I am burning the after-midnight oil on speaktherights.com tonight/this morning.

I am watching the Holiday Bowl.  I wish you could understand how glad I am able to still call this game the Holiday Bowl.  The Holiday Bowl was just that for many years.  Then dollar signs and corporate sponsorship came along and put a sponsor’s name in front of the Holiday Bowl.  This year it is called the National Funding Holiday Bowl.  I have no idea what National Funding is.  I have paid no attention to the commercials.

I am glad this game, played in San Diego,  is still called the Holiday Bowl.  Not the Padre Bowl.  Not the Sea World Bowl…though I think Sea World sponsored the bowl for a while.  It is still the Holiday Bowl.  Be glad, Southern Cal and Swissconsin that you are playing in a bowl that has kept a decent name.  I guess whomever won the “Quick Lane Bowl” will be glad to put the trophy in the trophy case…but talk about a goofy name.  The Holiday Bowl is not the Granddaddy of them all…but it still holds a good name and it still holds some good history.  It must…or I sure wouldn’t be typing these words so late.

The San Diego Chargers are looking to move to Los Angeles and a new stadium, so I have heard.  The Chargers play in the stadium they are playing the Holiday Bowl tonight.  The bowl game has always been played there.

It was December 21st.  The year was 1979.  The teams playing in the Holiday Bowl, the 2nd Holiday Bowl, were the Brigham Young University Cougars and the Indiana University Hoosiers.

Folks familiar with Hoosier football, there are not many of us, can attest that this was the greatest Indiana Hoosier FOOTBALL game of all time.

Heading into the game the Indiana Hoosiers had a 7 win and 4 defeat record.

The BYU Cougars were 11 and 0.  They won all their games.  They were ranked #9 in the country in the AP and UPI polls.

The Indiana Hoosiers won the game 38 to 37.  It was the only time in Lee Corso’s nine year career at Indiana that the Hoosiers made a bowl.  Keep in mind there were probably half as many bowls back then as there are now.  When you made a bowl it meant a little more.  I acknowledge there are players on a 6-7 Nebraska team that would just beat UCLA in the Foster Farms Bowl that would argue with me.

What I remember more than anything about the 1979 Indiana Hoosiers appearance in the Holiday Bowl was that I was so glad that Mom walked through the front door of our house at nearly midnight to find her way to the television to witness the last few minutes of the game with my Dad and me.  The three of us cheered and laughed and had a great time watching the final plays of what for us was history.  Indiana’s first bowl win in their second bowl ever.  They lost the 1968 Rose Bowl to USC and a running back named O.J. Simpson.

So why was I excited when my Mom walked through the door?  Well, in 1979 we moved from Brownstown, Indiana to Harrison County, Indiana.  Mom took a job as a registered nurse at Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany.  Many a night I was up too late waiting for her to come through the door after working her 3 to 11 shift.  She would walk in the door and I would hug her and grab the Raisin Bran and pour two bowls of cereal.  One for her and one for me.

On this December night there was no time for cereal.  There was just time to watch in disbelief as the Indiana Hoosiers beat a top ten team in a college football bowl game.  That has not happened before or since.  I doubt many remember how big that game really was.

The second quarter of the 2015 Holiday Bowl is coming to a close and Swissconsin just took a 13 to 7 lead.  It is very late…but I think I will stay with it.  If nothing else, I can stay with a late Holiday Bowl out of pure obligation.  I am obligated to one of the finest memories of football watching on television I ever shared with my Mom and Dad.  That is enough to hold on to…no matter how late they kick a Holiday Bowl off!

Speaking the Holiday Bowl Rights…

Danny Johnson

Today is my Dad’s birthday.  I am sitting here this morning wishing him a happy one.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I are out of town at the moment.  We will be back home tomorrow afternoon and I will be able to offer a more proper birthday greeting to my Dad then.

I am fortunate.  I have some friends that can’t call up their Dad and tell him happy birthday, let alone sit down with a couple televisions going and watch the January 1 Bowl games with.  We always have a good time.  My Dad is one of the good guys.

So I bid you HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  

Like me, my Dad is not too happy with what has happened to Peyton Manning here of late.  Peyton has been accused of using HGH ( Human Growth Hormone, whatever that is…I have not looked it up and I am not going to) to help aid his healing from whatever ailments he has had that have held up his progress as the best quarterback we have ever seen.

As I said, I don’t know what human growth hormone is.  I have an idea or two based on context clues.  The truth of the matter is I really don’t care.  I really don’t.  There are greater tragedies than HGH to spend time worrying about.

The Peyton issue here is symptomatic of a far greater malaise.  Too much information.  The National Football League is running these gushy “football is family” ads and personally, I think they are softy-influenced ads in the wake of all the concussion issues that have plagued the league of late.  The problem is that the NFL is part of the problem.  Like every other hackneyed 24 hour news-let’s look for the problem and exploit someone no matter what the consequence- network, the NFL is right with them.  There is NFL overkill on the NFL NETWORK.  Their own channel spends time second guessing coaches and questioning players motives…mostly from the voices of former players…and it is all pretty negative in the end.

This type of journalism and this type of reporting leads to lousy things.  Want sweet and sappy, it is there in the commercial.  Want the National Anthem shown before prime time NFL football games?  The NFL will give it to you thanks to an Insurance Company buying the time that provides the song to be shown.  The league would not share the country’s song, if it were not being paid for it.

And now we have Peyton thrown under the bus and pinheads with the attention span of gnats will link him forever with HGH whether they are right or wrong.  One little piss ant can taint one great man’s career forever.  This is a direct correlation to the way “news” is no longer “news” but rumor turned into “news”.  That is what we are dealing with today.  Be it facebook or CNN or FOx News or the NFL Network.  We don’t look for news.  We look for dirt.  And then, when something that is honest to God terrible happens to our country or to our people, folks don’t know what to make if it.  They don’t know how to react.  Their insular ideas of “news” get lost somewhere and they are like deer staring into reality’s headlights.  Their pea-brains, like the deer, don’t know which way to turn.

This is why we have Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.  This guy is a clown.  That is what people want.  Folks are so used to bashing each other that they are taken with Trump and want to run with him and see how many people they can piss off in the process.  Welcome to America 2016.  Hope. Change. Yes We Can (like that or not) has been replaced by the deplorable Rant. Run Down.  Just Watch Me.  And that is dangerous.  That is what we get thanks to facebook, Fox News, CNN, and whatever entity  can be held up and hidden behind.

Peyton Manning is an Indiana icon.  Sitting here near the Hoosier capitol city, I can tell you his influence has resonated and continues to do so.  How?  By Peyton doing good works and not looking for cameras to promote himself in the process.  A hospital is named for him.  His bank account is significantly smaller because he wants to help people.  There is the matter of Lucas Oil Stadium.  Have you seen it?  The place is huge.  It reminds me of Peyton Manning’s heart for football and his heart for being a good person. The House that Peyton built.  Peyton Manning made football in this state.  Ask anyone who’s been around the high school game for thirty years and ask them about attendance and interest before Peyton Manning got to Indiana and placed the game on the map like it had not been in the sixteen years before Manning was an Indianapolis Colt.

Somehow, thanks to the twisted place in time we live, a report from a less than credible source is allowed to be made public…allowed to find its way to cell phones in short order…allowed to be made news on an NFL Network…allowed to permeate simple minds that look for the worst in someone instead of the best….allowed to bring grief to a family that has meant more to the game of football than any other we have ever known and… that is okay?  Wow.  That is some scary stuff.

Speaking the Rights…

Danny Johnson

Being the fortunate soul I am, our house is filled with the smells of the season.

Today I baked chocolate chip cookies.  We smoked a large pork loin out of doors for 6 hours today.  That will be part of dinner tomorrow.

That is just for olfactory starts.

Here in my office, close to where I do much of my speaktherights writing, there is a picture of Jesus hanging up.  He is looking at me.  I like this picture.  His front teeth don’t appear to be perfect,  This gives me even more hope.

In earnest, I don’t know if I want to know what Jesus thinks has been made of the celebration of his birth.  There would probably be a reminder to help each other instead of buy for each other.

More love.  That is what we need.  Seems like we are in the midst of a time in history when folks are not happy unless they are putting each other down.   Chalk this up greatly to the TV news line that has been drawn in the sand.  You over here.  Me over there.  And then there are those of us that are nowhere and our opinions surely don’t mean squat.

There is also a great divide between those with their nose pressed to their cell phones and those without their noses pressed to their cell phones.  Communication is suffering and people in HR departments want to know why and whom to blame.  You can’t always chat and tweet and insta-this and that.  There is a time and a place for everything but I don’t think most people understand that concept.  It is just another verse in an old outdated song.

Our place in history will be looked upon one day by a group that will be smarter than we are and more resourceful than we are and much better to each other than we are.  I think their underlying question will be:  “What were they thinking?”

What do I want for Christmas?

I want more folks to love one another and come together instead of finding happiness in being apart.  I suppose you can’t have it all.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Speaking the Holiday Rights…

Danny Johnson

My dear wife, Carrie, and I are in the process of procuring a gift to give this Christmas.  We are acquiring this particular gift from an old friend of mine.  His name is Chad Phillips.

Quit wit?  Chad is your man.

Sardonic humor?  Chad is your man.

Kind soul?  Chad is your man.

Excellent musician?  Chad is your man.

Discerning voice?  Chad.

Excellent writer?  Don’t read me, read Chad.

Great person?  Chad is your man.

Chad Phillips and I graduated from the same high school in nineteen hundred and eighty six.

Though we were never in either’s “inner-sanctum” growing up, we have always had a mutual respect for one another.  There is a great deal of unspoken feeling between us.  Once in a while you come across a guy you know is good and that is all you need.  You know.  You don’t need to go around prodding for tangible proof.  You have something better than that.  You have faith.  Until he proves me wrong, I have had and will continue to have all the faith in the world in Chad Phillips.  That is a pretty cool thing to come across.  Believe me, this “it factor” doesn’t come easy.   Y’all know I don’t type words like the ones in this paragraph on a whim.

Since I started speaktherights.com last July, folks from more countries than I will visit and people from all over the United States have checked in to read what I have had to offer. If you have taken pause to enjoy a single syllable, you can thank Chad Phillips.  He has a great deal to do with what you read.

Nearly ten years ago Chad Phillips was the editor of a fledgling and now defunct weekly newspaper that appeared in Harrison County, Indiana not nearly long enough.

Chad allowed me to write a weekly human interest column.  I enjoyed it very much.  It was fun.  It gave me a chance to connect with a group of people I did not have a chance to connect with before he made the call and asked me to write the things I did.  Some of those columns have appeared on this site.

Two summers ago my dear Carrie told me I needed to start writing a “blog”, as she put it.  I still don’t like that word.  It sounds like something that would clog up a drain pipe.  I know…I know…it is just me and I need to get over it.   Anyway, Carrie told me I needed to write like I used to write for the paper.  She told me what I knew, that I did not have to have a specific word count, that I could just write whatever.  That sounded great.  But…I can tell you that I still look at my little “word counter” that you can’t see right now and I still shoot for the same 700 words I shot for when I was writing a proper column.  When I finish short of 700 words, I am not a happy speaktherights writer.  Right now I am at 503 and I know I need to wrap it up so I can move on to other endeavors of the day.

Thank you, Chad.  Thank you for taking my columns and rarely touching them up after I had submitted them for publication.  Thank you for being a good guy.

May God bless you and yours this Christmas and always, Chad.

Thank you old bean.  Without you, there may might not be a speaktherights.com

That is speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Are you too befuddled by the warm temperatures we are experiencing these days in Southern Indiana?  I know it is not insulated to us exclusively, the warm weather, but this is where we get ours.  I am amazed at how warm it has been.

Last week I walked a great deal outdoors very comfortably and in reasonably comfortable clothing.  I was not in bulky sweat pants or wearing a heavy coat or anything.  I was stepping it off in casual exercise gear.

Having just looked at a weather forecast for this week, it is raining as I type these words and I suspect we shall get a great deal of precipitation this week, it says we are going to be in 60s all week and on Saturday we could hit 70.  Wow.  This is good news for the pocket book.  This will keep home heating costs at bay for at least a few more weeks…maybe longer.  This is a good thing.  Lat week I saw a wasp flying around outside.  He looked like lost wasp.  ugly as ever and lost.

We are five bowl games into the bowl season and one will be played this afternoon.  Of the 5 so far, I picked 3 of those correctly.  Appalachian State beat Ohio by one lousy point.  Utah beat BYU in the Holy War in Sin City.  Two utah teams playing in Las Vegas.  There truly are too many bowls if we are left with an early match up of two quality teams playing in a less than quality location.

Yesterday Carrie, my dear wife, and I attended the service at unity Chapel united Methodist Church.  It was a grand time.  My Dad was singing in the choir.  They presented a wonderful cantata for Christmas.  The choir sounded great and the numbers they sang were excellent.  I am so glad we were there.

Later in the day Carrie and I went to my Mom and Dad’s house and ate dinner with them.  My sister, my niece, and my nephew were there also.  In fact, the youngsters hopped in the car with me to pick up the pizza we had for lunch.  We all had a good time.

After our meal, we filed into another room to watch my mother’s favorite football team, the Minnesota Vikings.  She is a Teddy Bridgewater fan.  She will tell you she has not rooted for a pro football team since she was a fan of Cris Collinsworth when he played with the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1980s.  She will sit there and watch Teddy’s every move.  When he drops back to pass or decides to take off and run for a yard of two, Mom always throws down edicts to Teddy’s teammates.  “Block for him!”  “Help him ! Help him!”  These are two phrases you can count on hearing when Tressie Johnson is watching the Minnesota Vikings play football these days.

In fact, and I wish I had a picture of it here, she was wearing a newly acquired Teddy Bridgewater #5 jersey as she watched yesterday.  It was a sight to behold.

Block for him!

And…speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

I work at a school.  We have our last day before Christmas Break on Friday…note that I said CHRISTMAS BREAK…I did not say “winter break”.  Newsflash…if Jesus isn’t born, kids would never know of Christmas Break.  So…all you “winter breakers” get over it or keep studying over your God-given break!

As I said, I work at a school.  I am fortunate to do so.  The young people I am surrounded by are a joy.  I laughed heartily with some of them today, as I was helping them through a dilemma or two that came between them and the day.  I like to listen to kids laugh.  I enjoy seeing them smile.  There is so so much that kids are up against these days that folks my age never had to deal with.  I know that is a historically recurring theme.  But…I think things have changed more swiftly from my generation to this one than the generation I dealt with when I was a student in high school.  Perhaps I am wrong.  I have been wrong many times before…but it sure doesn’t feel that way right now.

I went back and forth today with a friend of mine that works in the school I was employed by before I attained my current situation (as Scrooge would say).  Anyway, it is always a delight to hear from my 4th grade teaching friend.  He is a wonderful guy.  He has a great wife and two boys he knows how to appreciate.  That doesn’t always happen.  When it does, you know you have something.  I think my friend knows he has something.  He is smart.

I told him I miss the little ones during Christmas.  I really do.  I now work in a building with students in grades 9 through 12.  At my old school, I worked with students in grades k-12.  We are talking ages 5 to 18.  Needless to say, it was great fun watching and listening to young kids look forward to Christmas.  In fact, as I type these very words, the kids at my former school are having their “Christmas Program” and I wish I was among the parents and community members in that gymnasium tonight.  I feel like I am missing something very important and I am never going to get it back.  That is just the way it goes.

I will give my current school and the festivities of the week all the credit in the world.

One teacher had the wherewithal and gumption to put together a Christmas “playlist”.  She asked the teachers what their favorite Christmas songs were and she put a play list together and these songs are playing during the passing periods in the hallways and class rooms of our school.  It is awesome.  Yesterday I heard my choice.  Imagine how delighted I was to hear The Moody Blues sing “What Child is This?” on the school intercom system.  It was awesome.

Right now I am listening to a Joe Walsh CD.  ‘The Definitive Collection/Joe Walsh” is the proper title of the CD.  What a load of crap.  This is what we used to call “Greatest Hits”.  That is how compilation albums were first put together.  The creativity of the “Greatest Hits” packaging continues.

Now…I must say that this is as good as it gets if you are looking for a Joe Walsh compilation. All of his hits leading up to his awesome recent release “Analog Man” are here.

Back to the duping of the customer by the “Greatest Hits” packaging.

As much as I love The Moody Blues…and y’all know I do.  I will say they are king “cow-milkers” when it comes to Greatest Hits collections.  What am I talking about?

1974  Compilation CD      This is The Moody Blues  2cds

1984  Compilation CD      Voices in the Sky…The Best of The Moody Blues

1989  Compilation CD      The Moody Blues Greatest Hits

1994   Box Set                    Time Traveller   4/5 cds

1996   Compilation CD      The Best of The Moody Blues

1998   Compilation CD       The Moody Blues Anthology

2000   Compilation CD       The Moody Blues The Millennium Collection

2001   Compilation CD       The Moody Blues Collection  2 cds

2005   Compilation CD       The Moody Blues Gold  2 cds

2007   Compilation CD        The Moody Blues  Collected  3 cds

2011   Compilation CD        The Moody Blues Icon Series  2 cds

2014    Compilation CD/DVD  The Moody Blues Polydor Years 1986-1992  8 discs

Never mind all the concert videos.

Yes, The Moody Blues have perfected the art of “milking the cow” and I AM GLAD THEY HAVE.  If that is what it has taken for me to keep watching these guys sing in person, I am all for it.

And I am all for Joe Walsh.  When he is not doing solo work he plays in a band called The Eagles.  Yes, those Eagles.  You have heard of them and you have heard Joe.  I was fortunate enough to hear Joe sing live a couple years ago.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I were in the house as Joe Walsh “opened”, if you can imaging that, for Bob Seger at The Palace in Auburn Hills outside Detroit.  It might have been the greatest concert we have ever seen.  I know it was Top 5.

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

As I listen to a single CD with Dennis DeYoung’s Desert Moon album from 1984 and Back to the World release from 1986, I must take on the charge of picking the winners of the bowl games that start next week.  I will also pick my National Champion.  Those of you paying attention already know I have already placed a mythical crown on the team I think will win it all: AL-AH-BAMA…my apologies to Keith Jackson.

I never thought I would say this.  There are too many college football bowl games.

I hearken back to a Bill Mallory coached Indiana team from 1994, they finished with 7 wins and 4 defeats.  They did not get a bowl invitation. Ole Miss’ team in 2001 with Eli Manning at quarterback went 7 and 4.  They did not get a bowl invitation.  This year there are a few teams playing in bowl games with a 5-7 record.  Indiana is 6-6.  Many teams are.  This is pathetic.  I am a strong proponent of letting the boys “play on!”…but not this way.  Corporate sponsorship and the perks that go along with are in great part to blame.  You will see empty seats galore at the bowl games this year, more so than usual.

Soap box kicked out from underneath me.  On the  the picks.

New Mexico Bowl:                    Arizona beats New Mexico

Las Vegas Bowl:                      BYU beats Utah…Utah bragging rights.  Kickoff at 2:30                                                                   Eastern.  Folks in bed by 9:30.

Camellia Bowl:                         Ohio beats Appalachian State….and everyone goes home with                                                     the dumbest looking bowl shirt ever.  Cameillia Bowl indeed.

Cure Bowl:                                 San Jose State beats Georgia State…No Doze stock jumps 4                                                        points.

New Orleans Bowl:                    Louisiana Tech beats Arkansas State…Ruston folk enjoying                                                          Bourbon Street.

Miami Beach Bowl:                   South Florida beats Western Kentucky….and I hope it is badly.

Idaho Potato Bowl:                    Akron beats Utah State:   Go Zips.

Boca Bowl:                                 Temple beats Toledo…MAC teams are compelling television                                                        according to my brother-in-law.   Boca Bowl?  Microwave?

Poinsettia Bowl:                        Boise state beats Northern Illinois.  I am getting a headache                                                         doing this.

Go Daddy Bowl:                        Bowling Green beats Georgia Southern…Erk Russell would be                                                     proud.  I wish the Go Daddy bowl would go…away.

Bahamas Bowl:                        Middle Tenn beats Western Michigan…seventy people at the                                                        game 78 watching on television.

Hawaii Bowl:                             Cincinnati beats San Diego State…a semblance of yesteryear

St. Petersburg Bowl:                Marshall beats UConn…Herd faithful not pleased with                                                                    opponent.  I can see why.  Go Herd!

Sun Bowl:                                 Washington State beats Miami…. Game is supposed to be                                                            played on New year’s Eve…not December 26th.

Heart of Dallas Bowl:              Southern Miss beats Washington…Heartburn of Dallas.

Pinstripe Bowl:                        Duke beats Indiana…Hoosiers need it worse.  I hope they win.  I                                                   refuse to pick Coach Wilson’s squad to beat a team coached by                                                  Coach Cut.  Never happen.

Independence Bowl:               Virginia Tech beats Tulsa…it ends where it began.  In 1993 a                                                         Frank Beamer coached Hokie team beat Indiana in this bowl.                                                      Coach Beamer has had the VTU boys in a game every year                                                           since.  He wins this one on his way out.  Pretty cool.

San Francisco Bowl:             UCLA beats Nebraska…5-7 Cornhuskers?  Shame on them for                                                    showing up.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Military Bowl:                          Navy beats Pitt…Pitt won’t stop the run.

Quick Lane Bowl:                  Central Michigan beats Minnesota…The Gophers are 5-7 also.                                                     Good grief.

Armed Forces Bowl:             Air Force beats Cal…I can’t pick against the fly boys!

Russell Athletic Bowl:            North Carolina beats Baylor….Injuries have riddled the boys from                                                  Waco and it almost makes you feel sorry for them.

Arizona Bowl:                         Colorado State beats Nevada…Have my doubts I will watch this                                                    one.

Texas Bowl:                            LSU beats Texas Tech…in what should be a good game.  Nice                                                    match up here.

Birmingham Bowl:                  Auburn beats Memphis…and they should in Alabama.

Belk Bowl:                               Mississippi State beats NC State…if the cowbells are allowed                                                      across state lines, the Starkville bunch will head home happy.

Music City Bowl:                    Texas A&M beats Louisville…the stadium will look like a bird                                                         watching convention but that won’t stop the guys from College                                                       Station.

Holiday Bowl:                         USC beats Swissconsin…the men of Troy have a short trip to                                               San Diego.  It will probably be cold in Madison by then and they won’t                                                   thaw out enough to play football.

Peach Bowl:                          Houston beats Florida State…upstarts do well.

Orange Bowl:                        Oklahoma beats Clemson in first semi final.

Cotton Bowl:                          Alabama beats Michigan State in second semi final setting up                                                     back to the future match-up of Oklahoma and Alabama.

Outback Bowl:                       Northwestern beats Tennessee…Pat Fitzs caps off a great                                                             season at alma mater in Evanston.

Citrus Bowl:                           Michigan beats Florida…whatever.

Fiesta Bowl:                          Notre Dame beats Ohio State…in a game the Domers need to                                                    keep gaining momentum if they want to chase down Al.

Rose Bowl:                           Iowa beats Stanford…a determined bunch of corn pickers looking                                                to dash Stanford and the guy that should win the Heisman Trophy.                                                I think the fella from Alabama will win it tonight,  Mr. Henry.  He is                                                 1A on my ballot.

Sugar Bowl:                         Ole Miss beats Oklahoma State:   The year of shoulda-woulda-                                                     coulda for the Rebels.  Hard to believe a Reb team can be                                                             disappointed in a 9-3 season.  I suppose that is a good problem                                                   to have and an indication of how things have improved under                                                        Coach Freeze.

Gator Bowl:                         Georgia beats Penn State…in Coach Richt’s swan song at UGA.                                                   Is he even coaching the bowl?

Liberty Bowl:                        Arkansas beats Kansas State:  Napworthy.

Alamo Bowl:                         Oregon beats TCU…

Cactus Bowl:                        Arizona State beats West Virginia…in a game whose name                                                            seems to have been made with Coach Hayden Fox in mind.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP:       Alabama beats Oklahoma…The Tide Rolls on.  Congrats, Brother                                                Tim.

Speaking the Bowl Picking Rights…

Danny Johnson

Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of John Lennon’s death.  I did not hear or see anything about it on the radio, television, or twitter.  While my twittering is limited, no one brought it up.  And I see a bunch of crap I could do without.

I remember one comment I had for my dear mother, Tressie Johnson, when John Lennon died.  I told her I thought it seemed odd that no one went on about Colonel Sanders death, he died soon before John Lennon, like they were making over John Lennon.

Oh well.  I remember when John Lennon died.  I was in the 7th grade.  By this time I had discovered the “Rock of Chicago” WLS 890.  Imagine that, a great AM rock station.  I am so thankful I caught the end of that.  I stayed with the likes of Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards through high school.  WLS is now a “talk radio” channel.  They played a great deal of Lennon’s 1980 release Double Fantasy before he got shot on December 8, 1980.

Two years ago my dear wife, Carrie, and I spent a good amount of time walking through Central Park in New York City.  I saw the Dakota Apartment building.  I looked at it.  I thought to myself…that is where John Lennon got shot.

When Lennon died in 1980, it seemed as though The Beatles were an afterthought to twelve year-old.  Almost like we knew they existed…but someone my age could only use one’s imagination to believe it.

In 2015, The Beatles seem closer to me than they did in 1980.  I have outlived John Lennon by nearly eight years.  He looked so old for forty, didn’t he?  I have seen Paul McCartney four times in the last twelve years.  The first time Carrie and I saw him in 2002, video footage of the Fab Four was playing larger than life on a few big screens.  I yelled to Carrie…”it all just became to real to me!”  I found out The Beatles were truly real as Paul sang “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

I suppose it is real for me also knowing The Moody Blues opened for The Beatles in 1965.

My group, The Moody Blues, are still at it.  Had The Beatles all lived, George Harrison died in 2001, I have no doubt they would have seized the day and the cash that goes into concerts these days.

I still have my Moody Blues.

I did some kicking of footballs this afternoon.  What was I supposed to do?  I was in sweatpants and windshirt and I was sweating in Indiana on December 9th.  That sounds like kicking weather to me.  I took it easy.  I did not go for a school record.  I equaled the school record in September and I thought I would never get the feeling in my leg back on a permanent basis.  I did not push myself this time.  I kicked from 25 yards out…kicked about 18 of them and hit them all.  Then I jogged around the field a few times.  It had been thirty years since I did that.  It felt good.  It was nice to be back home.  I didn’t think I would ever get back.  Thankful…that is what I am.

My dear Carrie and I are going to watch the original “Waltons” movie/show tonight.  “The Homecoming” was the debut of the Waltons on television.  The kids stayed the same on TV.  The momma and daddy and grandfather did not.  Carrie and I have yet to catch a Christmas show, save The Grinch, on TV this year.  Probably my football watching fault.

Take care…and….Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Upon hearing the news that the East Carolina Pirates fired the great Ruffin McNeill yesterday as head football coach, I was very disappointed.  

As the old saying goes: it will take a special breed of cat to win on a regular basis in Greenville.  They had that cat in Ruffin McNeill.  Come on…we are talking about East Carolina here.  Is it a great place? Yes.  Is it what the college football talking head blowhards call a “destination job”?  No.  Unless you are Ruffin McNeill.  That is where the ECU boosters, I assume they are most to blame, got it wrong.  The next football coach they hire should be announced something like this:  “Welcome to Greenville, the revolving door is there.  We installed it after we got rid of Ruffin McNeill.”

This is what I call stupid tax.  East Carolina will be paying it for some time and as time goes on they still won’t have the wits to admit they screwed up.  The excuse factory will be blowing smoke from the bowels of its boiler…and hot air will be abound.

Know that I am taking this at face value.  I have never been a fly on the wall in Greenville and I don’t know the whole story.  But I have been observant of Coach Ruffin’s career.  I know he was put in a bad spot when he took over for Mike Leach at Texas Tech when the Chancellor ran Leach out as head coach.  You remember, the episode when the player was in a shed.  Why didn’t that boy go to SMU?

I have seen Coach Ruffin at work sitting a few rows behind him and his team the last two times they played in Huntington to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd.  I have always been impressed.  One game was a thriller in 2011.  Remember the Aaron Dobson backhand catch before the first half ended?  That was in that game.  A 34-27 victory for the Herd that, if memory serves, went in to overtime.  The 2013 was a Marshall being Marshall at home…they beat ECU 59 to 28.  Fans I have spoken with from Greenville have had good things to say about Coach Ruffin, just as I suspected they would.

Alas, there are a few rotten nuts in every bag.  Whether they are pee-wee league coaches trying to make every game the Super Bowl for their child or deep pocketed boosters threatening to take their pile of money to another luxury box or athletic directors that are such because they had a hard time coaching or an owner of a pro team that wants to micromanage to the point no one is comfortable and most of the fun is gone, the rotten nut can spoil it for the many.

I suspect that is the case in Greenville right now.  A few bad nuts.

And speaking of Greenville.  I know they moved up to the AAC…the corny sounding American Athletic Conference,  nearly as bad as the moniker that is the C-USA. Conference USA…though geographically that may make a bit of sense…and never as woeful as the Big Ten/14 and their former Leaders and Legends divisions (nothing like a heavy dose of good old wholesome pretentiousness from the Big Ten).

I digress.

Back to Greenville.  Know that I love North Carolina.  Those of you who know me know that is true.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I have spent more time there than any place off of Hoosier soil.  God bless the folks of Greenville.  They are good people.  They have a great venue to play football and they love their Pirates at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and up and down the coast.

You feel there is a “but” coming in here don’t you?

But…it is Greenville, NC.  There are four ACC schools ahead of them in the pecking order from a national perspective.  Two or three of those are ahead of them from a state pecking order…and that may be kind.  And coming from a guy who knows, remember, I am from INDIANA….North Carolina is not a football state.  It is a basketball state.  And maybe football is bigger on campus than it is at the ACC schools.  I get that.  Still…and I hate to be critical, but as you know I will speak the rights, we are talking about a stepping stone and a revolving door of a job for someone other than a guy like Ruffin McNeill.  That and the thing I have really been stepping around here, but I know I need to point it out….we are talking about Greenville, North Carolina.  I may love Eastern Carolina; most very educated folks I know would have to consult an atlas and spend some quality time with it to find Greenville.  Sorry Pirate Nation.  I love you.  I hate what has happened to Coach Ruffin McNeill.  I hope it works for your present and future players.  We often forget about them in times like these.  It is the roll of the dice a kid makes when he walks on campus with sugarplums of playing for a Coach Ruffin for four years and then something like this happens.

I looked at my purple ECU t-shirt this morning.  I had but one thought.  Coach Ruffin McNeill is the last one that should have been made to walk the plank.

On to this week’s speaktherights.com College Football Predictions.

I followed my heart and spoke the rights about Coach Ruffin McNeill

I am following my heart today with my picks.  You want to know who I am for?  That is what this week’s picks are all about.  Tomorrow we will know what teams are in the final playoffs and the other bowl participants will be known too.  It is a shame some of them will have losing records.  Again, it is not the fault of the players.

Temple beats Houston…I hope they will.  I have my doubts.  I will lose this one.

Southern Miss beats WKU…the boys from Hattiesburg are back because they need to be.  They need this game and WKU might be pressing a bit as speculation abounds around their head coach, Jeff Brohm, moving on.

Baylor beats Texas…and Charlie Strong, I believe, is moving out of Austin.

Alabama beats Florida…by 30 pts.  There is already a new pedestal installed in the Football Complex at Bama.  It is waiting to hold up another National Championship trophy.  I am just glad Ole Miss beat them.  A band-aid on a cut is better than no band-aid at all.

Grambling beats Alcorn…This is for you, James Harris.

Kansas State beats West Virginia…I hear Doc Holliday has a 3 million dollar pay Marshall clause if WVU goes after him.  That has got to feel good to the old ego.

USC beats Stanford…Pat Haden handed off a set of keys to Coach Clay Helton on an interim basis after they fired Sark.  Now they won’t change the locks.  Helton is the Man of Troy now.  Good for him.  They don’t need more limelight.  They need a football coach.  They have him.

North Carolina beats Clemson…So I am for UNC.  But…if Clemson losing means Ohio State is mentioned for a playoff spot, I hope the Tigers win big.

Iowa over Michigan State…Back to the Future.  Will be a great game.  It is a shame they are playing this indoors in Indianapolis.  Ahhhh…television.  The team that gets that fumble or interception or punt return or punt block will win.

Air Force beats San Diego State….what can I say, I needed a tenth game.  Go Falcons!

Enjoy the games…and Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

I love the sky.

I enjoy the mystery it brings as it changes so.

Now and again the sky will bring with it a special kind of light that glows and flows in colors no crayon box has a place for….not even the biggest box.

When I travel to work in the morning with my dear wife, Carrie, now and again we will run into a special piece of sky.  We’ll see a special piece of light.

One of my favorite places to look for good light is on a bridge on road that is called “Tunnel Hill Road”.  The name of the road did not change with the times thirty-some years ago when they blasted the tunnel in favor of the bridge.  I suppose it should now be called “Bridge Road”.   Semantics and argument aside, this is what we saw recently as the light caught the rails of the rail road track and ran with them.

The corresponding sky to the Southeast looked like this…

It was truly a sight to behold.

These visions of beauty were much better than the sights Carrie and I saw last Saturday in Bowling Green as we watched our beloved Marshall Thundering Herd lay a football sized egg and presented it to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers as a seemingly early Christmas present.  I said it in the prediction post, take the Herd out of Huntington and you have taken the Huntington out of the Herd.  They play great at home and they have a good shot a stinking the place up on the road.  Bowling Green was a close pin to the nose kind of game.  I was relegated to taking artsy photos because I could not look at the field any longer.

This looked better than the game.

This looked better than the game.

So did this.

That is all I can stand to look at.

Carrie and I enjoyed the sight of a salad and a pizza at the Mellow Mushroom just down from the stadium.  That is where we watched the second half.  It was that bad.

I did not enjoy picking WKU to win.  I also picked UCLA to beat USC.  I picked the Cougars to wrestle the Apple Cup away from the Huskies.  Washington wins.  Those were my three losses for the weekend.  I picked seven game correctly.  In the last three weeks I have done better.  24 winners and 6 losers.  This brings the season tally to a more respectable 111 winners and 44 losers.  I could have done better.

That Pizza was awesome.  I should have taken a picture of that.

Speak the rights!

Danny Johnson