I am embarrassed to say that when I got off the elliptical after 32 minutes and then hopped on the stationary bike for a mile, my feet felt great.  It has not worked out like that since last November 19th.  That is when I bought a new pair of athletic shoes that I wear both casually and to exercise in.  I have a few pairs of them I can put to use.  Or, should I say, I had.  I am going to have to start collecting again.

The old foot has gotten wider.  Is that what happens when you turn 50?  I felt like a fool while I did my exercising pain free in the foot today.  I am stubborn I suppose.  But, most of us are.

I went to my trusty Brooks dealer, Joe Kellum.  He sent my shoes back and I ordered another pair.  They are in.  They will be picked up and the difference will be paid for, as I ordered a “step up”, and then I will hand them off to my son Jarrett and tell him to run like wind in comfort.  They will fit him.

I had my foot measured on Friday.  I have gone from a standard D with to a EE.  Why can’t they just say E?  It is different and doesn’t make my foot sound so wide.  Oh well.  I don’t care.

In the photo above you will see my new Brooks shoe and an old one.  It is an old kicking shoe that I have held on to.  It is a Spot-bilt football kicking shoe.  This shoe kicked a football farther than any other shoe I have.  One day in Shreveport LA, I admit there was a slight breeze behind me, I was kicking at Captain Shreve Stadium, a large high school stadium…well I just looked it up.  It seats 12,000.  It is now called Lee Hedges Stadium.  Coach Hedges is a Shreveport Football Coaching Icon.  He was Terry Bradshaw’s high school coach at Woodlawn High School.  Coach Hedges coached at Captain Shreve for 18 years before he retired.  Well, he kind of retired.  In 1986 when I was regularly swinging my legs toward the uprights that summer, I ran into Coach Hedges.  He was coaching 9th graders.  I asked for some time with him.  He took me into the coach’s office and there we just talked football.  I told him I had a cousin that had played on a State Championship team at Woodlawn.  He was familiar with the name.  He was gracious, he was blunt and honest.  He was great.  His 217 victories in the Shreveport area are still tops in the region.  It is a place where you win or you pack.  I digress.

So on that Lee Hedges Stadium field in 1986 I kicked a football through the uprights farther than I ever had before.  I put the ball on the near forty yard line and took two steps.  I approached the ball and I gave it my all.  I am a straight-on kicker.  We are dinosaurs now.  On this day in August of 1986, I kicked a football over the goal post in two steps from 70 yards away.  I still remember what it felt like…and I still wish someone would have been out there with me to witness it.  Dewayne Clayton and Jimmy Martin were guys I kicked with now and again.  They were good guys.  They were not there this day, however.

I still look at that old Spot-bilt shoe and smile.

A shoe similar to it was used to kick a field goal against Clarksville in 1985 when I played for North Harrison that is still the longest one made in school history…all of 38 yards.  I will be 50 years old this football season and that record still stands.  I live for the night I see a North Harrison Cougar kick one 39, 40, or more.  It is time.  Mick Rutherford snapped that kick.  Kelly Samons held that kick.  We all hope it is bested.  It is time.

But on that night in Clarksville in 1985 and that afternoon at Lee Hedges Stadium in 1986 and this afternoon in 2018 as I made it flawlessly and painlessly through my cardio workout, well…the shoe fit.  I am so glad it did.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson