One of the most historic rivalries in sports is coming to Foxborough.
According to Joe Kayata of NBC 10 WJAR, Gillette Stadium has won the bid to host the 2023 Army-Navy Game. The game is scheduled for Dec. 9, 2023, in its usual spot on the calendar as the final regular-season game of the college football season.
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This was the third time the Kraft Group had bid for the game. New England beat out six other finalists, according to Kayata: Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Philadelphia; and New Jersey.
The Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen have met 122 times since their first meeting in 1890, including every year since 1930. Navy leads the all-time series, 62-53-7.
The overwhelming majority of Army-Navy Games (89 of them) have been played in Philadelphia. Sixteen have been played in either New York City or just outside New York in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Six have been played in Baltimore, four at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and three at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
The game has ventured outside New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Maryland just twice before -- to Chicago in 1926 and to Pasadena, California in 1983. The 2022 game will be played in Philadelphia.
According to Kayata, the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence will serve as the home base for more than 4,000 Midshipmen making the trip from Annapolis. Army would drive over from West Point the day of the game. Boston would serve as the headquarters for game events.
The Patriots have several ties to the Army-Navy Game, especially the Navy side. Bill Belichick’s father, Steve, was an assistant coach at Navy for more than 30 years, while long snapper Joe Cardona is a Navy grad and an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
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