What If ... ?

   Paper or Plastic? Only effects you until you get to the kitchen.

   Buckle or Un-buckle? Only effects you every second the rest of your life.

   When I was 7, I accidentally opened the door of my daycare’s station wagon while traveling 40 mph around a winding suburban road. As luck would have it – or was it fate? – daycare owner/driver "Aunt Dot" had refused to leave the parking lot of my school until every kid had buckled every seat belt. Circa 1972, that safety precaution was about as futuristic as remote controls, instant replay and the Internet.

   As the door flung open and I looked down at the pavement, gravel and my life rushing past my eyes, I remember how scared I was. I didn’t quite grasp the significance then, but the next 40 years it’s hit home quite often:

   What if I hadn’t been wearing a seat belt?

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   Maybe I would’ve caught myself on the door and received nothing but a rush of adrenaline, an unforgettable lesson and a hard spanking. Maybe I would’ve touched briefly onto the road and become a bloody, but not permanently injured mess. Or maybe I would’ve totally fallen out of that car and been spilled onto the road like an empty beer can headed for a rocky, jagged ditch. I might have broken multiple bones, perhaps even my neck.

   I could’ve wound up paralyzed. Or in a casket.

   In that split-second as I stared down at the accelerating asphalt, my life approached a fork in its road. If I’m wearing a seat belt I remain in the car and my existence stays on its scheduled course. If I’m not wearing a seat belt, I fall out of the car and into the unknown.

   As I look back at my life in the rear-view mirror I realize the giant implications of small acts. That simple click altered the people I would meet. That simple click altered the career I would choose. And that simple click altered who I ultimately am (Instead of Richie Whitt the kid who wore his seat belt, I might have been Richie Whitt the memory who didn’t.)

   For whatever reason – Luck? Fate? Destiny? My guardian angel? Or just good ol' Aunt Dot? – I wore the seat belt.

   It is now merely a link in the chain-of-events that have shaped my life.

   There, of course, others. The breach baby boy that was born – after a long struggle by a mother named Sue Whitt – alive and well. The ringing phone I finally picked up that led to my first job in journalism and a 27-year career as a writer. The firing at 105.3 The Fan that yanked me out of radio, toward this here web site and into the business of Pizza/Beer delivery.

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   Whether it's personal lives or professional sports, destiny often rides shotgun as we careen toward our defining intersections. It could be daily decisions with negligible implications like ordering steak over shrimp. Or monumental moves like oversleeping your breakfast meeting in Manhattan, only to watch your designated restaurant - and the Twin Towers - crumble to the ground on 9/11.

   We don't need "Clarence" the angel from It's A Wonderful Life to show us how different our lives could be based on a couple of decisions and actions. And somewhere out there - in a partially parallel, yet totally askew universe - is a world in which revisionist's future transformed a history that never happened.

   Hindsight is 20-20. But when you project it forward, the fascination can be 40-40.

   What if ...

   Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson remained together?

   Texas won The Alamo?

   Nelson Cruz caught the fly ball?

   Cassius Clay joined the Army?

   Roger Staubach stayed in the Navy?

   Drew Pearson dropped the Hail Mary?

   Jackie Smith didn't drop the Super Bowl touchdown?

   Joe Paterno had done more?

   Johnny Manziel didn't have a Twitter?

   The Mavs passed over Detlef Schrempf to draft Karl Malone?

   Earl and Tida Woods' child was a girl, named Tigress?

   Lance Armstrong never got cancer?

   The 9/11 terrorists were caught at their airports?

   Adam, Eve and Elvis had willpower?

   Hugh Hefner was born gay?

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   Paris' last name was LaQuinta?

   The sun rose in the West?

   The South won the Civil War?

   Roy Tarpley was a teetotaler?

   The bullet missed JFK's head? 

   The Southwest Conference remained intact?

   Nicole Simpson lived to tell her story?

   The Berlin Wall never fell, depriving us of Steffi Graf and Dirk Nowitzki?

   Babe Ruth was never traded by the Red Sox?

   Dwight Clark flubbed The Catch?

   Barack Obama was a Muslim?

   Bill Buckner fielded the grounder?

   The Rangers didn't trade Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines?

   Buddy Holly missed his flight?

   Brandi Chastain forgot her sports bra?

   Wally Pipp didn't take the day off?

   John Lennon stayed in for room service?

   Bo Jackson only bruised his hip?

   Josh Hamilton told the truth?

   Cindy Crawford's mole was on the tip of her nose?

   LeBron James stayed in Cleveland?

   Bobby Riggs beat Billie Jean King?

   The Blazers drafted Michael Jordan instead of Sam Bowie?

   Magic Johnson stayed monogamous?

   Brett Hull's goal was disallowed?

   The Cowboys drafted Randy Moss, instead of Greg Ellis?

   Barry Sanders kept playing instead of retiring early?

   The Spurs didn't win the Lottery and Tim Duncan?

   Dwight Howard actually signs with the Mavericks?

   What if everything in sports - from Martina Navratilova's sexuality to Mike Tyson's insanity - occurs not by happenstance, but for a pre-destined purpose with far-reaching tentacles and incomprehensible, domino-effect ramifications?

   Or ... What if, like shit, sports happens?

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