“You can never pay back; but you can always pay forward”- Wayne Woodrow Hayes
In sports, military metaphors get thrown around way too often. In football, particularly, we’re inundated with verbiage that reflects warfare- Athletes talk about being soldiers, the QB throws the bomb, the game is won in the trenches, ad infinitum.
As Buckeye fans, we’ve even got our “Ten Year War”; which reflects both on a date in time and on Coach Hayes’ dedication to the military and its’ history. Even Nike’s most recent attempt to commercialize The Game is a “tribute” to students who became soldiers- luckily Chuck Csuri helped put things in perspective.
But it can be easy for us to get so caught up in the “verbiage” and forget the real sacrifice that the men and women in the military choose so that we can be free to argue on the internet about our favorite college program.
Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day. In addition to saying “thank you” to the men and women who are currently enlisted and who have served their country, we want to take one additional step and hope you will join us.
One of our friends is the mother of a soldier who was wounded in Iraq, and who’s currently following the Buckeyes while he recovers in Maryland. In her words-
Our son was injured while serving this war. He sustained a head injury and leg injury. It has been a long road for our entire family these last few weeks but he is getting better and better each day with the help our fellow servicemen and woman here at Bethesda National Medical Center.
Due to his injuries we flew to Germany to be with our son, once he was stable enough to fly, they flew him to the states to be here at the National Medical center.
We have a very long road ahead of us with more surgeries and rehab but with the support from our fellow troops, family and friends we will!
Please continue the support and prayers to all of our troops serving our great country.
What better way to say “thank you” to PFC Shonk than for Buckeye Nation to send him some encouragement while he’s rehabilitating? So, with his parent’s permission, we’re asking that you take a minute or two to send us an email with your thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery. We’ll forward them on to his mom, and she can print them off and get them to him.
Again, this is a fellow Buckeye; but more importantly a fellow American who has put his life on the line for each of us. He deserves whatever support we can give him.
Please click on this link to drop him a line today.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
