Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
February 11, 2008
Pg. 1C
By Erik Brady and Reid Cherner, USA Today
Football, for all its metaphors of blitzes and bombs, is not war. And yet Tim Bailey sees similarities between playing for Mississippi State and fighting for Uncle Sam.
"In football, like the military, you've got to trust the guy beside you," he says. "The difference in the military is you trust him with your life."
Bailey, a member of the Mississippi National Guard, got his first start at defensive end Dec. 29 in a 10-3 win against Central Florida in — fittingly — the Liberty Bowl.
Most veterans who come back from Iraq do not play college sports. The few who do think perhaps they love their games just a little more than their teammates.
"You have a lot of time to yourself over there," Bailey says. "You think about the small things" such as playing football. "You miss those things. And when you get back, you never take them for granted."
USA TODAY, with the help of the NCAA, canvassed the nation's college sports information directors and found more than 70 Iraq war vets competing during this school year. Undoubtedly there are more.
Cale Cornemann, who was awarded a Purple Heart, wrestles for Northern State in South Dakota. Lindsay Savat, a mechanic in Iraq, is a goalie for the women's hockey team at Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Chris Jaeger, who plays men's basketball at John Jay College in New York, says his fitness as an athlete helped him in basic training and his time as a soldier makes him a better leader on the court.
The common denominator is discipline, according to Winston-Salem fullback Herman Blount.
"The military taught me that," he says, "and I transferred that over to the sports life."
Meet even more veterans who are college athletes at sports.usatoday.com.
February 11, 2008
Pg. 1C
By Erik Brady and Reid Cherner, USA Today
Football, for all its metaphors of blitzes and bombs, is not war. And yet Tim Bailey sees similarities between playing for Mississippi State and fighting for Uncle Sam.
"In football, like the military, you've got to trust the guy beside you," he says. "The difference in the military is you trust him with your life."
Bailey, a member of the Mississippi National Guard, got his first start at defensive end Dec. 29 in a 10-3 win against Central Florida in — fittingly — the Liberty Bowl.
Most veterans who come back from Iraq do not play college sports. The few who do think perhaps they love their games just a little more than their teammates.
"You have a lot of time to yourself over there," Bailey says. "You think about the small things" such as playing football. "You miss those things. And when you get back, you never take them for granted."
USA TODAY, with the help of the NCAA, canvassed the nation's college sports information directors and found more than 70 Iraq war vets competing during this school year. Undoubtedly there are more.
Cale Cornemann, who was awarded a Purple Heart, wrestles for Northern State in South Dakota. Lindsay Savat, a mechanic in Iraq, is a goalie for the women's hockey team at Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Chris Jaeger, who plays men's basketball at John Jay College in New York, says his fitness as an athlete helped him in basic training and his time as a soldier makes him a better leader on the court.
The common denominator is discipline, according to Winston-Salem fullback Herman Blount.
"The military taught me that," he says, "and I transferred that over to the sports life."
Meet even more veterans who are college athletes at sports.usatoday.com.