This Saturday is the annual Army-Navy game.

In all the hoopla surrounding the college football playoffs and the bowl season, it seems like an afterthought. With the exception of a three-year hiatus from 1927 to 1930, the game has been played regularly near the close of the regular college football season and has always been a highly competitive affair and noted for its pomp, ceremony and tradition.

It’s a game I’ve watched as long as I can remember, and despite my military heritage leaning to the Army, I’ve always cheered for the Navy. And over the years, I’ve found myself marveling at the young men who have played on the field when two of the nation’s oldest military service academies meet on the gridiron, and it’s not because I’m looking at future pro football stars.

Make no mistake, the Army-Navy game has had its share of exceptional athletes.

The game featured some very prominent athletes like Army’s duo of Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard and Navy’s Roger Staubach, Joe Belino and Napoleon McCallum. Some players, like Staubach and McCallum, have gone to the NFL after completing their service commitments, but when the midshipmen from Annapolis and the cadets from the Hudson meet every year, playing to earn a high spot in the next NFL draft is not the goal.

Most of the young men who will play in Saturday’s game will not be looking at being a first-round draft pick and signing a multi-million dollar contract for the Los Angeles Rams, or the Saints, or the Chiefs, or Dallas. After Saturday, the upper classmen who play their last game in their academy’s colors won’t don pads again. If they play football again, it’ll probably be a game of touch or flag football at the base where they’ve been assigned after graduation.

And that’s what makes this game so interesting. The people who will play in it are the future colonels, generals, division, base, battle group and area commanders for the U.S. Military, and they are at their respective academies for one thing — to get an education to become the next leaders of our nation’s military. Sports like football are played at the academies, but education takes precedence; these men are true student-athletes.

The Army-Navy game is being played by athletes who are competing for the joy of the game and school pride and not trying improve their draft status. When they graduate from their respective schools they will leave with something much more valuable and important than a multi-year contract and big signing bonus.

And that fact is enough to respect the young men playing in that rivalry game Saturday. If that’s not enough, then remember, they are the next generation of officers who will go into harm’s way and put their lives on the line to protect us and our families.

So this weekend, take some time out, sit down and watch the Army-Navy game, and enjoy watching people playing for the joy of the game.

John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.