[DeltAlum]

Hey Rose,

Your post got me thinking about service academy football (didn't Mr. KR attend The Naval Academy?

I had a wonderful opportunity one season to direct a different service academy football game every week -- three at Annapolis, three at West Point, three at AFA and the final one at the Meadowlands.

First, you can't imagine three more beautiful settings in the Fall. Breathtaking.

Second, the pageantry and traditions -- march on's, flyovers, mascots, drum and bugle corps, salute cannons -- and especially the inter-service games are (in the literal, not the overused coloqial use of the word...) truely awesome.

The beauty of looking at the multi-colored hills and old stone buildings across the Hudson from Michey Stadium, or the tops of sails on the Severn River above the treetops from Navy, Marine Corp. Memorial Stadium, or a flyover against the backdrop of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at Falcon Stadium is line nothing else in sports.

But the sportsmanship is like none other I've ever seen either.

At the end of home games, when the bands played The Navy Blue and Gold or the Army or Air Force Alma Maters, as the players and fans stand at attention, it really put a lump in my throat.

These men play the game for the love of the sport much more than most -- because they realize that, with very few exceptions, there isn't an NFL career waiting down the road. Instead, at the end of their playing days is an obligation to the country and its armed forces.

With only a very few exceptions, the opportunity to televise those games was one of the highlights of a very lucky career.