Ten years ago, Steve Erzinger was an undersized senior linebacker at 210 pounds and one of the captains of the Army football team. Yet when he headed into his final game against Navy, he weighed barely 190 pounds.
Hours before kickoff, Erzinger was on a training table in the bowels of FedEx Field in Maryland, hooked up to an I.V. as fluids coursed through his body. He had the flu, but most of his weight loss had come before the illness.
He was not alone among the Black Knights. I had watched one player after another shrink over the course of the 2011 season as they tried to balance being soldiers and students and athletes.