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.

Now that training camps are starting all across the NFL, predictions are being made about this season. Most people are picking the Patriots to win the AFC again since their offense was the best of all-time last season. Some think the Chargers are going to break through since they now believe in Philip Rivers and Norv Turner. Some believe Jacksonville will take that next step and be the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl. All of these predictions, but everyone seems to be forgetting about the Pittsburgh Steelers and this could be the team to watch for in the AFC.

At first glance, one could make the case that the Steelers not only are not one of the top contenders in the AFC, but they may not even be the best contender from the AFC North. Many believe the Cleveland Browns will be the best team in the AFC North. The Browns have spent a lot of money on players such as Donte Stallworth and Shaun Rogers while the Steelers never spend a lot of money in free agency. The problem is the Steelers are not going to make a ton of moves, but they are always solid in player acquisition and the draft, which could keep them on top of the AFC North.

The talent on the Steelers is deep and talented. Ben Roethlisberger was arguably the second-best quarterback in the league last season. Willie Parker rushed for more yards in the AFC than anyone not named LaDainian Tomlinson. Santonio Holmes established himself as a big-time receiver and could become the top wideout since Hines Ward is getting up in years. Heath Miller is quickly becoming one of the top tight ends in the league. In other words, the Steelers have a ton of offensive weapons and if you add their draft picks like Rashard Mendenhall or Limas Sweed, the depth on the offensive side of the football looks as good as any.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers have been good, the consistent strength of the team has always been their defense. Last year, they were one of the best in the NFL and they should be again this season. They seem to just keep a stockpile of linebackers - last year James Harrison replaced Joey Porter and was the team’s MVP and a Pro Bowler. They hope the same can happen for LaMarr Woodley who will be replacing Clark Haggans this season. Haggans, Harrison and Woodley could have the Steeler fans talking about the old “Blitzburgh” days with Kevin Greene and Greg Lloyd over a decade ago because of their ability to get to the quarterback. The defense, however, will need healthy seasons from safeties Troy Polamatu and Ryan Clark because when they went down, the defense fell apart at the end of the season.

The end of the last season should be the rally cry for the Steelers this season if they need any motivation. The Steelers lost 4 of their last 5 games, including a playoff loss in Pittsburgh to Jacksonville that the city has been talking about for the last 6 months. People forget that this team was 9-3 with the best defense in the league at the beginning of the month of December, but could not stop anyone the last 5 games. Do not expect that to happen again and expect the Steelers to make a serious noise in the AFC in the playoffs this time.

You go across the country and there is a lot of respect for Donovan McNabb.  He has been the leader of the Philadelphia Eagles since 1998 and the Eagles has been one of the best organizations in the NFL ever since.  McNabb has always handled himself with grace and always seem to have exceptional poise in almost every situation.  The only thing that he has not done for the Eagles is win a Super Bowl, something that has caused him grief in the one place where McNabb does not have considerable respect.  That place is Philadelphia.

The city of Philadelphia is one of truly sports-crazed cities in this country.  No city loves their sports or their teams more than Philadelphia.  This does not mean that they show their teams love at all times.  In fact, quite the opposite is true in Philadelphia, where their fans are known to be some of, if not the toughest in all of the country.  No team in Philadelphia gets as much tough love as the Eagles and the person who has been at the center of it all in the last decade has been Donovan McNabb.

One could argue that McNabb’s opening minutes, as a Philadelphia Eagle were the most difficult of any since he has been in the league.  The Eagle fans booed when McNabb was the #2 pick in the 1999 draft for the Eagles.  They wanted the Eagles to draft Ricky Williams and McNabb was determined to make those who booed him eat their words.  After a rookie season that saw him become the first rookie to start at quarterback for the Eagles in almost a decade, McNabb led the Eagles to the playoffs for the first time since 1996 and was the MVP runner-up (to Marshall Faulk) in the Associate Press voting.  The next season, McNabb became the fourth Eagle quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards in consecutive seasons and led the Eagles to their first NFC Championship Game since 1980 before they lost to the St. Louis Rams.  In 2002, McNabb broke his leg in week 11 and somehow made it back for the playoffs and again, led them to the NFC Championship Game, this time losing to Tampa Bay in Philadelphia.

You would think that resurrecting the Eagle franchise would be enough to give him the proper respect around the league, but this was not the case.  Early in the 2003 season, Rush Limbaugh, then a commentator on ESPN, said that Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.  Again, McNabb led the Eagles to a third consecutive NFC Championship Game, but the Eagles lost again and thus McNabb became the first quarterback to lose three consecutive NFC Championship Games since Danny White (1980-82).  McNabb’s name began to be associated with the word, “choke” but most observers agreed that McNabb had the worst group of wide receivers in the league - this and most everything else was about to change.

The Eagles improved their wide receivers considerably with one move that brought Terrell Owens to the Eagles.  McNabb and the Eagles took off with this one move.  McNabb became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 30 or more touchdowns (31), have less than 10 interceptions (8) and led the Eagles to a 13-3 record, their best ever in a 16-game period.  This time when the Eagles made their fourth consecutive NFC Championship Game, the Eagles won, and McNabb finally got his Super Bowl berth.  Unfortunately, the Eagles lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl and the blame went to McNabb, but the craziness had just started.

The next season, Owens wanted more money and suddenly, he and McNabb, were at odds.  The story was the most popular in the league and led to Owens being suspended; McNabb got hurt for the season and the Eagles missed the playoffs.  Owens was let go, McNabb took the most responsibility again and even the Eagles made the playoffs - the Eagle fans had again turned their back on the man who had been at the center of the Eagles’ success in the last decade.  With all of his success, his detractors only point to his inability to win the Super Bowl and thus, McNabb could be in his last season as an Eagle.  This indeed would look bad to most, but would probably be ideal for Eagle fans, who have seemed to sour on McNabb, which is quite frankly a sad ordeal.