By YohoChecko
Published: November 4, 2007 PrintEmail
There’s something you should know about me: I can count the number of times I’ve cried over the past ten years on my fingers. I can remember just about every instance. I can count the number of times that my tears were tears of joy on just one finger--yesterday.
I have watched my favorite NFL team win a Super Bowl. I have watched my favorite NFL team lose a heartbreaking, upset Super Bowl. I have watched my favorite college team win a national championship…. and likewise watched them lose one in a heart-breaking fashion. I have attended games where I was awe-inspired and games where the breaks went the other way causing excruciating losses. I even played football myself for six years experiencing the good and the bad. I have personally been responsible for losing a game, and for winning one. I can count the number of times that I have cried over a football game on just one finger--yesterday.
As many of you know, yesterday afternoon Navy defeated Notre Dame for the first time in 44 years. I am not a die hard Navy football fan--not in the least. I grew up in Annapolis, though, and Navy football has always been a part of my life. I have attended countless games, but I usually spent more time playing touch football behind the bleachers than watching the action on the field. I confess that I scarcely even follow the team anymore, but for two games a season. I watch them play Army; and I watch them play Notre Dame.
It’s difficult to convey exactly why I had the emotional reaction that I had to that game. The game was a hard-fought, closely-played classic that took three overtimes, was full of dramatic twists and turns, controversial calls and coaching decisions and was a purist’s dream, with the run game dominating the action. All of that certainly added to intensity and the emotion of the game, but it wasn’t the primary reason.
It could be that during a time of war, there is a greater respect for those at the service academies and what they are trying to accomplish that it enhances their victories on the football field. To be honest, though, the war didn’t even cross my mind. My heart was in a football game at that moment, as were all my accompanying emotions.
It could have been the David-versus-Goliath angle of the game, but to be honest, Navy isn’t that bad of a football team--and Notre Dame isn’t that good. It would be tough to truly call this a David and Goliath situation aside from their national stature and football tradition.
It was simply the magnitude of this losing streak. One has to consider that next week my father will retire from a long and fruitful career. Prior to this career, he served in the Navy. Navy’s last win over Notre Dame came before he joined the service. Entire lives have been lived out in the span of this losing streak. Imagine that in 43 losing attempts, only 6 times did Navy come within one score. This isn’t a rivalry and it never has been, yet one defensive player for Navy apparently told reporters that he would rather beat Notre Dame than Army. Anyone who follows the service academy sports world at all knows that is a remarkably strong statement.
In 2003, Navy was putting together a solid season under second-year coach Paul Johnson. Notre Dame, meanwhile, was having one of its down years. If ever there was a time for the streak to end--for an upset to occur, this could be the year. Heartbreak: a 27-24 loss.
In 2004, Navy was even better. On route to a 2-loss season, Navy found Notre Dame having another mediocre year. This was Navy’s best team in decades, and it was facing a weak Notre Dame team. If ever there was to be an upset, this could be the year. Wipe out: a 27-9 drubbing. After those two years of anguish, I realized that those were probably going to be Navy’s best chances long into the future. I realized that Navy might never beat Notre Dame. Notre Dame had limped through some of Navy’s best years in the modern era and still came out victorious. It was a hurdle too high for the Midshipmen to climb on the football field.
I think that’s what it was for me. In addition to a great game and in addition to a service academy being involved in troubled times, I found myself swept away by the history-making end to a record-breaking streak of futility. And I found the emotion of the moment to be so vivid because success was had where I had given up hope. Even for the casual Navy fan, the idea of beating Notre Dame had been wiped from the realm of possibility by countless disappointments and missed opportunities.
There was a lot of football played this weekend. The college national championship picture has been adjusted with two undefeated teams losing. Today, the biggest regular season game in NFL history will be played, along with the full NFL schedule. But this weekend, only one game makes a difference to me. Only one game truly matters to me. I’m even surprised myself how much it meant to me when it finally happened, but because Navy defeated Notre Dame, the rest of the games this weekend carry so much less meaning.
I can’t hope to truly convey my emotional response to every reader, or for any reader to match such a response. Growing up in Annapolis with a Navy background in my family probably intensifies things beyond many readers’ comprehension in this case. But if ever there is a reason to cry for joy; if ever there was a reason to cry over a football game… that reason is to see success in the absence of hope; victory in a battle on which you had given up; an end to a seemingly endless futility. Maybe not everyone will shed a tear, but I hope that everyone can, at least, find joy in Navy’s victory in South Bend yesterday.
