Seeing the Notre Dame players salute the Navy Midshipmen at the end of the game--seeing them stand solemn while Navy played their school song--was probably the most impressive thing I've seen our team do outside the context of a game. I hope that post-game ritual becomes a standard policy when playing the military academies. As far as I can remember, that was an entirely new gesture.
I love playing the academies. I believe it would be disrespectful to stop playing them now, just because they are not the juggernauts they were in the first half of the twentieth-century. I was glad to see our team show them the respect they deserved, knowing what their students are preparing for...knowing that a bunch of guys with NFL prospects beat a bunch of guys that will be laying their lives on the line in Iraq and wherever else.
