When I feel the world closing in on me, I write something.

My world is not closing in on me.  But I know some folks who have been going through exactly that.  Best I can tell you is they have handled it with a grace that is only admired by most of us.

Oh my.  There is so much conflict within me when I look at this photo.  Letters put together last school year when we learned that our North Harrison colleague, Andy Pavey, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

On a lovely Spring day last year, we gathered for a WALK that was dedicated to Andy.  I was proud to be there.

Those who know me know full well I am usually not at a loss for words.  Some probably wish I was at a loss for words more often.

This is so hard.

Andy Pavey was that positive fabric that could walk into any room and make it a better place.  Most of us dream of doing that.  Andy was that.

I ran into Andy at an Indiana University Football game in Bloomington this past fall.  That was the best moment for me all football season.  I didn’t expect to see him. When I did see him there, everything else stopped.  I wish I had taken a photo of the two of us there talking IU football.

Andy Pavey’s fight with pancreatic cancer ended on January 21, 2023.  To say he will be missed is only a thimble of this loss.

That conflict I have looking at this?  I am just glad that the place that has never gotten around to honoring anyone by naming a facility or a road or a calculator drawer after any of the venerable legends that have worked for the greater good of North Harrison finally got it right.  They got it right for ANDY.  Lets hope these letters hang around for a while.  They mean so much to so many.

Andy, your kids were in school every day this week.  I was proud of them for walking into my classroom.  I left them alone.  It was best.  You’d be proud.  Thank you.

Danny Johnson

Written as I listen to John Wetton’s  Arkangel album.  

John Wetton was a great singer.  He played bass and sang in many groups.  U.K. was one.  King Crimson was one.  Uriah Heep was one.  The big one though was ASIA where he teamed up with Carl Palmer (ELP), Steve Howe (YES), and Geoff Downes (YES and The Buggles).  ASIA was called a SUPERGROUP.   They were too.  But that didn’t mean the songs wrote themselves.  From the outside looking in, music is just made.  On the inside, making music is something that is worked for.  John Wetton died of colon cancer in 2017.  His last edict to the male fandom was to make sure to get your “guts and nuts” checked out.  He admittedly failed to do that.  Next to Justin Hayward, this guy is my next favorite singer.  There is something in his voice I understand.

Changing the subject…

I did everything I was supposed to.  I have been more careful than most I think.  When the whole Covid scare got here, I was like the rest of us.  I was still more than I am used to being still.  I got my vaccinations.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I volunteered our time at the local Covid Shot Clinic.  I wiped down chairs inside.  Outside, I checked on folks in their vehicles and made sure they were okay after fifteen minutes to make sure they were ready to drive on into the night.

I got every booster known to man.  It is a good thing.

When all this Covid business began I was scared.  My lungs have never been my friend.  We fight more than we get along.  That has been my life.  They took away a football season when I was in the 7th grade.  I fought them tooth and nail as a freshman with an inhaler tucked in my sock at all times.  It was awful.

When this Covid business began I figured I wouldn’t have a chance if it found me.

This past Monday, it found me.

I was walking upstairs at school.  I noticed my legs betraying me after walking as many flights of stairs North Harrison High School can offer.  Then I felt a bit awkward as I walked on.  Something was not right.  This was different.  I know my respiratory system better than it knows me.  I pay attention.  This was different. I looked at my fancy watch and saw heart rate numbers I had never seen walking up the steepest hills behind the house.

That was when I procured a Covid test from the school nurse office.  I didn’t wait long.  A positive response presented itself in a hurry.

So how has it been?  Being home all week since Monday?  

It has been long.  I have been introduced to a sense of worthlessness I have never know before.  Only late this afternoon have I felt like doing anything at all.

Each morning I made myself come downstairs and log on to my computer to send my lesson plans to my students.  Then I went back to bed.  This was not fun.  Not being there is a chore all its own.  A creature of habit is typing these words.  When I am away from that, I am not good.  I miss the students more than they miss me I am sure.

A funny thing happened on the way to Georgia’s butt-whipping.

On Saturday, January 7th, ESPN was running a story about the TCU Horned Frogs.

In earnest, I was busy looking at school work when I looked up and saw this screen.  I had to take a photo of it.  I was beyond sad to, for the first time in my life, see the word “franchise” in reference to a COLLEGE football team.  

I went ballistic.

I put on a Facebook post and a tweet that included the photo above and said the following:

Reflections of light out the door and out the window, just like college football. Schools are now deemed franchises? Keith Jackson had it right talking to Fowler and Herbie the last time Keith saw a Rose Bowl and said “too much coverage” of what was college football’s demise. ( This was a refence to the last time Keith Jackson was in the booth at The Rose Bowl in January of 2017 and lined these boys out.)

The tweet I sent I tagged to Paul Finebaum, ESPN, Chris Fowler, and old reliable, Tim Brando.  Brando and some other media folk retweeted it.  I can only believe that word got out regarding a college team as a franchise.

When Max Duggan was stepping behind center on the games first play from scrimmage, ESPN color commentator Kirk Herbstreit said: “Duggan is the face of the fran…uh..of of the offense.”  Herbstreit fumbled.

I just sat there and smiled.  Sometimes things really do work out.

If I survive this Covid thing, and I think I will, we will keep having a good time.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

The calendar was kind this year.

Usually I am ready to cuss when January 1 falls on a Sunday.  I know what that means. The Rose Bowl will be played on January 2nd.  It has always been that way.  God Bless the folks in Pasadena.  They exclaimed “Never on a Sunday” so many years ago.

Me, I was glad it was another day to hang on to The Rose Bowl as we know it.  And I was glad it was a Big Ten team, Penn State winning over Utah, to win the final Rose Bowl as we have known it.

When I was on The Rose Bowl turf in 2018, I never imagined we would be here.  All I could think about was PAC-12 v. Big Ten in perpetuity.  That is all I have ever known.

I can’t tell you how emotional I was knowing this was the LAST Rose Bowl as I know it.

Next year the Rose Bowl will be one of the College Football Playoff Semi-Final Games.  That means no guarantee of a Big 12-Big Ten matchup.  In 2024, The Rose Bowl will be a part of an extended College Football Playoff and who knows will be playing in the Faux Rose Bowl.

But, I can forever say I was there in the best of times when The Rose Bowl was still real.

Will Schnell was the Rose Bowl Superintendent in 2018.  Will and I talked about the history of The Rose Bowl.  He did not know me before this day.  He grabbed my arm and told me he was glad that I understood, as a fellow Midwesterner, the significance of The Rose Bowl. I doubt another North Harrison Football T-Shirt has made it to Pasadena. Go Cougars!

Yes, Will is a big deal!

Will led me out to the Rose Bowl Stadium Field.  Entering the field, I walked over the corner of the end zone where Texas’ Vince Young scored to win the National Championship over USC in 2007.  Keith Jackson was on the call for the last time.  None of this was lost on me. I remember every moment.

Will and I talked about Rose Bowl history as my Brownstown Central gym bag circa 1978 listened in.

And then it was time to kick.  I did not miss.

Go Cougars!

Thank you for humoring me.  I have no idea how many times some of these photos have made it on this space. I know I never tire of reliving it.  After all, it is The Rose Bowl.

This is my Dad walking through a Rose Bowl tunnel. You have to experience to understand.

He found this.  I am so glad.

Dad and I watched this year’s Rose Bowl together, as is our custom.  Being there changes everything.

GUESS WHAT!

I am sooooooooooo pissed at the horizon of college football with changes in the bowl games and the NIL and the players opting out of bowl games…I have made a WONDERFUL decision!  Staring in 2024, when USC and UCLA being Big Ten play, I will be treating the UCLA and USC Big Ten home games as MY Rose Bowl Games!!

I am looking forward to the Big Ten 2024!

And when the Indiana Hoosiers go to play UCLA in the Rose Bowl, chances are better than not I will be done.  I will move on from football watching to bird watching.

After all, not unlike the Indiana Hoosiers of The Rose Bowl 1968, I have been there and done that!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

January 1, 2015 was the first and only time I watched the sun come up on a new year over the water. This was taken on Hilton Head.

My dear wife, Carrie, reminded me subtly that writing is one of the things that I “just do”.  She broke this to me yesterday morning as I was ruminating over the end of speaktherights.com.

She’s right.  Writing is something I do.  I certainly don’t do as much of it as I once did.  Much thought has been given to a re-do of this space and the pace.  I don’t report here nearly as much as I once did.  I looked at 700 posts as being enough of enough.  I mean, sometimes I feel like I am writing the same old thing over again.  Sometimes that is the case.  Alas, each day brings a new sunrise and a new adventure.  That adventure may be mundane or it may be life-altering.  We don’t know.  I take a leap of faith every day.  I don’t see as much good in the world as I once did.  I am glad I can help young people out now more than ever. We are all charged with pulling the good rope harder than ever.

I heard a lady on TV last night, as I turned away from the football game I was watching that went to commercial.  I am forever guilty of giving the TV remote, which was me in the 1970s, a workout.  Anyway, this lady was in New York and she said she feared that Broadway plays were dying a slow death.  Her reason was that theatre goers wanted to be reminded of something they already know (revivals of old plays and music of groups already known) more than wanting to step out and make their brains work by experiencing and taking in a new play that requires original thought and processing.  Maybe even a little original decision making also is problematic for some.  This paragraph takes the essence of what the lady was saying and I certainly added my sentiment to hers.  She was kinder than I am, certainly.

Perhaps I can relate here just a bit.  High water finds itself in the strangest of places.

I suppose as long as there is a Harbor Town that is waiting out there.

As long as there is a Faith Harbor.

As long as there is a Sprayberry’s Barbecue in Newnan and a B3Q Barbecue in Corydon!

As long as goalposts are up.

As long as kids are still picking up guitars and drumsticks.

As long as there is anticipation as the lights go up on an empty stage.

As long as there is minor league baseball.

As long as there is a football locker room I can find my way into.

As long as I can see this.

From time to time, I will continue to speak the rights or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

Danny Johnson