Half of a Lifetime

Good afternoon. Bienvenido. Bienvenue, etc.

We got here! The halfway point!!

That means in just a fortnight and a day (still thinking in terms of our weasel tale, Cockney style from yesterday!), the axis flip will have occurred and together, we’ll dance like the farmers and gatherers of old!

As for today, though, let’s celebrate our halfway point by remembering a great moment in history.

I guess it depends on your personal preference, but there’s something about those underdog/kid-from-nowhere stories that really do it for me. I’d argue that redemptive stories are even better. Yeah, getting a second chance at something, especially if you manage to do something noble or unselfish to help someone else is hard to top.

Yet, somehow those stories that are sprinkled with fairy dust (overused term, but accurate, I think) just mean a lot to us.

If we’re lucky, we get to experience a few such moments in our own lives, but even when we must lean on vicarious experience, it’s still pretty cool.

So, let’s take a trip back together. In fact, let’s go back a ways. Is 50 years OK?

All those stories we’ve talked about, so many of those watershed moments we’ve gotten to hear about –or have experienced personally – just sort of happen.

For example, take November 28, 1974. (Yes, just last week, Thanksgiving was celebrated 50 years ago to the day.) And even though it wasn’t like it is now, with games being played four out of every seven days, NFL football was still a very big deal.

Just ask Clint Longley.

Howard Clinton “Clint” Longley Jr. didn’t have a very distinguished NFL career; he just didn’t.

What he did have, though, was a half of football that won’t ever be forgotten.

That day in 1974, the Washington Commanders (then known as The Redskins) were visiting the Dallas Cowboys. Some eight years earlier, on November 23, 1966, the Cowboys played the Cleveland Browns at the Cotton Bowl (about 20 miles east of the Cowboys’ current home Globe Life Stadium, Arlington, TX),   and the team has been a Thanksgiving Day fixture ever since.

Anyway, that Turkey Day game 50+ years ago saw the host Cowboys down 16-3 early in the third quarter. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach sustained an injury and Longley was pressed into service.

Longley, though he was a first-round draft pick that year, was largely unknown and completely unheralded. But then came his moment, that half of halves.

Longley eventually led his team on separate touchdown drives. Despite the backup QB’s heroics, though, the Cowboys still trailed visiting Washington by six points.

Then, late in the 4^th quarter, with only 28 seconds remaining, Longley eventually found wide receiver Drew Pearson (another future Hall of Famer) on one of football’s more memorable “Hail Mary” moments for the go-ahead score., Dallas 24, Washington 23.

In the years since, the term “Hail Mary” has become synonymous with so many different miracles, not only in sports, but also in other realms. And ironically, in the NFL Playoffs, just over a year later, the term became even more widespread when Roger Staubach threw a game-winning touchdown pass to the aforementioned Drew Pearson with no time remaining.

As for our Thanksgiving Day hero, sadly, the rest of Longley’s football career never amounted to much. He did have one other memorable game in 1975, when again subbing for Staubach, he led Dallas to a victory over the New York Jets, erasing a 14-point deficit.

And one final piece of irony?…The following summer, August 1976 – allegedly, in an attempt to be traded away from Dallas to secure more playing time – Longley decided it was a good idea to sucker punch Staubach and get himself thrown off the team.

That move effectively granted Longley his wish, and Dallas eventually traded him to the-then San Diego/now Los Angeles Chargers. He played in exactly three games for San Diego that season and then kicked around the Canadian Football League (CFL) for a few years before calling it quits in 1980.

Much like a one-hit wonder in music, I guess, Clint Longley had his one shining moment. He gave us a half to remember for a lifetime.

And we celebrate him today, on Countdown Day 15, halfway home with no signs of stopping.

Have a fantastic weekend, all.

JFish

@Copyright 2024 by John L. Fischer