Navy vs. Air Force: Some Good Natured Ribbing

Every rivalry has its quirks.

For those immersed in the rivalry, it's all the little details that make up the larger rivalry that show up in force on gameday.  Sometimes, these little intricacies get lost in translation when the rest of the country gets a glimpse into the broader rivalry.

For Navy, Air Force, and Army, the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is what the country sees.  And for the last 13 years, let's be honest, it's really come down to the Navy-Air Force game.  While the rivalry on the field is about capturing the CIC trophy and getting an invite to the White House, the rivalry amongst the Cadets and Midshipmen goes beyond just what takes place on the gridiron.

The week leading up to the Air Force and Army games are filled with spirit missions, pranks, and pep rallies.  There are exchange Cadets and Mids at each service academy that will inevitably pull off some shenanigans of their own.  It's a week designed to build camaraderie amongst the Brigade before facing off in the two most important games of the year on the football field.

There's another part of the rivalry though that exists for the viewing pleasure of the public at large, and it's called the spirit spot.

Spirit spots are videos made by students of the respective service academies intended to provide some good natured humor and teasing of the opposing school.  In the past several years, the quality of production of these spirit spots (at least at Navy) has increased exponentially.

Just go on YouTube and search "Navy Spirit Spot" and browse some of the videos of the last few years.  You will find remakes of music videos redone in order to make fun of Air Force and Army (Suit and Tie and What does a zoomie say?).  There will be parodies of commercials such as Apple's Siri, Old Spice, and those unbearable Matthew McConaughey Lincoln commercials.  And you will find instant classics such as last year's We Give a Ship.

For those outside of Navy, Air Force, and Army, these may seem like silly little videos and they are.  Imagine though, what these would look like if say the Iron Bowl showed videos of Alabama and Auburn fans making fun of each other at halftime.  Or if they had done a remake of Wrecking (Kettle) Ball last week in Tucson with UCLA coming to town.  Needless to say, things would get out of hand quickly.  But for Navy, Army, and Air Force, it's just another part of the rivalry.

So, you can have your gifs, vines, and Gameday signs.  We have spirit spots.