President-elect Donald Trump to attend Army-Navy game

ByMARK SCHLABACH
December 6, 2016, 3:41 PM

— -- President-elect Donald Trump will attend Saturday's? Army- Navy?football game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, a U.S. Naval?Academy spokesman confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.

Like past U.S. presidents who have attended the game, Trump is expected to honor the longtime tradition of sitting on Army's side of the field in the first half and moving to Navy's side in the second in a symbol of neutrality.

President Barack Obama attended the game in 2011, when Navy beat Army 27-21 at FedEx Field outside Washington, D.C. Obama attended the game with Vice President Joe Biden and Biden's wife, Jill. Obama tossed the coin at the start of the game, visited wounded soldiers and their families and appeared on the CBS broadcast during the game.

"They're the best we have to offer," Obama said at the time.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to attend the Army-Navy game in 1901. According to the U.S. Naval Academy, nine different Presidents have attended the game a total of 19 times. Harry S. Truman attended the most Army-Navy games, going to seven straight from 1945 to 1951. President George W. Bush attended in 2001, '04 and '08.

Navy will be looking to extend its winning streak over Army to 15 consecutive games. The Midshipmen won 21-17 in Philadelphia last season, scoring the winning touchdown on Keenan Reynolds' 50-yard pass to Jamir Tillman with 5:51 left. The Black Knights are 9-8-2 when a president attends the game, but Navy has won the last three times it occurred.

Both teams come into Saturday's game with winning records -- the Black Knights are 6-5 and the Midshipmen are 9-3 -- for the first time since 2010.