Pat Fallon: “I thank the colonel for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I think it shouldn't be lost on anyone watching that the gentleman is…”

“I thank the colonel for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I think it shouldn't be lost on anyone watching that the gentleman is talking about service and selflessness. We have a colonel who dedicated his life to this country both serving here on the House floor and also in the United States military. One of the greater Americans that you will know, Mr. Speaker, from the 21st century is Steve Scalise, and then we have the coach, Coach Rollinson. We also have Coach Hopkins and Coach Higgins as well. They were great coaches, and they were also great men. It has been said that football builds character. I disagree with that. Football reveals character. Having been a player, that Heisman Trophy was not mine. I didn't get any votes nor did I get invited to the combine, but it was a great experience. My greatest football memory is not winning a national championship for the University of Notre Dame. It is a game that we won in high school that we were supposed to lose by 40 points and we won by 31--literally. I had a Coach Mike Murgo. He had one eye distinctly bigger than the other. He talked like this. He said: I ain't cross-eyed. I just got one eye bigger than the other, boys. The reason why we beat a team that should have beaten us by 40 was about belief. It was about belief. Coach, what you have instilled in thousands of young men is belief. People will say that you were a great coach. Again, I am going to take a little umbrage with that.…”