Next time you wonder whether we make too much of sports in this country, do yourself a favor: Go talk to a combat veteran.
Talk to someone like Sgt. James Norris of the Army's 104th Cavalry, one of three wounded vets from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington invited to watch the Ravens practice in Owings Mills on Wednesday.
Norris, 46, served two tours in Iraq and survived 11 attacks from rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs.
"I was an IED magnet," he said, sitting in the warm sunshine holding a football. "My legs are a mess. I think I broke the record for getting wounded."
But on this day, Norris, a bear of a man at 6 feet 6 and 240 pounds, was smiling. A rabid football fan, he was watching an NFL team practice for the first time and looking forward to meeting some of the players he had watched from thousands of miles away.
"I don't think people appreciate what sports does for soldiers," he said. "It gives us something to look forward to."
This was especially true in Iraq, he said, in the anxious moments before a firefight or a night patrol, when amped-up troops needed something to break the tension.
"Right before a battle, everyone's totally focused," he said. "Then someone will say, 'Hey, anybody got the score?' You don't want to think about your family and get emotional. So you think about sports to take your mind off it."
So here they were, far from the war, watching the Ravens and talking on a hot and muggy June morning in Owings Mills about the teams they follow.
Norris, a Philadelphia native, is a big Eagles and Phillies fan. Spc. Charles Wood, 32, of the 10th Mountain Division, who suffers from combat-related seizures, is from Baltimore and a huge Ravens and Orioles fan.
And Cpl. Matt Jordan, 21, with the 4th Infantry Division, right leg pock-marked with scars, grew up in New Hampshire and worships the holy New England trinity of the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics, but not the Bruins.
All recalled watching NFL games at 2 in the morning in Iraq because of the time difference, and feeling that sports were the universal connection among the troops.
"You go to the chow hall and [ESPN's] SportsCenter is on," Wood said. "And it's on all day long."
Jordan said he was in Kirkuk when he first heard about the season-ending injury to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs last season.
