Caleb Campbell is an officer of the United States Army, so he has no problem when it comes to the concept of sacrifice.  It is his duty to protect and serve his country.  This past week, Campbell faced a sacrifice that at least was a surprise.  After telling him time and time again, that he could attempt to play in the NFL this year and serve his country, Campbell was told that he could not try out for the Detroit Lions.  To anyone who understands military academies, this was not that much of a surprise, but the way it was handled may have been.  Well, maybe not if you had been paying attention.

In the past, there was a 5-year commitment if you graduated from a service academy and that was non-negotiable.  The most popular case in the NFL was Roger Staubach and he waited for 5 years before he was able to begin his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys.  Staubach had won the Heisman Trophy in 1963 and was drafted in the 10th round by the Dallas Cowboys in 1964.  Yet, Staubach did not begin his NFL career until he was a 27-year-old rookie in 1969 because of his military commitment.  Staubach went on to a stellar NFL Hall of Fame career for the Cowboys and the service academies kept their reputation of having their athletes fulfill their military commitment.

What brought a change to the normal 5-year commitment was the case of David Robinson.  Robinson’s father was in the Navy and since Robinson was 5’9 as a junior in high school, no one could have predicted what was in store for David Robinson.  When his senior year began, David Robinson had grown to be 6’7 and unlike his junior year, he not only made his high school team, but he earned all-area and all-district honors as well.  Even with the newfound success in basketball, Robinson chose to follow in the footsteps of his father and join the Navy.  After he struggled throughout his freshman year on the basketball court, Robinson came back his sophomore year as a 6’11 giant and he began to dominate on the basketball court as he led Navy to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in 25 years.  As his performance began to improve, so did his prospects for an NBA career and he began to have thoughts of transferring from the Naval Academy, but he decided to stay.  During his last two years at Navy, Robinson led the team to within one game from the Final 4 his junior year and was voted national player of the year his senior year.  After playing in the 1988 Summer Olympics, Navy let him out of his commitment in 1989 and Robinson went on to have a Hall of Fame NBA career.

These two examples show what the United States Military Academies have done for their athletes.  In the case of Caleb Campbell, he played football for the Army, so this is the first big-time sports story the Army has had outside of the annual Army-Navy game in years.  The problem in the situation starts at the top simply because there was no process for the change of decision.  Campbell had been told throughout the entire process that he would be able to go after his dream of playing in the NFL and then a day before he was to report to training camp for the Detroit Lions, he was told that would not be the case.  Campbell was scheduled to work in recruiting, an area may have been better at if given an opportunity to play in the NFL.  He could have prompted kids who never gave the military a second thought a first thought, but now he is the football player that was told at the very last minute that he would not allowed to try out for an NFL team.  All this comes from the same military that is “looking for a few good men?”  After the Pat Tillman episode, you would think public relations in any case involving the NFL would be top notch with the military, but like the entire decision process, it was sloppy and ill prepared.