{"product_id":"9781510730410","title":"Football Fields and Battlefields: The Story of Eight Army Players and their Heroic Service","description":"The 2003 Army football team achieved futility in major college play that might never be equaled, losing all 13 of its games. The squad that took the field on a frigid December 2003 day in Philadelphia for the celebrated Army-Navy game featured only eight fourth-year seniors, just a slice of the fifty energetic freshmen—“plebes” in academy vernacular—who reported to West Point amid the heat and humidity of the summer of 2000, hoping to land spots on the football team.\u003cp\u003eFor most of the fifty, West Point represented their best—or only—opportunity to play major college football. They were bypassed by the big-time football schools that award athletic scholarships, which aren’t available at the nation’s military academies. Making a five-year active-duty military commitment following graduation was a small price to pay during peacetime. But peacetime in America ended only days into their second year at the academy, on September 11, 2001. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose eight seniors, like virtually all of their cadet peers, maintained their commitments to the US Army in the wake of 9\/11. They worked their way up from West Point’s JV football team as freshmen, earned positions on the Black Knights’ varsity team as others left the program—voluntarily or otherwise—and walked to the center of the field for the coin toss before that final opportunity for victory, against the arch-rival Midshipmen. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe football field then gave way to the battlefield. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost of the eight were deployed overseas, serving at least one tour in either Iraq or Afghanistan. One won the Bronze Star, another the Purple Heart. One qualified for an elite Rangers battalion, another for the 160th special operations aviation Night Stalkers. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey took on enemy fire. They grieved at the loss of brothers in arms. They hugged their loved ones tightly upon returning home. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere was no more talk of football losses. They were winners.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sports Publishing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47064494538992,"sku":"9781510730410","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781510730410_p0.jpg?v=1763724753","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781510730410","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}