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

You know since I started writing on this space in the Summer of 2014, I have written a great deal about music.  Music continues to have a great impact on my life.  I have a God-given musical ear.  I have told this story many times.  It was not until I was thirty years old did I discover I could take a guitar and piece of paper into a room and thirty minutes later I might have something special to take with me for the rest of my life.  I enjoy writing songs.

The song by the title of Don’t Let the Music Die was on The Bay City Rollers’ 1977 album titled It’s a Game.

This was the boys to men sort of album that spawned the last hit for The Bay City Rollers.  Rollermania did not last enough for me to witness it.  In 1978, after their last album Strangers in the Wind, The Bay City Rollers were over.  I was ten.  I still listen to these last two BCR offerings every now and again; I smile when I listen to them.

Five years later I bumped into this cassette tape.

The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed.  I had it with me in 2017 when I heard the band play the album in its entirety on the 50th anniversary of the album.  I was fortunate enough to see them perform this twice.  The first time on July 1, 2017 was when I was with my sister at The Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio.  That is where I took these pictures.

The last time I saw The Moody Blues, my dear wife, Carrie, was with me at The Ryman Auditorium on July 22, 2017.

The photo above was the last Moodies image we captured.  This was a dream photo in a dream ending.

We were on the balcony at The Ryman.  It was the third time Carrie and I had seen them there.  The band was playing Ride My See-Saw, the last song of the show.  The final encore.  While Justin Hayward was tearing up the Telecaster on a solo that has a beach-mode sound, I took Carrie’s arm and said, “I don’t want to hear the last note end.”  So we left our seats and walked to the top of the balcony, the only way out, and stopped for a few moments and last photos.  We were in The Ryman’s ancient stairwell and heading down toward the door while the boys were still at it.  It was perfect.  Never reaching the end.

It is my understanding that this is one of the first publicity shots of The Moody Blues in 1966 when Justin Hayward and John Lodge, the chaps on the right, joined leftover members Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas, and Mike Pinder after Denny Laine and Clint Warwick left the band.  Mike called it quits in 1978.  Ray retired in 2003 and died in 2018.

Justin, Graeme, and John in a picture taken between those last two shows I saw in 2017.  Listening to these guys live was more than we could ask for.  This past June my Dad and I saw Justin in Knoxville playing a solo show.  No drums.  A couple guitars, a flute, and a keyboard.  Justin is joined by Mike Dawes, Karmen Gould, and Julie Ragins.  They are a great group too.

I’ll always be here.

Eventually, it was my turn.  I tell folks had I known my ear was as musically inclined as it is when I was fourteen, I would never have looked at a football.  My musical life did come around to me late in life.  That too has been reported on these pages. I sure have been blessed.

In earnest, I had to google this to find a picture of it.  When it is yours, that is what you do.  You don’t pay attention to things like this when you were there.

No duet here.  This was only a promotional shot. With my old friend Jerry Brown.

Having your music available on streaming services means you may find something like this.  Don’t ask.  I have no idea what an anghami is.

I took some Medora HS students to record in 2013.  We had a blast!  Justice, Alexis, Michael, and Hannah.  

Rod Wurtele is the best keyboard player I know and an even better guy!  Jeff Carpenter is my partner in music.  He holds the lot together like no one else.

Between us, I hope to get back in the studio in 2023 for one more go of it.  

I have heard Justin Hayward make mention on multiple occasions about hanging on to the music of your youth.  I’m not sure if I am hanging on to the music or if the music is hanging on to me.

Lastly, let me give a nod to the greatest radio dee-jay I have ever known.  Rockin’ Robert Becker.

Robert Becker sold WJAA 96.3 in Seymour a couple years ago.  I listened to him every day I could.  He played The Moody Blues every time I asked him.   Justin Hayward was kind enough to send me a promo recording touting Becker’s exit from the station and thanking him for playing The Moody Blues’ music.  I smiled every time I heard that.

And let me give a nod to Larry Lujack and the last great AM Rock Station.  870 WLS The Rock of Chicago.  When WLS became talk radio I was upset.   It lasted through my high school years from 1982-1986.  That helped.  Lujack and Tommy Edwards bit called Animal Stories lives on through three compilation lps I am fortunate to have acquired.

Don’t Let the Music Die.  I could write about it forever.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

If I knew where to start I would do so.

Sitting in a hotel room looking at Oklahoma playing Florida State.  No, it is not the Orange Bowl like it was in years gone by.  They are playing tonight in the CHEEZ-IT BOWL.  Yes, that is how far college football has strayed.  That is another post completely.  I doubt we ever get there.

But I do watch football.  I watch it often.  I hope I always do.  We shall see.  My Dad turned me on to this game a long time ago.  He was coaching the game in Brownstown when I got here.  I don’t want to talk about my birthday.  I want to say Happy Birthday to my Dad.  Born in Jackson, Mississippi on December 29, 1942.  The big 8-0.  I must say this might phase him or anyone else.  It does not phase me.  I have baseball and football cards of guys born in the 1930s.  So, this is not a big deal.  Well, I suppose it is.

I wish him a very Happy Birthday and thank him for all he has done to help me out over the years.  We certainly don’t have time to list all of that.

While we are on football, Ole Miss was pitiful in the Texas Bowl last night.

This helmet sits like this until…

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Yes, I know.  We are on the other side of shorter days.  Since we are past the Winter Solstice, I have always been impressed with the sound of those two words next to each other, the days will continue to get longer as winter gives in to spring.  I get it.  But today was one of those.

Away from school and that routine for a week, I may find myself a little unaccountable.  Today that happened.  There was not enough day in my day.  I am hustling to write this.  When it shows up on my feed it will look as if I wrote it on December 29th, even though we are four and half hours from seeing that midnight fall.

In an hour and a half I will be tuned into the Texas Bowl.  In this game the Ole Miss Rebels will be playing the Texas Tech Red Raiders.  Ole Miss started the season 7-0.  They finished 8-4.  I am sure some out there are not thrilled with playing Texas Tech.  They wouldn’t be had the Rebs won more than one of their last five games.  Don’t get me going.

I saw these two teams play in the Independence Bowl in 1986.

It was a great game I can tell you.  Ole Miss 20  Texas Tech 17.

Mark Young completed 31 passes for the Rebels.  The most before completions in the I-Bowl before Young’s 31 was 19. It was a show.  He did not throw an interception.  Independence Stadium was packed.  I was sitting on fifty yard line by my lonesome, leaning up against the press box.  It was a great night.  I was fortunate to take it all in.

Hotty Toddy indeed.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

The temperature of minus-2 and the wind chill is minus-24 here in Southern Indiana.  No, it is not 2 o’clock in the morning.  It is 2 PM.  That is a cold day.  I am thankful I can stay inside.  Others I know don’t have that privilige.  God bless them.  About this time of year in 1989 I was unloading a truck at the Sears in Clarksville and it was brutally cold.  Of course then I could grab a boxed up dryer and throw on the top of its matching washer.  If I tried that today there would be surgery involved I am sure.

The screened back porch looked like it was dong a flour sifter impersonation.  I was ready to grab the butter and put together some biscuits.  Alas, it was too late.  No biscuits.

The Griswold mobile was cold last night too.

New Hampshire about to take on Rhode Island in 2011.

This was a unique place and I am glad that I got there before they renovated the place and added lights.

MY COLLEGE BOWL PICKS HAVE BEEN AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY SO FAR.  

I hope these will work out better.  Holding my breath is not an option.

One disclaimer…I have not inspected team rosters to see who is playing and who is opting out of playing for whatever selfish reason.

Independence Bowl…Houston beats Louisiana Lafayette…Been to this game twice in Shreveport.  In 1986 I watched a great game as Ole Miss beat Texas Tech 20-17.  In 1993 I was there for the Indiana Hoosiers loss to Virginia Tech 45-20.  This was the Hokies’ coming out party that started an enviable bowl run by Coach Frank Beamer.  For IU football it was the beginning of the end for Coach Bill Mallory.  The ’93 Hoosiers finished a respectable 8-4.  The next year they were 6-5 and the school’s administration rejected a bowl bid because of the cost it would incur. The next two seasons IU won five games.

Gasparilla Bowl…Did I just type that?  Wake Forest beats Mizzou.  The Deacons.

Hawaii Bowl…San Diego State beats Middle Tennessee State…They tore down the old Aloha Stadium that I saw the Hawaii Spring Game in back in 1991 with my Granny.

Quick Lane Bowl…Bowling Green beats New Mexico State…The Falcons have a short ride up I-75.

First Responder Bowl…Utah State beats Memphis.

Birmingham Bowl…East Carolina beats Coastal Carolina.  Go Pirates!

Camellia Bowl…Georgia Southern beats Buffalo.

Guaranteed Rate Bowl…Oklahoma State beats Swissconsin.  I am counting on you, Cowboys.

Military Bowl…Duke beats UCF…I know there will be some argument here.  Duke has had an impressive season.

Liberty Bowl…Arkansas beats Kansas…Nice matchup and the Hog faithful will be doing the boogie-woogie in Beale Street after the game.

Holiday Bowl…North Carolina beats Oregon…This is one bowl game I would like to attend some day.

Texas Bowl…Ole Miss beats Texas Tech…1986 I-Bowl rematch.  The Rebs faithful wanted a better bowl game.  Had their team not dropped four of the last five, they would have gotten one.  Hotty Toddy indeed.

Pinstripe Bowl…Minnesoat beats Syracuse…Goldy will enjoy the Big Apple.

Cheez-It Bowl…Oklahoma beats Florida State…Yes, this is how strange college football has become.  The Sooners and the Seminoles playing in a game called the Cheez-It Bowl.

Alamo Bowl…Washington beats Texas…I have to root for Michael Penix, Jr.  The Longhorns will be there in force.  This is another game I would like to see some day.

Mayo Bowl…Maryland beats NC State…And I will admit I am for the Wolfpack.

Sun Bowl…UCLA beats Pitt…The Sun Bowl.  A time honored tradition.  CBS, I thank you for hanging on to this one.

Gator Bowl…South Carolina beats Notre Dame…Great matchup for this game.  The South’s version of USC came on strong at the end of the season.

Arizona Bowl…Wyoming beats Ohio.

Orange Bowl…Tennessee beats Clemson…Talk about Orange Bowl.  This is the truest Orange matchup ever!

Sugar Bowl…Alabama beats Kansas State…The Tide will roll ALL OVER the Widcats.  What a shame the Sugar Bowl is kicking off at Noon Eastern Time and not following The Rose Bowl as the Lord intended.  Television will do that.

Music City Bowl…Kentucky beats Iowa…Look for Iowa to hand the ball off to the Wildcats twice for Cat scores.  That is how bad the Hawkeye offense has been this year.

Fiesta Bowl…Michigan beats TCU in one of the CFP semi-final games….  Look for the Wolverines to make some crazy plays on offense and their defense will be stout.

Peach Bowl…Georgia beats Ohio State in the other CFP semi-final…And folks is Alabama will be reminding themselves of how they could have put up more resistance than a team that lost its last game of the season by 22 points.  Bama lost two games by a total of four points.  One was a knuckleball of a field goat that limped over for Tennessee.  The other was one point loss on a two point conversion the Tide should have held up by calling a time-out first.

Relia Quest Bowl (what is that trophy going to look like?)…Mississippi State beats Illinois…College Football lost its most colorful and creative heartbeat when Mick Leach passed this month.  I might get a cowbell to ring for this one myself.

Cotton Bowl…USC beats Tulane…But I sure hope the Green Wave finds a way to beat the Trojans.

Citrus Bowl…LSU beats Purdue…Providing the LSU Tigers are motivated, they should win.  The Tiger faithful are certainly less than enamoured with playing five loss Purdue.  I hope the Boilers win this one.

The Rose Bowl…Utah beats Penn State…I am sure Utah still has a bad taste from last year’s loss to Ohio State in an epic Rose Bowl.  The Granddaddy of Them All.

The CFP Final?

Georgia beats Michigan in an entertaining game of who makes fewer glaring mistakes on a stage like no other in college sports.

Enough is enough!   Merry Christmas Everyone!  

Stay warm.

Danny Johnson

It has been a great ride.  How many games I have picked over the years and how much fun it has been is something I will one day behind the scenes run the numbers on.

If you have read these pages with any regularity I thank you.  I have enjoyed it.

I love college football.  Pro Football is fun.  I like the Canadian Football League.  Some of their players make less money than I do!  The NFL is a come and go for me.  One day I hope to find a player to root for.  My motivation, I have said it before, is about the player in the NFL. Ken Anderson.  Peyton Manning.  Eli Manning.  For forty years I rooted for three teams.

I love college football.  I know, I have already said that.  I must admit I am scared about the prospects of the horizon that is college football today. It makes me sad.  The NIL and the portal have made college players semi-pro players and they are being paid as such.  I don’t have much time for it.

What I do have time for, before we get to the bowl picks, is a look a some days of football past from the speaktherights.com archives.

Watching the New Hampshire Wildcats against the Rhode Island Rams in 2011.

Hearing Rocky Top TOO MANY TIMES against Ole Miss in 2012.

Taking my Dad to see Notre Dame vs. BYU in the last game played on grass at Notre Dame Stadium.  That was so much fun.

Marshall hosting West Virginia in 2010.  Largest crowd ever for a Marshall home game.

Ole Miss at Wake Forest in 2008.  Hurricane Hannah put 12 inches of rain on Greensboro just down the road.

The Rebels at Vandy in 2014.

Heading to Neyland Stadium in 2016.

And it was so much fun.  Thank you, Bob Biddle.

A dream realized. Taking my Dad to see a game at The Rose Bowl in 2016.  These gals RAN out to have their picture taken with him. I will never be that lucky.!

I have seen hundreds of NCAA FBS games.  Nothing has meant more than watching two games in the Rose Bowl Stadium.  USC vs. UCLA.

Watching the 2016 Big Ten Championship was good fun!

Yes indeed!

Indiana vs. Rutgers 2017

A little personal time swinging my leg in The Rose Bowl Stadium.  I didn’t miss.  I sometimes close my eyes and think about this day.  It still is hard to process.  My best memory of spending time on the field of The Rose Bowl was not my kicking.  It was when I was throwing the football with my dear wife, Carrie.  I said, “Where you just caught that pass is where Terry Bradshaw hit John Stallworth with a long pass in Super Bowl XIV.  Carrie immediately threw the ball down and said, “I’m done!”  Had I kept my mouth shut, we might still be there!

Marshall vs. Louisiana Tech in 2019.  Our last game before Covid.

Michigan and IU in 2019.  Good times!

Watching the Hoosiers at Iowa in 2021.  DISASTER!

From the Press Box in 2022.  Indiana spelled out before beating Idaho.

NOW IN TO THE Bowl PICKS…Part I

Bahamas Bowl…Miami, OH beats UAB.  I know this a long shot.

Cure Bowl…UTSA beat Troy.  UTSA has an offense!

Fenway Bowl…Louisville beats Cincinnati.  Why not?  This will be fun.

Las Vegas Bowl…Florida beats Oregon State…Gators for sure.

LA Bowl…Washington State beats Fresno St...Mike Leach.  Need I say more?

Lending Tree Bowl... Talk about lame bowl names…Southern Miss beats Rice.  My Dad is an USM grad.  Have to pick them, regardless of Brett Favre.

New Mexico Bowl…SMU beats BYU and this may be one of the more exciting matchups.

Frisco Bowl…Boise State beats North Texas...Frisco Bowl indeed.  What sounds good about this?

Myrtle Beach Bowl…Marshall beats UConn.  Go Herd!

Idaho Potato Bowl…San Jose State beats Eastern Michigan.  Sounds like a game for the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles to me.

Boca Raton Bowl…Liberty beats Toledo without Coach Freeze.  He thawed his career out and left for Auburn.

New Orleans Bowl…South Alabama beats Western Kentucky…The Jags are  mighty close to home.

Armed Forces Bowl…Baylor beats Air Force…Both have a great deal to prove.  Should be a good one.  I say GO AIR FORCE!!!!

We will catch up with rest of the bowl games this weekend as we wind this down.

Speaking the rights…Danny Johnson

“Ugh!”  Wasn’t that the line from Charlie Brown when he was disgusted?

That is where I am today.  I full of ugh!  I don’t want to be.  I am.

In the mail today I received my Indiana University Varsity Club Annual Statement.  This is a nice piece of paper that says how much my dear wife, Carrie, and I donated to Indiana University Athletics.  What was not included in the total, of course, was the amount spent on season tickets.  You’d think there would be a thank you in there for that, after the season Indiana had in 2022.

It gets worse.  Bless his heart.  Inside the envelope was a plain 2/3 sheet of paper that included a note from Athletic Director Scott Dolson.  I like AD Dolson.  I do.  He is a nice guy.  But when I saw this all I could read was “MAYDAY!!”  At the heart of AD Dolson’s letter was him doing what he has to do in 2022.  Ask for more money.  Specifically asking for money to support today’s athletic programs that allow college athletic participants to be remunerated via Name, Image, and Likeness for their efforts beyond the traditional scholarship, meal money, stipend, et al.

I can chuckle.  I remember the late Florida State Seminole Coach Bobby Bowden going back and forth with former Miami Hurricane receiver and eventual Pro Football Hall of Famer, Michael Irvin, when Michael was giving Coach Bowden a hard time about not being strongly recruited by Florida State in the 1980s.  Bobby Bowden, how I miss his quick wit, said, “We couldn’t afford you!”  Paying players was an under the table endeavor then.  It was a contest all its own.

This old college football purist is having a hard time of it.

Above are the Big 8 Football Coaching Salaries from 1976.  

Yes, I know.  That was a long time ago.  I also know the top salary here translates to about $175,000 in today’s money.

Ole Miss Head Football Coach Lane Kiffin started the season with a contract that paid him 7.25 million per year.  His mighty Rebels team started the season 7-0.  The Rebs lost four of their last five, including the Egg Bowl to rival Mississippi State. That is a major thou shalt not!  Kiffin flirted with the Auburn job and Ole Miss rewarded his poor season ending performance with a new 9 million dollar contract.  Strange times indeed.  There is more television money out there than I can begin to imagine.   That and every football coach and their agent in the SEC jumped up and down for joy when the University of Kentucky Football Coach, Mark Stoops, signed an extension to his contract that upped his annual pay to 8.6 million.  That’s Kentucky Football good people.  That is not basketball.  Further proof the gridiron rules the show me the money quotient.

So the players are being paid these days.  It was bound to happen.  They were holding  the ball and hopefully a diploma eventually for all the years that college athletic money was getting out of hand.  Who could blame them?

What is a football fan like me left with in today’s NCAA world?  Well, lets just say I am very delighted I got to see seventy major college football teams play in person in my lifetime before NIL and the UK Football Coach making 8.6 million got here.

What is left for a football fan like me in today’s NCAA world?  No acknowledgement in my Varsity Club letter thanking me for buying season tickets for a bad football season.  Instead, I receive a letter asking for more money to support the NIL case.

What is left for a football fan like me in today’s NCAA world? Watching a College Football Playoff expansion from four to twelve teams in 2024.  All of this while bowl game player defections are more and more and more prevalent.  Eventually, I fear the bowl teams we see will more resemble the upcoming spring practice game than they will the team that just ended the season.

What is a fan like me left with in today’s NCAA world?  Watching the game I have loved to follow all my life slowly, quickly, instantly become unrecognizable.  This whole portal, players moving on via free agency, has me reaching for Rolaids.  What is going to become of my annual Lindy, Athlon, and Phil Steele reading ahead of the college football season?  I am not going to resort to an app to tell me where a player is.

Yes, I did write a post stating my delight about UCLA and USC becoming Big Ten members.  I so want to be there when the Indiana Hoosiers play UCLA in a game in The Rose Bowl Stadium.  UCLA is under contract to stay there until 2030.  Am I supposed to believe that?   Since the dust settled on this news, I am not so sure it is a good thing for West Coast athletes being made to travel that much for dollars.

If I make it back to The Rose Bowl to see the Hoosiers play there one day, nostalgia more than the game will be in front of me.  I am certain.  I am that disenchanted.  I wish I didn’t feel this way.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

This is speaktherights.com post number 693.

Before we see 2023 we will see post 700.  That will be enough.  More than half a million words have flowed from these fingertips onto multiple keyboards and devices over these years that have gone by quickly.

Thank you, Bob.  It was worth it.  Fenway is one of those.

This writing experiment started in July 2014.  Every word has been written with a purpose.  It has been a labor of love.  Writing has long been on my to do list.  I suppose I just enjoy doing it.  The brain appreciates it I think.  I was a high school football player with a notebook of poetry.  Don’t regret an ounce.  I found my songs.

This past summer, early June in the Northeast, I finished an ambitious piece of narrative nonfiction that clocks in at more than 190,000 words.  Finding a publisher has not been a great priority of mine.  That will come one day.   My time has been invested elsewhere, including these speaktherights.com pages.

No, I am not looking to become a full time writer.  I don’t want that.  At this point in time I still feel the need to help students better understand the English language and how to use it to make their lives better.  That is what being an English teacher is about for me.  How we use language skills to our advantage goes a long way in deciding who we are and what we will become.  I learned that from Dr. Millard Dunn.

What is most important with this language endeavor these days is knowing I can still see the light go on above the heads of students I teach, whether they want to admit it or not.  Admission of this sort is an age-old dilemma.  Yes, it was a faithful dynamic when you and I were in school too.  Too cool for school existed in the 1900s and it is alive and well today.  We keep pressing onward.

Photographs and Memories.  My apologies to Jim Croce.

These days I am enjoying taking pictures more than writing about them.  Perhaps that will be my next excursion (HDT).  Like a piece of writing, it is always about the next one.  I rarely go back and read anything I have written.  When the last piece of punctuation is placed, it is time to move on.  The only speaktherights.com piece of writing I have made a habit of going back to look at is one that I did not publish publicly.  Many of these words have been very personal.  The one I have not put forth fits that mold.  That ghost of a post did find its way inside the pages of the healthy piece I finished in June.  Maybe we can read that one some day.

Over the years I have enjoyed writing about music.  Recording music.  Attending concerts. Listening to old vinyl.  Sharing music is a blast.  The Moody Blues were still at it when we started this adventure.  It has been more than five years since I last saw them.  The members of The Moody Blues that are left are done as Moody Blues.  Their music lives on brightly.

And then there were two.

Concert reports included Neil Diamond, Garth Brooks, John Mellencamp, The Who, Tran, Brian Wilson, ELO, Roger Waters, George Strait, Boz Scaggs, The Byrds, The Goo Goo Dolls, Justin Hayward, The Pretenders, Bob Seger, and many more.  Glad I made it to so many concerts ahead of the change in the music business that I can only try to explain to kids today.  They are intrigued when I tell them a Barry Manilow double album in 1977 cost $ 14.00.  That would be about 68 bucks today.  For less than ten bucks a month via a streaming service today, I can listen to that album and a million more and I am not impressed.  The investment of the heart listening to a whole album was a powerful thing that is lost.

Writing about high school football has been a joy.  Finding my way back to North Harrison has been a highlight.  Watching high school football players make progress and seeing them realize what they did not think was possible three weeks earlier is still a life lesson and a charge unlike most I know.  Watching young people become better people is timeless.  The photographs I have shared along the way have meant a great deal too.  I know many folks have enjoyed them.

Travels?  They have been recorded here.  I am a fortunate man to have a dear wife, Carrie, whom I have talked into taking road trips, plan rides, and looking at both coasts.  God bless her.  We found a second home in North Carolina twenty years ago and have relaxed with folks up and down the Easter Seaboard.

My standing five paper order in the Berkshires.

Six on this day!

All from this Country Store in Hancock, Massachusetts.

Walden Pond. 

My time writing speaktherights.com has lasted a great deal longer than the time Thoreau spent at Walden.

The vapor trails of this website need to fade.  They have been kind.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

USC got another taste of defeat last night.  It was not the BIG GAME that Vince Young won and Keith Jackson called for the last time.  Still, I was counting on Tommy to be there in the middle of the 4 team mix they call a College Football Playoff.  Warning to college football teams:  My rooting for you may be dangerous to your health.

Still, here we are.  Today’s conference championship games are soon to kick off.  On a personal note, I am still gaining ground after a nasty bout of the the flu and bronchitis on top of that.  This was not fun.  I missed four days of school.  Two on each side of Thanksgiving break. Consecutive Mondays and Tuesdays.  That was mighty strange.

Alas, here we are.  The picks are in!

BIG XII: Kansas State beats TCU…Is there a team with more pressure than TCU against a team with less to lose?  I mean, really.  If what happened to USC last night is going to happen again today, and it will, then it is going to fall on TCU.  And I don’t like it.  I don’t want to see Ohio State anywhere near the CFP or The Rose Bowl for that matter.  There, I said it.

MAC: Ohio beats Toledo…The Bobcats will finish off the Rocket Boys.

SUNBELT: Coastal Carolina beats Troy…The faux chickens are pretty good.  I saw them play at Marshall this year.  The Coastal QB, Grayson McCall,  is a snapper-head for sure.  He is also dinged up and is a game time decision.  He’ll play.

AAC:  Tulane beats Central Florida…Watching the Green Wave win ten games has been a season highlight.  Plumlee at QB for UCF is a treat to watch.  The Green Wave D will find a way.

Mountain West: Fresno State beats Boise State…Don’t have a lick of interest in this one.

SEC:  Georgia beats LSU… The Bulldogs have to win this.  If Brian Kelly gets this one, they will be working on a likeness of him in bronze for a statue outside Death Valley (Baton Rouge).

ACC:  North Carolina beats Clemson…I have to pick my second home Tar Heels.  I picked South Carolina to beat Clemson last week.  Let’s make it a Carolina sweep.

Big Ten:  Michigan beats Purdue…Look for Coach Jeff Brohm to throw the kitchen sink out on the field along with most of the other plumbing he can extract from the Boilers locker room.  Purdue’s bound to have a couple freshman with more pimples than sense who can take the pipes apart.  Michigan without Blake Corum loses a great deal.  Where’s the beef?  Where it has been since Dan Dierdorf was in a stance and that is on the Michigan offensive line.

Poor Georgia.  Bless their hearts.  No, we’re not speaking the rights about football now.  Gulp.  Politics.  Mississippi, take pride for all the beatings you have taken over the years with a similar refrain when you can look a couple states to the east and say, “At least we’re not Georgia.”

Wow.  The Peach State is a political dumpster fire.

On Tuesday we will find out if Herschel Walker, yes, the former running back of the Georgia Bulldogs who led them to a National Championship in 1980 will be elected to the US Senate. 1980 was Herschel’s freshman year and he stayed for three years in Athens.  He left Georgia early for the trappings of Donald Trump.

Look, on these back pages, that are running out of time, I spoke long ago about how disappointed I have been by the disintegration of a National Republican Party that has brought nothing but heartache and division to a country.  When we want our leaders to fail, we are not supporting our country.  We are destroying it, along with the capacity to lead with dignity and pride.  An old Georgia Bulldog, Lewis Grizzard, once made the joke that he was glad his father died before he could see him getting his hair cut in a beauty parlor.  Lewis, you would be dumbfounded with what has transpired in this land since you passed in 1994.

When I hear news snippets about Herschel Walker running for the US Senate, I can’t separate him from Donald Trump and that is certainly problematic for many of us old-school traditional rusted Republicans.  You may not know this.  Let me fill you in.

In 1983 Donald Trump was the owner of the United States Football League’s New Jersey Generals.  The league lasted three seasons.  It was a Spring League.  They played from March to June.  It was a competitive league.  Many NFL players jumped to it and were paid well for a while.

Trump saw Herschel Walker as his Joe Namath.  If you know your NFL history, you know that Joe Namath did not sign with a National Football League team when he came out of Alabama.  There were two fall leagues competing at the time.  The NFL and the AFL (American Football League).  Both had TV network contracts.  Both played in the fall.  The signing of Joe Namath in 1965 to the lesser valued AFL and specifically The New York Jets for 400,000 dollars was unheard of.  Money always talks. By 1970 there was a merger of the two leagues.  Since then we have had two National Football League conferences. They are the AFC (made of many old AFL teams) and the NFC (made of many old NFL teams).

Put two and two together a mere thirteen years later.  Donald Trump owns the New Jersey Generals of the USFL which was waging player signing wars with the NFL.  When Donald Trump signed Herschel Walker in 1983, a year early out of Georgia, eyes were wide open.

Understand, Donald Trump wanted to get into the NFL Club more than he wanted to help the USFL survive.  It was the AFL vs. the NFL all over again for him.  He signed Herschel Walker to a “personal services” contract that meant Donald Trump would make sure Herschel would still make his money (millions) if the USFL went out of business.

The USFL lasted three years.  Yes, it was broken because Donald Trump was the driving force to move it to the fall and his pockets were deeper (at least we thought) than most of the other owners.  The league did not survive.  Donald Trump saw to that and who knows how many people lost jobs in a football league they loved for three years.

Herschel was no Joe.  The NFL had the good sense to tell Donald Trump to “bugger off”.

Ah, the good old days.

So now you know why Herschel Walker is running for a Georgia US Senate Seat.  Watching him try to put six intelligible consecutive sentences together has been a painful look.  That’s why his news clips are so short.

Lewis Grizzard is dead and I don’t feel too good myself.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Today just after 3:30 PM EDT, THE IRON BOWL will be played in this stadium.  The place will be rocking and rolling.  This must be one of the sturdiest structures in America. Alabama hosting Auburn.  Just sounds good.

Yes, I will be rooting for the Tide.  Brother Tim’s Tide.  Brother Virg’s Tide.  A Tide that belongs to a legion of “Roll Tide”.  You could be walking through a remote airport in Pierre, South Dakota and you might hear someone say “Roll Tide”.  This is not an emphatic “ROLL TIDE!” chant.  That is saved for the game.  It may be just a subtle lift of the chin and a cool “Roll Tide” will come out when another Tide personage is spotted.  James Bond would approve of the debonair comportment.  However, put 100,00 of these folks in Bryant-Denney Stadium together at 920 Paul W. Bryant Drive in Tuscaloosa, know you will need to get your feet set.  This is a special place and a special game.

From my getting over a week’s worth of the flu seat here at the home office, let me just calmly and quietly say, “Roll Tide.”

Also, give me a moment to reflect on seeing Van Tiffin’s shoe that made THE KICK when I was a senior in high school.

Yes, boys and girls, I am in the home office typing this on game day.  Rare has the time been that I have felt so lousy.  We press onward.  For this, I am thankful.  I am also thankful for all my family, my friends, and that the Good Lord is not through with me yet.

I certainly wish I could be in Memorial Stadium watching the Oaken Bucket Game between Indiana and Purdue.  There is a great deal on the line, believe it or not.  With a Boiler win, Purdue Pete heads indoors next in Indianapolis.  Let’s hope he changes his shoes!  Indiana could play spoiler and further intensify a rivalry that is already a good one.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I passed our tickets on to a friend and we wish them a good day.

So who are our winners today?  Let’s hope the picks have a better fate than the Ole Miss Rebels had in the Egg Bowl Thursday night.  Lane Kiffin?  Stay or Go.  Either way it has been fun.  Fun can only get you so far.

Georgia beats Georgia Tech…The Bulldogs took notice of the Wreck’s upset of UNC.

Michigan beats Ohio State… Yes, I know.  I never pick Ohio State.  There is a rabbit that will come out of Coach Harbaugh’s  hat today.

South Carolina beats Clemson…Clemson will go down at home today.  Cocky is on a roll.  That team found itself.

Louisville beats Kentucky…If Louisville get the from third gear to fourth, UK won’t be able to keep up with them.

Bama beats Auburn…But it will be entertaining.

Illinois beats Northwestern…If Purdue stubs the toe, the Illini could benefit.

Minnestoa beats Wisconsin…Go Goldy Go!

Oregon beats Oregon State…The Civil War.  Both ranked too.  Look for Nix to shred the Beaver Dam.

Indiana beats Purdue…Remember 1989.  Young Eric Hunter at QB led Purdue to an upset that lost a winning season, a bowl bid, and made AT the runner-up in one of the closest Heisman votes ever.  Dexter Williams II at QB to spoil it for PU.  Wish I could be at this one.  I was there in 1989.  Oucheth.

Duke beats Wake Forest…Big Game.  Duke is at home.  Small crowd in Thanksgiving weekend I suspect.  Just what Duke needs.

Penn State beats Michigan State…Bowl game leverage at hand for the Nittany Lions.

LSU beats Texas A&M…The wheels can come off in a hurry.  Ask the Aggies.

USC beats Notre Dame…Great rivalry that still holds its water.  Looking forward to this one.

Pitt beats Miami…Everyone else has.

Bonus Pick:  Apple Cup.  Washington beats Washington State in Pullman…Michael Penix and his band plays on.

How can this be?  The last week of the regular season.  Know that I have enjoyed picking the games.  It has been fun.  Take care.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson