Poe makes his name as Army wide receiver
Edgar Allen Poe returns to Baltimore on Saturday, but it’s no ghost story.
Though the name might conjure the dark fiction and bleak gothic poetry of one of the masters of American literature, mind the subtle difference: The author, Edgar Allan Poe, spelled his middle name with two a’s and died in the Maryland city in 1849 after a life spent terrifying readers with seminal works of horror and mystery. The only people who need fear Edgar Al
len Poe this weekend play in Navy’s defensive backfield.
This Poe is not a revered, long-dead writer but a 6-4 senior wide receiver for Army and an important downfield threat for an offense largely built on the running game. For the third consecutive season, Poe leads the Black Knights in catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
“He’s an outstanding leader for us,” coach Jeff Monken said. “And when the ball’s in the air, if you throw the thing up there, he’s got a better chance to get it than the other guy. And I don’t care who the other guy is — he’s got a better chance to get it than anybody does. He’s got great body control and awareness of where the defender is.”
Though named for his father, Poe hardly seems to resent sharing a full name — if not quite letter-for-letter — with the literary icon, though he noted it has been a source of ribbing from a young age. While playing football at Cienega High School in Vail, Ariz., Poe earned the somewhat predictable nickname “The Raven.”
“I hear jokes about it all the time,” he said. “Guys make plays on words and stuff. It’s just something I’ve had to live with.
“I’ve come to internalize and understand how important it is to educate myself on the literary works that Edgar Allan Poe, the author, did, and what revolutionary ideas he brought into the literary world. I’m honored to carry his name. Growing up, my dad made me read it starting early. He kind of forced it on me, but I like a lot of it.”
Whereas Poe the receiver expects to finish at the U.S. Military Academy and begin his service commitment to the Army, Poe the writer lasted six months at the school before getting court-martialed and ultimately discharged for gross neglect of duty in 1831.
“He was kicked out,” Edgar Allen Poe said with a laugh when asked if he planned to follow in the author’s footsteps. “No, sir, I’m trying to get through here.”
It’s worth noting, too, that Army’s receiver is not the first successful college football player to bear the name. Another Edgar Allan Poe, a distant relative of the writer, played quarterback for Princeton in the late 19th century and was named to the first College Football All-America team in 1889.