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Hill reservist moonlights as quarterback

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Crystal Charriere
  • 419th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  He grabbed a uniform from his locker, pulled his laces tight, and felt focused and calm. He always gets the same feeling when he dons his football gear, but there's another uniform the player wears that's far more important to him.

"When I put on my military uniform, I know I did a lot more to earn that than my football uniform," said Airman 1st Class Randy Gordon, 419th Command Post controller and backup quarterback for the Brigham Sting, a semi-professional football team in Northern Utah.

Gordon, or "Flash" as his friends call him, has played football since he was eight years old. He recently graduated basic military training and technical school and is now in seasoning training at the command post where he's taken his skills from the field to the Reserve.

"There are a lot of similarities between football and the military," Gordon said. "In the military, if one person does something wrong, everybody looks bad. When I'm in uniform, I represent the whole Air Force, so I can't go out there and make a mockery of my team. It's the same with football."

He first noticed parallels between football and the military at BMT.

"If someone doesn't do what they're supposed to, then everyone's in trouble," Gordon said. "If offensive guys don't do well, then defense gets mad and vice versa. Football is a team sport. All 22 guys on the field have to do their job right so the other players can do what they're supposed to."

Gordon says the team mentality is the same on and off the field.

"Team camaraderie is probably the reason I like football so much," Gordon said. "It's a lot like BMT. It sucks at first, but in the end you become brothers."

With Gordon's schedule booked with school and work as a certified nursing assistant, he has little time for anything else, but he said he'll continue to serve his team and country.

"I continue to do it because it's not something that I have to do," Gordon said. "It's something I choose to do."

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