Army-Navy Football Game

This football game is about as American as the sport can get. Young men playing for pride, serving our country, with nothing more on the line than respectful competition. There is no ticket to the NFL up for grabs for these players. Remember last year? Caleb Campbell, a safety from Army was drafted with pick 218 by the Lions. The Army gave him and the NFL the go-ahead before the draft, only to call Campbell to duty the day before he was officially ready to start training camp.

For this years game, the 109th in the series, Nike collaborated with Army and Navy to create a set of new "Enforcer" uniforms. The Army uniforms feature a camouflage helmet, pants, and numbers on a black jersey. Moreover, the saying "Duty. Honor. Country." is featured on the back of their jerseys. Two sayings are also on the pants - the right leg says "West Point" while the left leg reads "Boots on the Ground," the traditional Army slogan.

The Navy uniforms entail navy shoulder boards with gold trim, honoring the wings of the Blue Angel plane. The jersey has the Marines globe and anchor logo and the pants replicate officer pants, with the red office blood stripe down the legs.

Photo courtesy of ESPN.com

Each player also wore a patch designating their unit in the Army or Navy. The final score was 34-0 in favor of Navy. It is great to not only watch this game every year, but to take in the raw emotion and strong sense of pride that each of these young men carry with them. Thanks to Nike for supplementing the game with new threads that embody the spirit of this competition.