Larry Johnson, my Dad, still loves football.  This fundamental truth was on display in full voice on Friday night as we were hanging on the fence close to turn three of the running track and football field at Corydon Central High School.  When Dad was pleased with a play’s outcome,  you could hear his satisfaction.  When Dad not pleased with a play’s outcome, you could hear his disapproval.  When he wanted to impart his version of what the players needed to do on the play they just breaked from the huddle to perform, you could hear his advice.  All of it was from the heart and he meant every syllable. Our team, North Harrison, won 43 to 39.  It was great game.

I showed you a picture of him on a wall of my new office in a previous post.

This was actually a gift to him upon his retirement.  A lovely lady by the name of Jane gave this to him.  Her nephew is the one in the picture to the left with my Dad.  It now hangs above my computer screen in my office at the same high school where my Dad was coaching while these photos were taken.

As we were standing there watching the game Friday night, I was thinking about all the ball games my Dad had taken me to over the years.  There is no way even I remember all of them…and I don’t forget much.   As I was there with Dad Friday night, I thought about two games in particular.

Look…for better or worse, I think about decades and what was happening twenty years ago and thirty years ago and even ten years ago.  Well, 40 years ago on August 23, 1975, my Dad took me to see the Cincinnati Bengals play the Green Bay Packers in an “exhibition game”…that was the nominal term for the “pre-season”  back then.  This was forty years ago and the NFL regular season was 14 games instead of 16.  They played six pre-season games instead of the four they play now.

This night was to be the first time I got to see my football hero at the time, Ken Anderson, play in person.  He did not disappoint.  He completed 15 of 21 passes for three touchdowns before yielding to back-up John Reaves.  The autographs I procured from these two as a youngster:  

The Bengals won 27 to 10.  The Green Bay Packers had a new coach that year.  His name was Bart Starr.  Though I did not get to see him play in person, I still remember him jogging out of the tunnel onto the field.  His stride was just like the footage I had seen when he had a green #15 jersey on.  That was a thrill.

The Packers had a quarterback that was starting to see the twilight of a very long football playing career.  His name was John Hadl.  What set John Hadl apart from all others playing the position in those days was that he wore the number 21.  All other quarterbacks wore 10-19 for the most part.  The single number jersey was not prevalent in the NFL back then.  The Cincinnati Bengals did not allow a single numbered jersey until Boomer Esiason came to the Queen City from the University of Maryland by way of Long Island in the mid-80s.  I wish he would have stayed in New York.

Later that same 1975 football season, on September 27th, Dad took me to Bloomington to watch the Indiana Hoosiers play the visiting Utah Utes. This game fascinated me also.  I had heard of the state of Utah.  I had seen it on maps.  Seeing those white jersey and red numbers and helmets with a U circled gave my 7 year-old mind tangible proof that a place called Utah really did exist.

The game was a highlight in a season filled with lowlights.  The Hoosiers finished 2-8-1 that year.  The 31-7 victory would be the last of the season.  A season that saw a long October and a longer November.

In the years since, Dad and I have seen bowl games and pro games and many many high school games.  We went to Notre Dame to see a game a couple years ago.  He had the time of his life.  I had fun too.  I thought I was going to freeze to death.

There is but one destination to see a game left.  I hope one day Dad and I can walk into the Rose Bowl side by side to see a UCLA game.  That is the last place I dream about.  Maybe I should leave it at that.

In the meantime, we’ll go to another game on Friday night and…enjoy…and continue to…

Speak the Rights.  (You can count on him yelling the rights at the game…)

Danny Johnson

Have been extra busy here of late.  So many things going on and I have not taken the proper time to offer any explanation of such.

Today Carrie, my dear wife, and I were taking care of a medical appointments.

One of those was at Floyd Memorial Hospital.

One was at Wicks Pizza.

In earnest, I am very thirsty as I type these words.  This thanks to the mounds of cheese and proper toppings…veggies…that decorated our pie.  I wish I would have taken a picture of this pizza.  There are a few slices left in the fridge.  They might not be there long.

I look forward to the weekend when I can put on a proper post.

Tomorrow night I will be rooting on the North Harrison Cougars as they take on the county rival Corydon Panthers in high school football.

This time last year I did not think that last sentence would be possible.

I am glad things turned out otherwise.  I didn’t know as much as I thought I did.

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

Question.

That is the title of a Moody Blues song that was taken off the 1970 Moody Blues album called “A Question of Balance”.

The song Question was a bit a protest song, I suppose.  I know it has been referenced before as such by the guy that wrote the song.  His name is Justin Hayward.

I have a a bit of a protesting question myself.  It will come at the end of this post.

Know that I would rather be looking out the window trying to find nothingness than sitting here writing this post.  I was motivated by sadness to pick up the speak the rights sign post and write these words.  I had other plans.

My intention was, given that I attended a high school football game last night and am still intrigued enough by the game that it inspired me to bag up my three football and grab my football cleats and my kicking shoe.  My intent was to swing my leg a bit and try to feel good about the fact that I can still kick a ball that passes over the cross bar of the goal post from forty yards, even though I am sad believing I have little hope of hitting one from fifty yards like I routinely did thirty years ago.

After my foray into acting like a kid again, I was going to write a post that was to let everyone know, hence a less than clever title that I am : Still Kicking.

It didn’t turn out that way.  I just sighed heavily as I wrote typed that last sentence.

Moments before I dropped Carrie, my dear wife, off at her building to work, we were listening to a news report on the radio.

We heard that three American civilian contractors were among the dead in a suicide car bombing in Afghanistan.

Carrie and I just looked at each other trying not to believe what we had just heard.  You see, our son, Jarrett, spent time working as one of these civilian contractors after he got out of the military.  He was no longer a soldier.  Given his expertise with helicopters, the fact that he had experienced one deployment to Iraq and two to Afghanistan, and the fact that he is more than competent in being depended upon and trusted, another arm, call it one  arm of a cousin of Uncle Sam,  convinced him to go back and work in Afghanistan as a “civilian contractor”.

Do you remember that lady Tom Cruise had the hots for in Top Gun?  She was a civilian contractor, I would say.  She had  expertise about aviation equipment she could pass along to the soldiers.  Jarrett had that same ability.  He, a civilian, showed the Army guys how to better take care of, and work their Blackhawk helicopters.  He knows them well.

When Jarrett finished his arranged stint as a civilian contractor, he decided he had seen enough of the Middle East.  He did not go back.  Thankfully, we did not have to watch him go back.

During his years of deployment, Carrie and I winced every time we heard the home phone ring.  We would take a breath before we looked at the caller-I.D. feature on our phone.  One time when we were talking to Jarrett while he was over there, we could hear the shelling KA-BOOMs in the background.  I have never been so rattled in all my life.

Jarrett came back to us.  As a soldier… he came back to us.  As a civilian contractor…he came back to us.

Today he tried to call his mother and I think she let the phone ring and ring.  She could not talk to him.  He called me and I talked to him.  What did we talk about?  We talked about his work schedule…we talked about his puppy dog…we talked about his order for what I am putting on the grill tonight….we talked about having a meal together.  He told me he loved me and I told him I love him.  I can do that today.

When our phone conversation was over I was thankful I had this conversation.  I was also just as sad for three sets of parents whose children were trying to help by using the expertise and know how.  Dangerous work?  Yes.  Financially rewarding?  Yes.  Necessary?   You better believe it.

I thought about how I will probably have to look hard to find the names of these three civilian contractors and where their families live.  They will quickly be a news blip afterthought.  That does not make them any less important.

I am left with a couple tough questions.  As I look at how much attention a former Olympic male athlete has gotten for telling the world he wants to be a girl, when I see television ratings soar for shows that depict families that can’t get along to save their lives, when I see political candidates that feed this reality television mentality, when I see professional athletes make millions of bucks for being mediocre players, when I see politicians whom have no idea what education is really about and try to act like they do, when I see…well…you can probably fill in the blank yourself.

Do soldiers ever ask the question?

Am I fighting for this?

I would.  But I would also know there is always hope for a better day.

Speaking the somber rights.

Danny Johnson

Hello Group!

It was on a Sunday 52 weeks ago.  I was sitting in this very chair on the back porch putting together the 2014 College Football Preview edition of speaktherights.com.  There are six such chairs like the one I am sitting in and I did a smart thing early in the summer when I rotated the cushions.  I will be here for a while today sharing with you my views of the upcoming College Football Season.  And of course, I will post my predictions for each week of the college football season and update my progress and my setbacks.  I encourage you to pick some games for yourself.

Know this…my football picks are about winners and losers…and not about point spreads.  I do not and have not and will not bet money on a college football game.  I love the game too much to let that happen.  I have never bet on a professional basketball game either.  No one has ever asked.

My allegiances in the teams I root for have not changed.  I still root on the Marshall Thundering Herd and the Ole Miss Rebels.   I still dream about one day seeing a game at The Rose Bowl where UCLA plays their home games.  The Indiana Hoosiers still have a place in my heart…but I can only find it about two days out of the week and that is usually Tuesday and Wednesday.  The words Indiana and football are like putting together the words Mississippi and soccer or steak and caramel syrup.  You get the point.  It has been this way for a very long time.  I tend to call it the “natural order of things”.  If only these words could fire the Hoosiers up.  I don’t think I have any readers in Bloomington.  Too many basketball fans there.

Lets take a look at the conferences of some FBS members.

THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE

The Duke Blue Devils are reason to give Indiana Hoosier football fans some hope.  The Dukies have won 19 games in the last two years.  Success can be had where basketball is the major attraction.  Indiana does not have Coach David Cutcliffe or the Manning brothers camping out during the summer.

The Louisville Cardinals, another one of my alma maters I can’t bring myself to warm up to, fared well in their first foray into the Atlantic Coast Conference last year.  Bobby Petrino can coach.  He is also trying to make nice with folks in town and that is a plus too.  He smiles sometimes when he shouldn’t.  It looks a little painful for him.

THE ACC ATLANTIC DIVISION

1.  Florida State:  Too many strong horses in the stable for the Seminole to ride on.

2.  Clemson:  Yabba Dabo Do Ball is fun for the Clemson players.  Youtube is coach’s friend.

3.  NC State:  Many of you know my love for the state.  Upsets will be Pack’s friends.

4.  Boston College:  Coach Addazio brings light to land of low expectations.

5.  Louisville:  I know you think this is Papa John Cardinal Pool Hall Hate…it is not.  QB?

6.  Syracuse:  Improved last year.  Tough spot in a tough conference division.  Too cold.

7.  Wake Forest:  Bless their hearts.

THE ACC COASTAL DIVISON

1.  Virginia Tech:  I still believe in Beamer Ball.

2.  Georgia Tech:  The grind it out O by Coach Johnson worked for 11 wins last year.

3.  Duke:  Am I the only one who believes this team can win 9 games again?

4.  Miami:  If the players are together, they could win this division.

5.  North Carolina:  I left them off my predictions last year.  Why is that?

6.  Pittsburgh:  New coach….again.  I wish him luck.

7  Virginia:  Thomas Jefferson would have gone for two every time.

THE BIG TEN

I took some flak last year from some of my Hoosier Football friends…they didn’t reveal their real names.  They took umbrage with my calling Bloomington the safest place in America on a Fall Saturday.

Last week I told my brother-in-law, Hi-ho Steverino, that one of these days we should plan a BigTenapalooza and go to each of the schools to see a game in one season.  He responded first with the enthusiasm that a young man should and agreed that it would be a noble pursuit.  Then he politely reminded me that Rutgers and Maryland are also in the Big Ten…rendering a visit to all of them impossible during a 12 week season.  I tried.

On to the picks…

The BIG TEN EAST DIVISION

1.  OHIO STATE:  Brutus is still at the Big Ten helm.  Stop him and you too can win it all.

2.  PENN STATE:  Coach F took the names off backs of jerseys.  Another tradition will follow.

3.  MICHIGAN STATE:  Sparty is a toughy.  They will lose a couple nail-biters.

4.  MICHIGAN:  Coach Harbaugh is a Michigan Man!  They still have some work.

5.  INDIANA:  Because Rutgers and Maryland also play in this division.

6.  RUTGERS:  Only 3 projected returning starters on offense.

7.  MARYLAND:  Are they really in the Big Ten?  Is that a typo?

The BIG TEN WEST DIVISION

1.  MINNESOTA:  My upset pick.  They will hold on to the ball when they need to.

2.  WISCONSIN:  I hope Bucky steps in a Badger trap.

3.  IOWA:  I gave them the love last year.  Picking them 3 may still be the love.

4.  NEBRASKA:  Could be 1 or 2.  We’ll see how the new coach thing works out.

5.  NORTHWESTERN:  HUGE disappointment last year.  They’ll struggle.

6.  ILLINOIS:  I may be stepping in it here.  Many returning on both sides of ball.

7.  PURDUE:  Pete needs to trade that hat he wears for a bag to put over his head.

I better not give Purdue too much grief.  I may be eating my words after week #1.  Carrie, my dear wife, and I are going to be in Huntington on September 6th to watch the Boilermakers at Marshall.  I don’t think the Herd has ever hosted a Big Ten team…at least not in a long while.

I gave IOWA way too much love last year.  I still like them.

The league that still rules college football is the SEC.  Look at attendance.  Look at records.  Look at the game day pageantry.  There is a word that still matters in the SEC in this world of reality tv, twitterers, face bookers, blogger, instagramers, and other assorted possums.  The word: TRADITION.  In a world that is tilting on its axis a bit more than it did before, in the SEC it is still your way of life against mine.  It’s BAMA vs. AUBURN…OLE MISS vs. STATE…UGA vs. FLA…and this is not going to change anytime soon.

THE SEC RULES COLLEGE FOOTBALL and we all know it.

THE SEC EAST DIVISION

1. GEORGIA:  They might win them all.  O-Line back..,DBs back.  UGA is one happy dog.

2.  FLORIDA:  Could they of wanted a coach to go this badly?  New guy is set.

3.  MISSOURI:  The Tigers will still be strong…but not the rep in Atlanta in December.

4.  TENNESSEE:  Not a believer yet.  Many have them much higher ranked.  We’ll see.

5.  SOUTH CAROLINA:  Talk about let down.  I crowned Coach Spurrier king last year.

6A.  KENTUCKY:  I want to put them higher.  I have lived long enough to know better.

6B.  VANDERBILT:  Tough to win college ball in a town that loves guitars and hockey sticks.

THE SEC WEST DIVISION

I still call this is toughest division in football…college or pro.

1.  OLE MISS:  There.  I said it.  The Peach Bowl debacle leads to the turnaround.  Homer?

2.  ALABAMA:  Sorry, brother Tim.  At least you’ll be ahead of Auburn.

3.  LSU:  Tiger Mike is ready to improve over last year’s 4 loss season.  Les eats grass.

4.  ARKANSAS:  Yes…the Pigs.  They will be ahead of Auburn.  Offense is loaded and ready.

5.  AUBURN:  The War Eagle is in bad shape…he didn’t get fed during summer school.

6.  MISS.STATE:  Old adage…if you can’t say anything nice…………………………………………………

7.  TEXAS A&M:  Should be playing the Longhorns every year.  Is this college football?

I hold true to my assertion of Texas A&M.  They don’t have a single game against another Texas school on their schedule.  Exhibit “A-through Y” as to what dollars have done to hurt college football.  Exhibit Z?  That’s easy…Rutgers in the Big Ten instead of Missouri.

During last year’s speaktherights.com College Football Preview, I picked some Conference Championship Game winners.  We’ll get to those later in the year.

I do want to include my winners of other conferences.

PAC 12: UCLA…Oregon still good.  Bruins will bring shock waves to left coast.

C-USA:  MARSHALL, of course.  Cato gone?  He will be missed but not needed to carry on.

AAC:  CINCINNATI…The Kiel QB will be in Heisman hunt.  His numbers will be gaudy.

BIG 12:  TEXAS…Coach Strong has turned the tide.

MAC:  UMASS…call me crazy…go right ahead.

MOUNTAIN WEST:  BOSIE STATE..who else?

SUN BELT:  ARKANSAS STATE…they go through coaches and keep winning.

Have a great college football season and check back for the speaktherights.com College Football Picks that will be posted mid-week during the 2015 College Football Season.

Speaking the pigskin rights.

Danny Johnson

In his 2012 cd release “Analog Man”, Joe Walsh sings about being an “analog man in a digital world”.  I can relate, Joe.

Here I go touting another disc of music.  You’d think K-Tel had me on the pay role.

On to other matters.

If I hear another personage ask me if I can believe what is happening on the national political scene with Donald Trump leading the polls in the Republican camp, I think I will get in the floor and do a Curly move.  That is Curly from The Three Stooges.  You know when he’s laying on the floor kind of sideways and spins around.  That is what I want to do when folks ask me about the wind bag that is Donald Trump.  Yes. Yes. And Yes.  I can believe this Trump phenomena with ease.

Look folks.  There is a old saying.  There are many old sayings.  And I am afraid we are losing touch with honest, earnest, sincere communication to an alarming degree by losing touch of some old sayings.  Okay, I’m off the subject a bit..but I am not…this will come back around to Trump in a few minutes.

Many of you know I exercise on some equipment in our basement and I watch television as I do it.  Sunday I was putting in my elliptical paces watching the NFL Network.  It was Sunday.  The NFL season is almost upon us and I know most of the NFL Network’s on-air talent are taking time off before the onslaught that is the NFL Network…I tire of it all easily…runs full steam.  So why was I watching?  I had heard earlier in the day that legendary player and broadcaster Frank Gifford had died.  I was hoping to see or hear something on the NFL Network that was worthy of viewership.  I should have started watching my Hill Street Blues box set again.

Frank Gifford was an icon.  He sounded like a diplomat that knew all there was to know about his subject matter.  Respectful.  Fun.  Genuine.  Serious.  When Vince Lombardi died I know that if Frank Gifford had been on the air that day….and maybe he was…he would not have said going into commercial: “When we return we’ll check the temperature around the league as we remember Coach Vince Lombardi.”  That was the poor guy on the NFL said about Frank Gifford, the real King of Monday Night Football.

Check the temperature?  Son, we just lost an icon…and you want to check the temperature around the league?

My dear wife, Carrie, often gets frustrated with me for taking up for sports broadcasters that say some rather obvious, simplistic, and maybe even really dumb stuff.  I have a pat answer for her.  I have been behind the mic calling games on the radio more often than I remember.  I feel I can understand, somewhat.  I always tell her: “Yes, I know he could have done better…but he’s gotta say something.”

Don’t DON’T DO NOT…talk about the temperature of the league when you lose a Frank Gifford.  That is, in the vernacular of my old radio partner, Gus Stephenson, STUPID TAX.  I know I probably have shoes older than the youngster commentating in that lonely NFL Network studio.  I don’t care.  The school of journalism he came from probably took his poster off the hallway display when they heard that.  I hope they did.  As for the NFL Network, they need to do a better job of taking care of their own.

I mentioned this on twitter.  No one could say: “There’s time out on the field, we’ll be back…” like Frank Gifford could.  You wanted him back.  You needed him back.  We need him now!

Back to Trump.

Old Saying:  You reap what you sow.  Biblical saying.  Look it up.

Donald Trump is the train wreck many people want to watch.  He is our actor/politician on television.  He is a reality television star on a very large stage.  Folks who watch the Kardashians and their train wreck on television want to see that on the political stage.  That is why he is so popular.  That is also very scary.  There is a great deal of train wreck TV out there.  Be careful.

Add the reality television candidate to a field of politicians whom have and will have low “approval ratings” until a catastrophe hits the country and folks start looking for leaders again when these folks realize they are the ones who don’t know their butts from a hole in the ground…that would be reality setting in.

There was a feeling of trepidation from some that thought the actor Ronald Reagan would not be able to hold his own.  I don’t think Reagan would look at Trump and say “Well, here we go again…”  No.  I think he would say “Get this clown off the stage.”

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Hello Group!

I almost couldn’t find the “add post button”.  It has been a week since I offered up a post on speaktherights.com.  With my new job, I have been very busy.  I have not been so busy that I could not find some great music…like so much great music is discovered…by chance and me paying a modicum of attention.

You all know I love music.  Recently I found a great collection of music on CD  to listen to by this great duo:

They are Curtis Brengle and Julie Ragins:  The Duo.  Look them up.  Find their music.

Don’t they look like they are having a good time?  Believe me, if you have heard what these two have done with the piano keys and a voice that matches the beauty of the art of Curtis Brengle’s playing, you would know that they are not here to have a bad time.

Music has been good to all of us.

Music has been great to me.

I conveyed some time ago the story of the night I was in the studio recording and my friend, the late Tim Krekel, started talking about a phone conversation he had the night before with Billy Swan.  I looked at Tim befuddled.  Then I proceeded to tell him that Billy Swan’s “I Can Help” was the first song that got my attention in 1974 when I was six.  Tim went on to tell me he routinely played the song’s guitar solo.  He toured with Swan as the song was climbing the charts and Swan was opening for Willie Nelson during a European Tour.  Tim Krekel also played lead guitar for Jimmy Buffett for two stints that lasted some six years.  Krekel’s playing slide on “Cheeseburger in Paradise”.  He also played lead for me.  Talk about a humbling experience.

I have met some great folks in the studio.  Some still here.  Some gone.  Some I hope to work with again.  It is a wonder how sounds can bring folks, whom would normally have a hard time connecting, so strongly together.  As I said, music has been good to us.

Before a few weeks ago I did not know the name Curtis Brengle.  After listening to this CD he made with Julie Ragins, I will never forget him.  More importantly, I will never forget the music he has made.  I wish I would have been in the studio to hear him play.

I knew of Julie Ragins.  I have seen her many times playing and singing with…wait for it…The Moody Blues.  Yes…that band.  If you have read speaktherights.com before, you too have heard of them.

I think it was on a twitter post that I saw this CD..THE DUO…was out there for the finding.  I am so glad I found it.

Julie Ragins has been supporting The Moody Blues on stage for a number of years now.  The Moodies are better for it.  She is very talented.  Her voice is smooth.  Her voice is pure.  Her voice is honest.  Her voice is real.

I am delighted that I will have the chance to listen to Julie perform once again when Carrie, my dear wife,  and I go to see a Justin Hayward (Moody Blues lead singer) solo show in September.  I think she will be there…

Many of you know I work in education.  In the fall of 1996, Justin Hayward released a solo album.  I played it for a class I was teaching at the time.  A 13 year-old girl took it upon herself to draft a letter to “Mr. Hayward” to tell him the class had listened to his new stuff. Unbeknownst to me, the whole class, save one, signed it before it was presented to me.  The young lady said she did not know where to send it to Mr. Hayward.  I sent it to Cobham, Surrey on their behalf.  Nearly five months later I got a hand written thank you note from Justin Hayward.  Many years later, I found out his parents were teachers.

Thank you Justin.  And thank you Justin for bringing along Julie Ragins so I have a chance to listen to THE DUO and their fantastic recording.

A voice and a piano.

I was losing hope that I would find something new to move my musical soul.  I found it in Curtis Brengle and Julie Ragins.  They bring us a piano and a voice to enjoy.  Pure and straightforward.  No overdubbing.  Who needs bombastic effect when you have a voice like Julie’s to fill the room with light and shade.

Thought I don’t skip a single track as I am listening, I take the time to listen to “love me still” over and over again.  I take the time to listen to the traditional “danny boy” like it is the first time I have heard it.  Their take on “walkin’ after midnight” is fresh and quite creative.  Their arrangement of “someone like you”, the lead track,  will hook you in a hurry.

I need to stop there.  You need to find out for yourself.

I liken my discovery of “THE DUO” to my discovery to The Moody Blues.  That was the day I was in a large department store in 1983…I was 15…and found a cassette of “Days of Future Passed”.  I looked at it and saw the words “Nights in White Satin”.  So…this is the group that sings that song, I thought.  And then three years later I was a senior in high school listening to “Your Wildest Dreams” and going to the first of many Moodies concerts.

Well…thirty years later I am back at my old school.  This time I am a school counselor.  With no new Moodies album on the horizon, I am thankful I found Curtis Brengle and Julie Ragins.  THE DUO indeed.  Oh, the best thing for them…they are husband and wife and they can make this music for the rest of us.  Find them at: www.theduosong.com.  You won’t be sorry.  You’ll thank me.

Speaking THE DUO rights…

Danny Johnson

John Smoltz was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  As is the custom at a hall of fame ceremony, the honoree is given the chance, providing he is alive and well, to say a few words about whatever comes to mind with regard to the glorious event.

John Smoltz took a few cuts at the plate (bad analogy given he was a pitcher) during his acceptance speech to ask parents to let kids play multiple sports if they want to.  I say Bravo!

For some reason, at the highest level I am sure there is a trail of money, coaches and parents have become of a mind that kids need to focus on one sport way too often.  This is ludicrous.

Why do I believe this is ludicrous?  Easy:  Kids need to take advantage of their chances to experience whatever game they want to play.  I have a friend that went to high school in the 1970s.  He was not a great athlete…but he was a very good one.  He was very competitive.  If you were playing checkers he would hope you would cut your finger on the board.  This guy also played and lettered in the following sports in high school:

Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Track and Field.  He was very good at every single one of them.

He did not have a basketball coach that was penciling in his future starting lineup when they was in the fifth grade.  The coaches understood the concept that not all kids grow at the same stage and the kid that was gangly and awkward in the 7th grade may grow into his feet and have promise at the sport he wants to play when he is seventeen.  Not anymore.

Coaches are to blame to a certain degree.  Know this…coaching high school sports is demanding.  You put a great deal of your livelihood on your belief that a sixteen year-old will hang on to a football that is thrown from a seventeen year-old.  That by definition yields you, as a coach, a little crazy yourself.  But…you love the game.  You want to share the game.  Sometimes the game gets the best of you.

I know a high school baseball coach that once talked a promising multi-sport athlete out of playing other sports because the coach told him he thought he had the potential to be a  draft pick of New York Mets.  Hogwash.  The coach just wanted to use the kid as a pawn in some power play.  The kid was a bargaining chip to show off to other potential players that felt they too had to make some tough decisions only to figure on one sport exclusively and then getting burned out on said sport because they did not turn out to be as good at it as the nut-ball coach advertised.

Where did that leave the coach?  Still coaching and feeding his line of bull to another gullible kid.

Where did that leave the kid?  Regretting his choice.  Hating his coach.  And missing out on many great memories he could have made playing other sports too.

It happens all too often.

That is one great thing I like about a very successful high school football coach from my area.  He encourages his players to play other sports.  He wants them to be active.  He wants them to experience teamwork in more than one forum.

He knows what I know.  We know what those trying to hustle kids into playing one sports know too, even though the hustlers try to deny it.

If a player has the God-given ability and the desire to do so, he will play at the next level.  The rest of the boys filling out the rosters and serving as scrimmage vests on these “travel teams” are the ones being snookered.  There… we did all this without me ranting about the Dads that push their kid to be the athlete they wanted to be.  Pass the Rolaids.  I’m gonna be sick.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson