RIDING HIGH Drayton, left, and McDuffie spent 13 days in Afghanistan along with a quartet of Miami Dolphins cheer- leaders. The for- mer Nittany Li- ons both played for the Dolphins and jumped at the chance to show their ap- preciation to sol- diers stationed overseas.
Photo courtesy of O.J. McDuffie
community outreach department. A year ago, when Drayton's boss asked if they were interested in traveling to U.S. military bases, both men were eager. Their first trip, 10 days long, started at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, and they eventually ended up visiting soldiers in Bosnia. On that trip, they
played a lot of flag football, and Drayton learned that he didn't need to know any Croatian words to coach a team of Croa- tian solider/players. All he needed was a quarterback who spoke a few words of English and a lot of hand signals. "It was funny how they were doing ex- actly what I was telling them to do,"
Drayton said. "What it taught me is that sports is one of the few universal lan- guages." One unscheduled stop was memorable,
too. The players were eating lunch at a food court in a mall when a man who was trying to put together a football team introduced himself. Drayton and McDuffie
