Romp and circumstance
As Trump looks on, Navy routs Army, 31-7
PHILADELPHIA — What makes Army-Navy football special?
It is the only college football game the President of the United States routinely attends.
That’s because the players engaged in hostilities on the football field during Army-Navy day will soon be joining forces to serve and protect the country.
They are men such as Nizaire Cromartie, who did not hesitate when asked to do something special for the three aviation students killed last week at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
Vice Admiral Sean Buck, the Naval Academy superintendent, requested one of the Navy football players wear the Naval Aviation Schools Command (NASC) patch in recognition of the shooting victims, including 2019 Naval Academy graduate Joshua Kaleb Watson.
Navy equipment manager Greg Morgenthaler felt it would be most appropriate for one of the four captains to carry out that order and knew Cromartie had not picked out a special patch. Morgenthaler was not at all surprised by the response from the standout outside linebacker from Greensboro, North Carolina.
“I would be honored and blessed to play for this young man,” said Cromartie, whose NASC patch contained a black bar with the date of the incident: Dec. 6, 2019.
They are men such as Billy Honaker, who wore a patch honoring his cousin, Christopher Stephen Honaker, who was killed in Afghanistan. Honaker, out of Schertz, Texas, is the starting right guard for the Midshipmen.
They are men like Army fullback Connor Slomka, who passed on a lacrosse scholarship to follow in his father’s footsteps at West Point.
Slomka, out of Pine-Richland High in Wexford, Pennsylvania, had planned on playing the stick sport for the Buckeyes.
When Army came through with an offer to play football, the bruising 6-foot, 240-pounder said it was a “no-brainer.” Jim Slomka was a defensive lineman for the Black Knights from 1991-93 and his son was swayed by that legacy.
President Donald Trump came to the 120th edition of the Army-Navy game on Saturday to see in-person the fighting spirit of the men who have committed to defending the freedoms enjoyed by all United States citizens. Navy beat Army, 31-7.
Naturally, a vast majority of the sellout crowd of almost 70,000 at Lincoln Financial Field was inclined to support the Commander-in-Chief, so it seemed unlikely President Trump would be booed — as he was during a World Series game at Nationals Park in October and at a UFC event in November.
Sure enough, there was a loud, enthusiastic standing ovation when, just after 3 p.m., the public address announcer intoned, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the President of the United States.”
However, that did not mean the city outside the Linc’s walls greeted the president with the same fervor. A protest led by Refuse Facism Philly made a commute from Rittenhouse
Square four miles away to just outside the stadium to show its strong disapproval of Trump’s presence in Philadelphia.
The protest had been planned regardless as part of a nationwide effort on Saturday, but having the president in the city motivated residents like Sam Goldman, 32, of Philadelphia.
“I am coming because a fascist comes to your city, you can’t just ignore it,” Goldman said via phone before reaching the stadium. “We’re in a really bad situation where fascism is barreling ahead. Children have been separated from their parents, 10,000 kids remain in concentration camps, there’s been an evisceration of the separation of church and state, the incrimination of dissent, fanning the flames of global climate change.
“You have all of this barreling forward and the fascist base emboldened to commit hate crimes and crimes against humanity. Then you have too big of a problem where the people who oppose what Trump is doing ... are sitting back and relying on the normal channels. We are out there to change that, to disturb the complicity,” Goldman added.
Trump, wearing his trademark red tie with a matching “Keep America Great” hat, watched from the field as a choir consisting equally of midshipmen and cadets sang the national anthem. The president then conducted the pregame coin flip, in which Army called heads and Navy won when it came up tails.
At halftime, the president made the traditional swap from the Army side to sit among the Midshipmen in the second half.
The 10th president to attend the game, this was Trump’s third appearance. He attended the game in 2016, right before his inauguration, and again last December.
President George W. Bush was present at the game three times as well (2001, 2004 and 2008) over his two terms. President Barack Obama attended in 2011.
When it was all over, the Midshipmen had the honor of singing second when the alma maters of both service academies were played. Senior quarterback Malcolm Perry delivered a performance for the ages by rushing for 304 yards and scoring two touchdowns.
The weather delivered seemingly typical conditions for the Army-Navy game — dark, cloudy and foggy with a steady drizzle. Inclement weather or otherwise cold, nasty conditions are commonplace for this contest, which is now always held on the second Saturday in December.
The skies parted in the second quarter. As the sun took control, so did Navy, sparking its rally against Army to lead by seven at halftime.
It is the only Division I college football game played this weekend and captures the attention of an entire nation.
What makes the Army-Navy football game special? Fans supporting both service academies pack up and depart their hotels throughout the greater Philadelphia area as early as 7 a.m. in order to get into the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field to set up and start tailgating.
ESPN College GameDay, the popular Saturday morning show that broadcasts throughout the college football season has become an annual visitor at the Army-Navy game. When host Rece Davis and crew came on the air at 9 a.m., there was a huge crowd surrounding the elevated stage.
The College GameDay team, which includes Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Lee Corso, looked out at an audience that included the entire Brigade of Midshipmen and Corps of Cadets. Shortly after the show went off the air at noon, both student bodies, which number in excess of 4,000 members, marched into the stadium.
By the time the back-to-back march-on of the Brigade of Midshipmen and Corps of Cadets was complete, the block-letter ARMY in the visiting end zone had been almost completely blurred by the thousands of footsteps.
Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo and Army counterpart Jeff Monken both made appearances on College GameDay to discuss the upcoming game. Monken appeared wearing fatigues and combat boots. Navy legend Roger Staubach, a member of both the college and pro football halls of fame, was also interviewed on the set.
At one point during the broadcast, a clip from the International Space Station was shown. Dr. Andrew Morgan, a NASA astronaut, performed a backflip in the weightlessness of space while declaring “Go Army, Beat Navy!”
Moving inside the stadium, CBS Sports Television, which has been broadcasting the Army-Navy game for decades now, had a studio setup on the field. Being interviewed live a few hours before the game were Abby and Amelia Schroeder, sisters from Missouri on opposite sides of the rivalry.
Abby is a senior at the Naval Academy, while younger sister Amelia is a sophomore at the United States Military Academy. When the camera panned to the stands to show parents Phil and Stacy, the divided loyalties were evident. Phil wore a jacket that was half Army, half Navy and Stacy held a banner that displayed both the Annapolis and West Point logos.
About 15 minutes before kickoff, the traditional “prisoner exchange” was conducted. That is when the group of cadets that have been studying as exchange students at the Naval Academy were swapped for the midshipmen who had been doing the same at West Point.
Each of the cadets had one letter strapped to their backs to spell out 4-P-EA-T, a reference to Army’s hope to win a fourth straight game against Navy.