Bill Belichick Comments on THE GAME

Excerpt from the New England Patriots' weekly Press Conference:

Q: A little off the subject - This weekend is the Army-Navy game. What makes
that game so special for the people involved?

BB: It's kind of a season within a season for those teams. I think no matter
what the record is, that game means more than all the other ones put
together, if that makes any sense, so in some respects it's probably better
to go 1-11 and win that game than to go 11-1 and lose that game. I've kind
of seen that from both sides of it. One of the things they do, they have
such esprit de corps with the brigade and the corps of cadets and the
brigade of midshipmen, is a lot of times the team that wins that game, the
superintendent gives all the other members of the brigade special
privileges, like an extra night out or they knock off the demerits or
whatever it is as kind of moral-booster thing. So a lot of times that game
means a lot more than just what meets the eye. I know there's a couple kids,
Max Lane and Kyle Eckel and [Roger] Staubach, but those kids aren't playing
football to be professional football players. They're playing football
because they've chosen a career in the military and that's what's really
important to them, so to compete against their rival military academy, it's
a tremendous tradition that goes back forever, even back into the great
Army-Navy teams in the 40's and 50's and 60's where they were ranked in the
top 10 on a pretty regular basis and [had] Heisman trophy winners and all of
that, as well as guys going on to be great leaders of this country. The
tradition in that game just flows. It just drips with tradition. But really,
there's a lot at stake within the brigade, within the institution, that is a
little bit special relative to just another college football game. You know,
you walk around there in March or April or May or whatever and there's signs
all over of "261 days until we beat Army" or "173 days until we beat Army."
I mean, literally, a lot of times the calendar in that Navy football office
is just reflected on how many days to the Army-Navy game. When my dad was
there, there were a lot of years when he would scout the opponent that Navy
was going to play next. So if they were going to play Pitt, he would go to
Pitt. If they were going to play BC, he'd go to BC. But then there were
other years when the only team he scouted was Army. He would watch them play
all 11 games. So if that gives you any sense of what that game meant, that
you just put one guy on it the whole year, that was not uncommon. And Army
would do the same thing.