McCain Gives Pep Talk to Marshall Football Team
(HUNTINGTON, W.V.) – John McCain stopped by the Marshall University football team's practice here this morning, where he compared the years he spent as a POW in Vietnam to the adversity Marshall overcame when most of their football team perished in an airplane crash in 1970.
"When we didn't work as a team, they broke us down," McCain said as the squad surrounded him on the field. "We were a team and we had leaders. Our leaders were our senior ranking officers. They're the ones that when we failed they picked us up and sent us back into the fight."
McCain praised the "unique institution" and its "courage and tradition of victory," although he failed to mention that this is the first time in seven years Marshall is able to field a full roster because of NCAA sanctions. The university has been on probation since 2001 because of illegally employing players and academic fraud, among other violations.