Old helmets concealed the brow ridge.

Getting ready for today’s annual Navy Beats Army Game, I spent the morning watching two documentaries about Neanderthals.

It turns out the Neanderthals had some skills, including language capability, and that they beat Homo sapiens to the punch in developing the first industrial process, namely, the creation of mass quantities of pitch produced by cooking birch bark at exactly the right temperature, which attached their deadly spear points to the spear shafts. They had cleverer cutting tools too. Though they failed to invent naval guns and aircraft carriers.

Which brings us to game time. Actually, their DNA was more like ours than we’d like to admit. They had their own Eden, which lasted for a very very long time and was located either on the shore of Gibraltar or the Hudson River.

The scientists have even penetrated the Neanderthal genome. They didn’t have as much facial and body hair as we’ve been led to believe. Many of them may have been redheads. And it’s possible they interbred with modern humans. Can we see their presence in our own advanced and thoroughly progressive human race? Sure we can.

So, just like it was 30,000 years ago, so will it be today. Modern man…

Aren’t they pretty?

..against the Cavemen.

Yeah. Neanderthals were the grunts.

Go Army! For my dad and my granddad. Even though it’s fruitless, bootless, and all that. I. Don’t. Care.