OSU FOOTBALL
Downing used to adjusting
Offensive lineman knows holidays go on despite changes
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH
T.J. Downing, who took a flight to Phoenix yesterday, has his fond memories to turn to whenever his Christmas routine is altered.
Take it from T.J. Downing. No 7-year-old boy likes ripping open a well-decorated package on Christmas morning, only to find socks and underwear. Sometimes it takes 10 or 15 years to appreciate such a moment.
So it is for Downing. Now a burly, 21-year-old offensive lineman for Ohio State, he remembers such Christmas mornings while growing up in Coatesville, Pa. His family would hop into the car and make the annual visits to the grandparents’ homes not far away.
"I guess it’s what you would call a good old traditional Christmas," Downing said. "We’d make the stops, and at one place you could always expect it: One of the packages was going to be full of socks and underwear. Every year.
"And my dad’s father, he would always give me these nice, polished silver balls, and he’d give my sister a windup bell that would play a Christmas song."
At the time, Downing wasn’t sure what to do with those silver balls. Now he cherishes them. They represent golden memories. Because Christmas hasn’t been the same since his parents’ divorce in 1994.
The family had moved to Canton, where his father, Walt, a former center at Michigan and for the Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49 ers, had taken a new job. T.J. was 10 at the time of the split.
With it came an obvious change on Christmas mornings. Downing still did double-dip visits, but it evolved into being with his mother, Sue, and sister, Kristen, in the morning, then going with his sister to visit their father in the afternoon.
"Those first couple of years were tough on all of us, but especially the kids," Sue said. "T.J. didn’t really complain. He kind of kept it all inside, the same way he handles things today.
"But I know he was very hurt. We talked about it again just the other night. (The divorce) was a tough decision that had to be made. I told him I did what was right for all of us."
Even if such situations are common now, life is never simple again for those involved.
"As a kid you adjust and you grow into the new way of doing things, but really, it sucks," T.J. said. "You always wish you could be a normal family again, although, really, what is normal these days?
"But you do always wish you could go back and have those traditional Christmas mornings, with Mom and Dad sitting there, and you’re all opening presents under the tree. Obviously the world is not perfect. You’ve got to adjust and work within your environment."
In that case, even the new T.J. Downing Christmas tradition has been gang-tackled by Ohio State football bowl trips of late.
For example, Downing was scheduled to take a late flight out of Columbus late yesterday for Phoenix, where the Buckeyes will convene Monday to begin practice for the Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame. Why leave Christmas Eve? OSU players receive the equivalent of a nonrestricted one-way coach airline ticket for the flight out, then they can make their own arrangements, and they get to keep the money they save.
Last year at this time, on the other hand, the Buckeyes were already in San Antonio preparing for the Alamo Bowl. It was the first time Downing missed a Christmas with his family.
"That was really hard," Sue Downing said. "My daughter and I sat around the breakfast table and cried that morning because we missed him so much. He is such a sweet young man. But we all got to see him a couple of days later in San Antonio."
On Friday, T.J., his mother and sister did their customary gift swapping. Later in the evening, T.J. and Kristen moved on to the home of their father, who has remarried and now has a baby daughter.
"The toughest thing anymore is just dealing with the lack of time, with all the friends you need to see, being with your family, and also having the Fiesta Bowl on your mind," T.J. said. (Offensive coodinator Jim) Bollman wished us a merry Christmas. Oh, and he also sent along a DVD with some of Notre Dame’s blitz packages on it for us to watch when we got the chance during our break."
Downing laughed, but he admitted that football has changed his Christmas traditions.
"Even at this time of the year I have one focus on my mind, and that’s to better myself as a football player and go play a great game against Notre Dame," He said. "It’s great to enjoy the holidays, but you’ve got to handle business first."
Besides, Christmas has never been quite the same since those halcyon days of socks and underwear and shiny silver balls.
"I’ve been careful to save those silver balls," Downing said. "I’m sure I will be hanging those up around my house when I get to be 50 or 60, just for the memories they’ll bring."
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