Winning Army touchdown downgraded to field goal after Brigade S-1 review
A cadet rating a field goal? No way.
By Paul J. O’Leary
PHILADELPHIA — Quinn Meretzki entered West Point history in the final seconds of the annual Army-Navy football game on Saturday evening. The United States Military Academy junior scored the winning touchdown to take the Army’s Black Knights football team to victory in the first-ever overtime game in the history of the prestigious service rivalry game.
The academy’s brigade staff, however, had a different opinion.
Maj. Stephen Reiner, the Brigade S-1 personnel officer, announced Meretzki’s winning touchdown would be downgraded to a field goal shortly after the game concluded.
“This in no way takes away from Cadet Meretzki’s accomplishment on game day,” Reiner said. “But a touchdown? Seriously? He really doesn’t have the rank to rate a touchdown, now does he? I mean, he isn’t even a senior yet.”
Reiner, whose awards include three Bronze Star Medals earned on deployments to Kuwait and Qatar, and a temporary duty assignment to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, reiterated how …
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