in Memphis, Army against Connecticut in the Fenway Bowl in Boston Dec. 27. But their full attention was on this game in Baltimore.

Will Army be able to recover and finish with a winning record after falling to 6-6? Can Navy, now 10-2, not suffer a letdown and finish up with four straight wins?

Who knows? But whenever you have games like Saturday’s, it can be anticlimactic for both teams.

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