Army Navy Game Costly Dangerous

Should I be happy angry, or sad that the Army Navy games still takes place.
I feel all three.

The taxpayer is getting ripped off and it's an outrage. Considering service academies drain huge amounts of money from Americans, why don't we talk more about the bodily harm football could cause?

If a player gets paralyzed playing football who will take care of him? Will he be forced to reimburse the taxpayer for his education since he can't serve?

Several years ago a Senior Cadet at The United States Air Force Academy developed a severe psychiatric disorder. He graduated but couldn't be commissioned so he went back to the civilian world.

Since a psychiatric disorder can come out of nowhere one would expect The United States to forgive his debt out of compassion.

Instead he got a bill for over 400,000 dollars. He committed suicide.

Another horror story involves Eric Legrand who played for The Rutgers Scarlet Knights. In a game against the Army Black'Knights he was injured and paralyzed from the neck down.

His insurance did not cover the bills. He was blessed with the generosity of donations and The Tampa Bay Buccaneers who gave him a symbolic job.

Meanwhile large companies are getting rich with ads during college football games. This is a huge injustice but is even worse if it involves a service academy.

The Army Black Knights and Navy Midshippmen are not just a business like some college athletic programs. Service academies don't depend on alumni for donations and are not known as athletic powerhouses.

The general consensus is that schools like Alabama, Auburn, and LSU are better for those that care strictly about going professional.

Yet service academies have been swallowed by greed and short sighted adminstrators.. An athlete can go directly from the academy to becoming a professional player and get very rich.

In the old days nobody could go straight from a service academy to professional sports. Roger Staubach for example, had to serve the United States taxpayers first because we paid for his education.

I want to also mention concussions While I don't expect every football player to end up like Mike Webster or Junior Sajous some of them will.

Who wants to see a certified nut job in charge of a platoon or drones or a fleet of ships?

The same question could be asked of any sport but football brings big bucks to the service academies so it's like the elephant in the room.

One football game will earn a huge portion of the football teams revenue for a whole year and football floats some of the less lucrative sports.

On the other hand, football is not only part of service academy history but American history. West Point gave birth to such super stars as Vince Lombardi and Bobby Knight.

The Army Black Knights have won three Heisman Trophies. Roger Staubach started his career at The United States Naval Academy.

I favor The Army Black Knights every year but this year it was a difficult choice.

The Navies Quarterback Blake Horvath comes from a Hungarian background and I'm the son of two Hungarians.

I wish the Army Black Knights had won but I'm happy a second or third generation Hungarian had a great night.

I see the good and bad in football. Colleges have been plying Russian Roulette with student athletes since before time.

We can't get rid of football especially not college football. It's part of American culture like Apple Pie.

However we need to ask some hard questions about the potential for injuries after investing about 300,000 into an officer [ that's the cost to us for a four year degree at a service academy].
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