Gregg Doyel is leaving CBS Sports for The Indianapolis Star, but his walk-off shot with CBS is a masterpiece.
It's the tale of Mike Viti, a former Army fullback/captain and soldier, who is currently walking across America to honor every soldier in every military branch who has died fighting in the War on Terror:
There had been more than 6,800 when this former Army fullback started walking in their honor in April, but the sad truth is he knew his journey would last nearly eight months, and that the number would rise along the way. He planned to walk 7,100 kilometers, or 4,144 miles. He hoped that would be enough. He hoped that would be too many.
[...]
Viti carries a backpack. His cot, his daily rations. A hat for when it gets sunny. He also carries an American flag and a pen, and after every kilometer walked -- one for every fallen soldier -- Mike Viti stops and writes that soldier's name on the flag. Every two or three weeks, the flag fills up and Viti presents it to Alex Larson, and Larson gives Viti a blank flag to fill with names of the dead but not forgotten.
"It's going to take about 14 flags," Viti says, "but I'm going to get those 6,830 names on there. They're heroes, every single one of them."
Read the whole thing in full. You won't regret it.
