✏️ When Life Throws You a Phantom Touchdown 🏈

If you are a University of Michigan football fan, you know the Phantom Touchdown from the 1979 Rose Bowl. Charles White was the University of Southern California player who let go of the ball before it crossed the finish line. There are photos with one referee calling the touchdown good and another calling it not good. Bo Schembechler had had a few trips to “the carrot” awarded to the Big Ten Champion team.  Michigan had one loss that season,  to Michigan State and since Michigan state had been penalized, and were unable to go to the Rose Bowl, the Wolverines gladly took the spot.  Most likely the team felt gypped in those days of no replay video to watch.  There is a showcase in Crisler Arena devoted to this event, very memorable, and not for good, in the history of University of Michigan football.  Charles White, knew that it wasn’t good, now whether he knew at the time or only after watching the replay after the game, I don’t know.  How do you feel if you are USC, winning the game or how do you feel if you are the Wolverines, even all these years later, feeling cheated?  Or think of that referee who made the wrong call?  When the Phantom Touchdowns in life come, the unexpected events that don’t go in your favor and cause you a loss, when you should have won, you just have to move forward and put the loss behind you…

     Charles White had won the Heisman Trophy, he was twice named Player of the game in the Rose Bowl.  After college he had a career in the NFL at Cleveland and the LA Rams.  Following his playing career, he moved on to coaching.  His life was filled with ups and downs and he had his issues with substance abuse and some have alluded that his football injuries may have contributed to his dementia quite early in life. He eventually died of liver cancer, January 11, 2023.  Rick Leach was the quarterback on that University of Michigan team that played in the 1979 Rose Bowl.  He went onto be selected in the NFL draft, being picked up by the Denver Broncos but decided to accept an offer to play for the Detroit Tigers. He was selected in the first round (13th overall).  Bo Schembechler went on to coach a few more years, became the U of M Athletic Director and then the President of the Detroit Tigers.  These three men, as well as all the others who participated in the Rose Bowl the day of the Phantom Touch Down, moved on.  On January 1, 1979, it must have seemed like the most important event of their lives, the story not only made sports news but the national news.  But life moves on, one day at a time and as time went on that monumental day, got further and further away until it was just a memory…

     Eric Clapton was born on March 30 in 1945 to a sixteen year old Mom.  His Dad was a Canadian soldier, who was drafted before Eric was born and then returned to Canada after his service.  He grew up thinking his mother was his older sister and that her mom and step dad were his parents.  They eventually told him, but he never met his Dad.   His grandparents and mother did what they felt was the best to do in this situation. It was the 1940s and unwed mothers were not common. How Eric took the news when he found out the truth, I don’t know. He never met his father. A Canadian journalist did some research years later and found that his father never knew about the child he had fathered in England and had passed on. Clapton went on to find enjoyment and success with his music as a teenager and began playing in bands. If you don’t know his history he has been part of many successful bands.  Not only could he play the bass guitar, he was a good singer as well.   He played with the Yard Birds, Cream The Blues Breakers, Steve Winwood and other bands as time went on and he wrote for many big names over the years.  He experienced the highs and lows of life and a career as a Rock Star and had his share of demons to fight and bad behaviors to deal with and face.   Fortunately he had people around him who got him to seek help which eventually led to his success in beating drugs and eventually the alcohol and bad behavior.  Success professionally continued even though his personal life was not as stable.  One of the most difficult times in Eric Clapton’s life was death of his 4 year old son, Conor. It was a tragic, horrific death as the child fell 53 floors from the window of his mother’s friend’s apartment.  To console himself and feel comfort, he turned to his faith, facing his issues, forgiveness and his music, writing the tribute, “Tears in Heaven,” along with Will Jennings.   Eric Clapton, no doubt, experienced many Phantom Touchdowns over the years and possibly in every instance, his Faith and the music helped him through.  At 53 he married for the second time to 22 year old, Melia McEnery.  They went on to have three children.  His busy performing schedule continues and life goes on…

     And that’s the way it goes.  The good, the bad, they are all part of the fabric of our lives. The rock stars, the athletes they all have the same issues we do.  They have their good days, the days they shine and flash the gorgeous smiles and enjoy their time in the sun. We have those days too, the graduations, they days our kids have their winning games, the days they graduate, get the first job, the entrance into professional school, start their own business, get married, the day you have your first child or grandchild, they are the days in the sun we hope for. As much as we know, the Phantom Touchdown days are out there lurking, but we never are ready for them.  We can try to prepare for the worst but hope for the best, but we never are ready to say good bye to a loved one or to hear the new of the c word, cancer, to get that phone call in the middle of the night that there has been an accident.  NEVER.  The pain of these life altering events are most certainly more hurtful than the loss of a football game and some losses in life we never recover from, we don’t move on, we just move forward for either self preservation or for those we love and who count on us.  Everyone has their own unique way of grieving and handling the hard breaks in life and anyway  with the exception of any harmful method, is acceptable and appropriate for each individual. At one time or another, it’s us. None of us are exempt from the pain in life.  When you think of it that way, we all can give our “neighbors” a shoulder to cry on, a friend to listen or support from a distance with a note, a call or a text.  I listened to “Tears in Heaven” yesterday and you could hear the pain in the lyrics as the questions we all might ask, facing that same tragedy.

     Hang on to the good days…Celebrate them and treasure them.  Recall them with your friends and family.  Record them on your heart and in photos.  Let them make you smile and think back on those precious moments…And be there to lift up one another when the Phantom Touchdowns of life hit. Without the valleys in life, those Great Days wouldn’t have the same sweetness…Wishing you more Great Days in your life than the Phantom Touchdown Days and the strength to get through them with those you love.