The NCAA has gotten so ham-handed about pushing progressive politics that I’ve pretty much blown off college football altogether. But at 3 today on CBS there’s one patriotic Americanos can trust.

It’s the Army-Navy game, with all the tradition and celebration of patriotism that go with it. Navy has a serious winning streak going, but you never know what will happen in this one.

Football purists might complain that the level of play isn’t as high in this match-up as it is between other college powerhouses. And there’s something to this. Cadets and midshipmen, after all, are not selected first and last for their football skills. But there are compensations, even above the fact that these are disciplined and capable young men committed to serving their country. Consider:

1. Every man on both sides of the line this afternoon can spell his name the same way twice in a row.
2. No one on either team will have to get permission from his probation officer to leave the state for the game.
3. And, a new benefit added just this year, no player will take a knee during the National Anthem, give the black power salute after it, or in any other way ham it up about what an awful place America is.
4. And these fine young men, after their academy days are over, will spend years, to coin a phrase, guarding us while we sleep. And this not for the millions showered on tattooed NFL malcontents, but for the pay of an ensign or a second lieutenant. Considerably less.

Go Army and Navy, without which services there could be no America.