At the rostrum was Bryan Clay, winner of this year’s decathlon. There he stood, with his Olympic gold medal, giving a poised and graceful speech about God, sports, and country.

And he was followed at the rostrum by Joe Gibbs, the old football coach — who gave essentially a religious speech. An “inspirational” speech. And he said one, funny, terribly self-depreciating — too self-depreciating — thing. He said that he had been a phys-ed major and didn’t know very much. He said (something close to), “You know what phys ed is, don’t you? Ballroom dancing and handball.”

Those are two enviable skills, by the way.