Our theme of this week has been sacrifice. I think very fitting as you go ahead and look at we're on the eve of Patriot Night and everything that it truly has become. We will have two flyovers tomorrow. We will have service members from every different branch: firefighters, first responders, EMS, police officers. So how fitting again that is the theme of sacrifice.

Four Days, Four Stories: Murphy, Doss, and Operation Red Wings

On Monday we talked about Audie Murphy, all right, and the sacrifice obviously that he gave in World War II. All right.

On Tuesday we talked about Desmond Doss, all right, the Battle of Okinawa, Hacksaw Ridge, and everything he did as a conscientious objector, not carrying a weapon into combat, but still saving 75 people.

On Wednesday we talked about Lieutenant Michael Murphy. All right, part of Operation Red Wings that never made it home again. Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor, was the only one who did make it home from that travesty.

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The Man Who Saved 2,500 Lives in the South Tower

The last but not least that we talked about before we came off the field today was Mr. Rick Rescorla. All right, I didn't know him even growing up. He has a lot of fame, being from New York, me being from New York. But again, to rehash, I know they've heard it, but so you can hear it, a 62-year-old Vietnam veteran. He was the head of security in the South Tower for Morgan Stanley on 9/11. He was around for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and said, "We need to practice drills on the regular," because he had a gut feeling that something could — and it did — happen again that day.

He saved personally. He is credited for saving 2,500 lives, where he had a bullhorn and he was ushering people down out of the South Tower. His last trip in, he never made it out. Morgan Stanley, out of 2,600 give or take people that were in their business in the World Trade Center that day, only 17 died. Thanks to him being the head of their security.

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Today's Story: Drownproofing and Navy SEAL Commander Andy Stump

All right. So today, our last story of sacrifice. And those of you that know me know I'm an avid reader. I think Coach Ippolito asked me one time. He goes, Bill, how much stuff can you read about the military? How much stuff can you read about leadership? And I can't get enough of it.

The book that I'm currently in the middle of is called Drownproof. All right. Does anybody know what drownproofing is in pool comp for a Navy SEAL? All right. It sounds scary, and it is. Don't get me wrong. Having a couple of people that I know of that have gone through it and heard them tell me about it. Your hands are tied behind your back, and your feet are tied together. And you are put in a nine-foot pool where you are set to become a giant human bobber.

It is your way to fight through how hard it is to have minimal oxygen, to not hit the natural animalistic panic button that you have in your mind. It's how can you think under pressure? How can you breathe and compose yourself under pressure?

Anyway. His book is about eight life lessons that he took from drownproofing, the individual, and the excerpt I'm going to read is from his book. He's a 17-year veteran, Navy SEAL commander, Andy Stumpf. All right. And in his book, it's not the eight lessons I want to share with you, but more so than that, it is a few pages. So bear with me on this, that are about sacrifice.

You Were Born Into the Longest War We've Ever Fought

And I think on the eve of Patriot Night, it really hits home because you guys were born during the global war on terror. Your parents and I and coaches and I experienced it firsthand when it came home to us on 9/11. It is the longest war that we have ever fought as a nation, and because of that, it has been politicized. It has been condescended upon, it has been discussed, it has been raked over the coals, it has had everything positive and everything negative that could be said about anything.

But the perspective I want to put it in is just that the sacrifice that individuals go through and why they do it. Specifically, Andy Stump, his Navy SEAL friends, as well as anybody else who has served. So again, please bear with me. These are his words from his book. They are not mine.

In Andy Stump's Own Words: "They Don't Know America"

In a country that most would struggle to find on a map, in a compound that few possess the courage to enter, men from my previous life took the fight to our enemy. In that compound, they found men who pray five times a day for our destruction. Those men don't know me. They don't know you. They don't know America. They don't understand our compassion, our freedoms, our tolerance. I know it may seem as if those things are currently missing in our country, but they remain, and I know they will return. Our capacity for them is boundless, and is only dwarfed by their hatred for you.

They don't care about your religious beliefs. They don't care about your political opinions. They don't care if you sit on the left or the right, liberal or conservative, pacifist or warrior. They don't care how much you believe in diversity, equality, or even freedom of speech.

"I Don't Wish Those Experiences on You, But I Wish You Had Them"

I'm sorry that you all have never smelled the breath of a man who wants to kill you. I am sorry that you have never felt the alarm bells ringing in your body, the combination of fear and adrenaline as you move toward the fight instead of running away from it. I am sorry that you have never heard someone cry out for help, or cried out for help yourself, relying on the courage of others to bring you home. I am sorry that you have never tasted the salt of your own tears as you stand at a flag-draped coffin, burying men you were humbled to call your friends.

I don't wish those experiences on you, but I wish you had them.

Ideas Are Not Protected by Words — Blood Protects Them

It would change the way that we all act. It would change the way you value. It would change the way you appreciate. You become quick to open your eyes and slow to open your mouth. Most will never understand the sacrifice required to keep the men from that compound off of our doorstep, but it would not hurt for you to try. It would not hurt for you to take a moment to respect the sacrifices that others make on your behalf, whether they share your opinions or not. It would not hurt you to take a moment to think of the relentless drain on their family, their friends, and their loved ones that they left behind.

Ideas are not protected by words. Paper may outline the foundation and principles of this nation, but it has been the blood that protects it.

Saying Thank You Is Not Enough. You Have to Live It.

In that compound, a man that you have never met gave everything he had so that you have the freedom to think, to speak, and to act however you choose. He went there for all of us, whether you loved him or hated him, or what he stood for. He went there to preserve the opportunity and the privilege to believe, to be, and to become what you want.

This country. Every single person living inside of its borders and under the banner of its flag owes that man. We owe that man everything. We owe him the respect that his sacrifice deserves. Saying thank you is not enough. We send our best and we lose them in a fight against the worst that this world has to offer.

If you want to respect and honor their sacrifice, it needs to be more than words. You have to live it. Take a minute and look around. Soak in all of it — the good, the bad, and the ugly. You have the choice every day as to which category you want to be in, and in which direction you want to move toward. You have that choice because the best among us, the best we have ever had to offer, fought, bled, and died for it. Don't ever forget it.

Nine Years of Patriot Night: This Is Our Thank You

On tomorrow evening, I want you to look up and down those sidelines, and I want you to think about those words. Truer words have never hit home in the nine years that we've been hosting Patriot Night.

It took me nine years to find it, but this is what our thank you is: Patriot Night for those individuals — not just the ones that have been overseas and returned, but the ones that have never come back, and the ones that do it on the home front while those individuals are gone.

As you shake their hands, think about that tomorrow night.

That's the ultimate sacrifice.

The passage above is read from Drownproof by Andy Stumpf, 17-year Navy SEAL veteran.