Eckel's return raises issue of athletes' role, rules at Navy

Kyle Eckel returns to the neighborhood tomorrow night as a member of the New England Patriots.

[Nothing to write about]

well then, re-hash the academy's dirty laundry...nothing new here, nothing profound, nothing worth anything, nothing we all haven't seen before. If its a slow news day, you should sell some advertising to fill this slot.

[USNA7307]

agreed. i don't know what good this article is really showing. you're mentioning only a very small (2 players) portion of a very large scope of STUDENT athletes at one of the nations toughest institutions. please refrain from writing article in the future that don't reflect on the true quality of a program just because it is now succeeding.

[Melinda]

Wow! Have you been hanging out with that Olson kid who tried to create a steroid scandal where there wasn't one? Did you check to see what those transfer rates are outside the football program? How does it compare to the other academies? Two players out of a few hundred doesn't seem like many to me.

[USNA Ancient]

Excellent article with a couple of reservations.

In fairness I don't think Eckel's and Tomlinson's cases are eqivalent. While I don't necessarily agree with Jason's decision I respect it if his stated reasons are the actuality. It takes a tremendous amount of intestinal fortitude to face the pressure such a decision arouses ... from classmates, staff, friends and family.

That said, it's a little disturbing that the sheer numbers don't find their way into your evaluation ... how many football players have gone through the Academy and into the service, as opposed to how many have gone directly -or indirectly for that matter- into pro ball [coaches don't count, even though there was only one at least relatively recently]? You cite 12; I can't think of that many off hand [but at my age that's not to be unexpected]... Bob Reifsnyder comes immediately to mind ... most of the others served, some albeit under special circumstances. I would hazare a guess that -percentage wise- we're talking maybe .001 % or less ?