The bedtime story was told nearly every night to the little boy who clutched either a football or a football helmet in his arms. Sometimes Dad told variations of the fabricated tale, but the constant was the location and scene. It always took place at Michigan Stadium before a raucous crowd watching the Wolverines in a tight game facing a desperate situation.
And the little boy gradually closing his eyes was always, remarkably, the hero. Funny how that works when dad gets to tell the story.
This was special father-son time and Sean Patterson, a Michigan season-ticket holder then living in Toledo raising a family with wife, Karen, to whom he’s been married 32 years, created a magical world of football where his young son, Shea, better known then as “Shea Man,” came from nowhere to lead his beloved Wolverines to victory.