MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
It is the most bittersweet day of the year, Labor Day, the holiday celebrated in the United States on the first Monday in September.
Labor Day is a celebration of the American labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.
For some of us, Labor Day used to be the day on the calendar that was marked in black and viewed with utter contempt, for it was the last day of summer vacation and meant school was starting tomorrow (blech!).
Of course, for students today Labor Day must be the year’s first destination day since most have already been back to school for a week or so, depending on where they go to school.
For a baseball fan the Labor Day weekend is bittersweet as well, because there are so many great games and pennant races going on, which is what you want. But it also means that the final day of the season is not long off and that our daily companion for the past five months will soon be leaving us for the six longest and most miserable months of the calendar year.
The same emotions exist for a tennis fan because Labor Day weekend means the biggest and best weekend of the U.S. Open, the greatest tennis tournament of them all. But again, it means that in a fast week the summer tennis season will be kaput, and the long, dreary indoor season – i.e winter – will be with us before we know it.
Labor Day is also a red letter day because it signifies football, and whether some of us care to admit it or not, in this country football is king. It is the Budweiser of all American sports, and with the high school and college seasons now getting underway, and with the evil NFL not far behind, it is the football fan who sits fat and pretty on Labor Day, and justifiably so.
Around here we have a lot to look forward to, beginning with our area high school teams and groups in all of the fall sports and activities. Fall may be the latter part of the calendar year but it bats leadoff for the school year, and the fall sports seasons help set the tone for the rest of the school year because they are such unifiers within the schools.
Collegiately, we have Maryland and West Virginia football opening what are expected to be big seasons for both schools on Saturday, with the Mountaineers hosting Penn State and the Terps hosting Connecticut.
Professionally, of course, we have the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Commanders here in 2 Hours from Everywhere, and the Dallas Cowboys who linger everywhere in the same annoying manner that the New York Yankees do in the summer.
But we also have the Buffalo Bills, in the same way that we’ve had the Detroit Lions and the New York Jets, for as we learned on Tuesday, Cumberland’s Ty Johnson has made the Bills’ 53-man roster and next week will begin his sixth season in the National Football League.
Sixth season in the NFL sounds pretty glamorous, but Ty’s journey has been anything but glamorous. It’s been about his own sacrifice and toil and the chasing of his dream, dating all the way back to his days at Fort Hill and then Maryland.
Last year after tearing his pec during an offseason workout, Ty underwent the surgery the Jets advised him to have, before the Jets promptly cut him. But, as we know, you don’t bet against Ty Johnson.
The Bills reached out as Ty rehabbed; they signed him and put him on their taxi squad, then elevated him to the active roster and after a productive playoff stretch run, he begins this season as the team’s No. 2 running back, but only after missing much of the preseason with a hamstring injury.
That’s how highly the Bills think of Ty Johnson, and he of playing for the Bills.
“Showing up happy, smiling every day even if I’m tired,” Johnson told WROC-TV, Rochester. “Happy because I remember last year. I wasn’t anywhere …
“That whole offseason was a blessing I think because it helped my mental a lot. Just being able to callous my mind and have that preparation of like, ‘yes, something bad happened but there’s going to be something great at the end of it.”
It is the attitude, the approach and the perseverance that we have seen and come to know from Ty from the very beginning, as he continues to create something great every step along the way.
“I kept telling myself,” he said, “ ‘I can keep going, I can keep going. I know I’m supposed to be here.’”
He personifies the best in us, not just our community, but in the human spirit and the don’t-quit that is in all of us, as Ty has always channeled and utilized his to the fullest extent in every step he takes.
So when I take the time this weekend to celebrate the American labor movement and pay tribute to the contributions and achievement that hard work inspires, I believe I shall raise my glass this year to Mr. Ty Johnson, who keeps going and keeps going, and continues to inspire us all.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT