Ramsey: Today, Falcons aim to smother brother

The Falcons are in the middle of a long, tense football season, and players don’t have time to indulge in brotherly pageantry.

Today, Air Force tangles with Army in another chapter of a service-academy rivalry. Falcon Stadium will be jammed. Many big planes will fly overhead.

“But on the football field,” Falcons cornerback Reggie Rembert said with a shrug, “it’s just another team.”

Rembert, Air Force’s best player, knows today’s game is precious to millions of Air Force and Army followers. He also knows he has a job to do.

It’s the same job he had last week against Colorado State, and it’s the same job he’ll have next week against UNLV. Yes, Army players are part of his service-academy brethren, but Army has an offense to stop.

“You can’t go in thinking, you know, ‘This is my brother,’” Rembert said. “You have to go in thinking, ‘I don’t like them.’”

He has a point. If a defensive back is confused by kind feelings for an opponent, he’s in grave peril. To crash into ball carriers with sinister intent requires a level of disdain.

This disdain is dumped, usually, as soon as the game ends, but it’s a required outlook for 60 minutes of controlled violence.

Rembert and the Falcons will do well to sweep all sentiment from the minds. Army’s Black Knights have been down for years, but they’re showing signs of revival.

This summer, I visited Fisher DeBerry at his home in northeast Oklahoma. DeBerry, who coached the Falcons for 23 seasons, was emphatic about the coming revival of Army’s football program.

New coach Rich Ellerson, DeBerry predicted, would install a dangerous option offense. DeBerry, who adores the option attack with startling affection, hoped for the day when all three service-academy schools would run all the time and win most of the time.

DeBerry roots for the Falcons first with Army and Navy right behind. He’s typical of men who have long watched the service-academy rivalries. He knows only a fine line separates the institutions.

Today’s players don’t have the benefit of DeBerry’s long-range perspective. The Falcons and Black Knights do know coaches and fans will be mad at them if they lose.

Still, many of the current Falcons have a sense of a shared bond with players from Army and Navy. They understand cadets from each school are studying to work in the same business — defending the United States.

“They’re our brothers and sisters in arms,” Air Force quarterback Tim Jefferson said. “We’re going to serve with each other, and it is nice to see when they’re having success.”

He paused before speaking the truth.

“But not against us.”