PHILADELPHIA — Bill the Goat and Army’s mule mascot — doesn’t that mule have a name? — got into something of a dust-up a few moments ago in Army’s end zone, and Bill attempted a flying wrap-around tackle. But Muley was having none of it, and Bill missed, landing on his face. He picked himself up and marched back toward the Navy sidelines, but not before the Army mule tried to kick him in his goat-tail — but he also missed.
Author Phil Ewing
PHILADELPHIA — It’s been a rough-and-tumble day for both teams, advancing by dribs and drabs with short, grappling plays up the middle of the field. A few minutes ago, Army was able to stop the Midshipmen and prompt Navy to bring out junior kicker Joe Buckley, number 16, who hit a 36 yard field goal to add three more points to Navy’s total. Now Army is trying to drive down the field; the Black Knights’ freshman quarterback Trent Steelman just found senior wide receiver Alejando Villanueva to bring up 1st down and 10.
PHILADELPHIA — When Navy scored its touchdown a few minutes ago, it brought up a really neat graphic on the inter-deck digital scoreboard between the field-level seats and the upper deck: A Ticonderoga-class cruiser sailed the length of the board, from about the 40-yard line to the 20-yard line, with a motivational message about Navy’s drive. Then it miraculously launched a Landing Craft, Air Cushion, which finished the journey, scoring the “touchdown,” presumably, by landing its Marines. That’s the kind of thing they’d probably like over on the Scoop Deck blog, from what I understand.
PHILADELPHIA — A Navy marching band just finished an inexplicable medley of “Batman” themes, the players are stretching and getting ready for the second half, and we’re high up here in the crystal tower talking about the first half of this football match. Military Times senior sportswriter Mike Hoffman had some thoughts about what we’ve seen so far and what could be coming up:
PHILADELPHIA — After Action has just received a text message from a Pentagon contractor of our acquaintance that reads, and I quote: “go army beat navy.” Got something to say? Ping us at pewing[at]navytimes.com or mhoffman[at]armytimes.com or leave a comment on any of our thousands of live posts from the game. What’s the game look like from where you are?
PHILADELPHIA — If you’re watching the game on TV, you can probably see this better than we can, but Navy’s players are each wearing the patch from a unit from somewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps. These could be ships, submarines, or aviation squadrons, and players draw the patches they’re wearing from a pool sent in from all over the fleet, said Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. Joe Carpenter. For example, junior quarterback Ricky “The Magic Man” Dobbs chose a patch from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 6, the “Indians,” which specifically wanted to honor the sailors aboard a helicopter it lost…
PHILADELPHIA — We’re well underway with this year’s battle down on the gridiron, but something has caused consternation high up here in the press box — the announcement between plays that the players need to take a “media time-out.” It’s really a “TV time-out,” so CBS can break away from the game to do promos for, at the moment, David Letterman’s show, and the hacks and broadcast types up here don’t like the notion that fans in the stadium think we’re the ones stopping the game. Incidentally, now the Army cadets are bouncing around an actual beach ball in their…
PHILADELPHIA — Well, maybe the cadets brought their own version of Bill’s head to cause a disturbance — a classic diversionary tactic — because I can see the real Bill the Goat on the field along with Navy’s cheerleaders and a line of midshipmen. And, as I’ve been typing this, Navy won the game’s opening coin toss and elected to receive the ball when the action gets started in just a few minutes. Not only that, a flight of four Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys just flew over — and the Midshipmen have taken the field — and now the Black…
PHILADELPHIA — A commotion broke out a moment ago in the stands filled with West Point cadets — they were tossing around some kind of white object, clearly with a large amount of glee. What is that thing, a beach ball? No! It’s the head of Navy’s mascot, Bill the Goat! This issue isn’t resolved — the cadets were still tossing Bill’s head around when everyone in the stadium hushed and stood for the blessing, the presentation of the colors and the national anthem. Unless a rush of patriotism motivated the cadets to give it back, I think Bill’s head…
PHILADELPHIA — Sailors and soldiers are parachuting onto the field, which is especially neat from our perspective in the press box because we can’t see the sky — all of a sudden, a man in a black suit, trailing a long plume of pink smoke, appears from nowhere to land on the field. They look exactly like the parachuting G.I. Joe action figures you might’ve played with as a kid, and, unluckily for these guys, they’re tumbling and sliding just as awkwardly as the toys did. Still, it’s pretty motivational.
