Predictions by "Experts'

They'll be wrong again about Dallas, just like they were last year. This year they are acknowledging that they have the most talent at least in their division but I see second and third place predicted orders of finish. Well, it's based on what happened last year and the fact that Wade Phillips is still the coach. Last year, based on their 13 win 2007, they were almost unanimous favorites to at least be in the Super Bowl. Well, the so-called experts don't know anything more than you or I do, as I stated earlier. And it shouldn't bother me really except that in one NFl preview magazine, they predicted that they'd miss the playoffs altogether, finish third in their division and here's the kicker........Bears make the playoffs. UH HUH, and the Cowboys don't. Somebody's lost their minds there. What are you kidding me? If Dallas doesn't make the playoffs, there's no way Chicago does. NO WAY Chicago gets in regardless. They suck. They have no receivers and Jay Cutler is 17-20 as a starter and that was with a much more talented offensive group. The Bears may have a decent defense but even that side of the ball is a far cry from 2005-06. And the offense will continue to struggle. The Bears, if they're lucky, go 9-7. That's probably doesn't get them in unless the NFC North stinks it up this year and the Bears win the division going 8-8 or 9-7. But NO WAY they get in to the playoffs and Dallas doesn't. That would be like Arkansas being ranked and Georgia being unranked. That's like the Clippers making the playoffs and the Lakers missing

Someone with very little class

I Hate this guy anyway because he plays for the New York Giants. But the fact of the matter is that guys like Eli Manning, Amani Toomer(though he's no longer there, released earlier this year) Michael Strahan(retired but still somewhat biased towards his former team) Jason Tuck, at least have some class. But big bruising fullback Brandon Jacobs, has shown me that he hasn't got much if any. First of all, first things first, since he came into the league, the Giants are 4-5 against Dallas(including that playoff upset) so we've beaten him and his team our FAIR share of times enough that he ought to not be popping off about Romo, and oh yeah, DUH, he doesn't even play defense to be running smack about a quarterback unless it's his own. Eli Manning has CLASS, okay, but he has just as many flaws as, if not more than, Romo. I haven't forgotten about how he slammed the football against a playclock when scoring a TD, and they don't call him for delay of game but everytime Ocho Cinco or T.O. celebrate without showing their ASSES, and they're hit with unsportsmanlike delay of game penalties. And now just the other day about Romo not being effective when staying in the pocket. He's had some of his better games against your defense Brandon "Big Fat Mouth" Jacobs. Let's see in five starts against the Giants, Romo is 4-1 with the one loss again being that upset in the playoffs in Jan. 2008. Even if you include that loss in there, with Romo against the G-men, the Cowboys average 27 pts. And Jacobs kind of play has him missing a handful of games here and there. Sure he punishes but he is no Bo Jackson in terms of athletic ability and his career, at the rate things are going, isn't going to last much longer. So a guy who probably won't be in the NFL(MARK MY WORDS) in five years to be popping off about an opposing teams QB is ludicrous. Shut your damned piehole. I'm telling you right now. Romo will get his and in five years, he'll still be around and Brandon Jacobs won't.

News and Sports in the meantime

Wow! there is quite a lineup of figures who have passed away in less than two weeks. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson"king of pop", Billy Mays, and now, from the NFL ranks, Steve McNair. Ed McMahon died of older age, more something towards Natural Causes, while Fawcett lost her valiant battle with Cancer, Michael Jackson appears to have died of an pain medication overdose, Billy Mays to a sudden cardiac arrest related to heart disease. Steve McNair was murdered. And very troubling and unfortunate for his family members, friends, former teammates, and fans, is that he was having an extramarital affair with a young 20 year old, also found dead at the scene. Maybe a lovers quarrel, or murder suicide. Maybe a bizarre love triangle. A semi-automatic rifle was found underneath the female victim. McNair had apparently been seeing this young female for the past several months while still married with four sons. It's sad, tragic, and twisted all at once. This is tragic like, say Len Bias. Something that could've been avoided. Steve McNair paid the price. Awful news to say the least.

Lance Armstrong has begun his comeback in the Tour De France. If he wins, it will be amazing, considering he's almost 38 and had retired after winning his seventh straight tour in 2005. If he doesn't win, there will be all of the naysayers that will wonder why he retired and then came back after four years. Why didn't he just come back and win it once or twice more in 2006, 2007, and then call it a career. But if he wins, will he then come back next year or will this be it? I know that if he doesn't win, he won't be back for sure. It's the only reason, I confess, why i'm tuning into the tour. Here's a guy, my same age, who has just the most amazing story, beating cancer, and then winning SEVEN straight Tour de Frances. And maybe 10 straight had he kept going. That would have happpened last year. Does he still have what it takes to win? After a four year hiatus? I honestly believe that he wouldn't be doing it if HE didn't think he could. I also believe, firmly, that as long as he stays in the mix up until his strength stages that come in the final 1/3 of the tour, that he'll have them where he wants em. I believe then that it will be his to lose. And a huge BITE ME and F YOU to the all of the anti-doping agencies that keep trying to find something on Lance. Seriously, the guy was diagnosed with a Stage 4 cancer, given at best, a 50-50 chance for survival. And for ANYONE to even think that he'd be that crazy to take banned substances.........................................YOU"RE INSANE. He still maintains that beating cancer was the greatest victory of his life. He's the best ever. Deal with it. And if he wins again this time after having walked away four years earlier on top with nothing to prove, I will LAUGH OUT LOUD!

Some Cowboys Trivia

In 1981, my first year following my beloved Dallas Cowboys, the team notched 37 interceptions. I wonder what team has the most ever in a season. THIRTY SEVEN! That's unheard of. This team had it all on Offense (Danny White, Tony Dorsett, Robert Newhouse, Drew Pearson, Butch Johnson, Tony Hill, Doug Cosbie, Billy Joe Dupree, and a better than average line) and Defense, their front four of Harvey Martin, Too Tall Jones, John Dutton, and Randy White was as imposing as anyone's. Their linebackers were Mike Hegman, Bob Brunnig, Anthony Dickerson, and DD Lewis(in his final year of a 14 yr career) The secondary might not have been the fastest bunch. Guys like Dextor Clinskcale, Dennis Thurman, Michael Downs, and Everson Walls. Downs and Walls were both actually from Dallas, as was the late Harvey Martin. But the secondary sure had the sure hands for sure. Walls was a rookie that year and led the NFL with 11 interceptions and would also lead the league in picks one or two other times. Unfortunately, after being on a Super Bowl caliber team in Big D for his first few years, Walls would see the Cowboys gradually decline(1985 being the last playoff year and winning season in the Landry era) and then freefall between 1986-89. The Cowboys would rebuild and return to glory in the 1990's but by the Everson Walls had finished his career with the despised New York Giants, winning a Super Bowl in 1990. He made the SI cover that showed him celebrating after Buffalo's imfamous Scott Norwood miss. I was happy for him, yes, but it didn't happen in Dallas like it should have. It would have been nice to have Walls come back home and finish his career there in 1992 with a ring.

How to approach this season if you're a Cowboys fan

I am over 2008. It was a major dissappointment, probably the biggest dissappointment of the year in Professional Sports. But it's over. It happened. I kind of have a similiar atttitude to the one that I had two yea rs ago at this time. Two years ago, the Cowboys were coming off a wildcard playoff choke job against Seattle. And once it was over it was over. I knew, or at least figured that whenever the question of "How are the Cowboys going to do this year?" and my reply went somewhere along the lines of "they probably have as much say in the big picture as anyone" . That's the same for this year. The experts are quick to assume that Wade Phillips won't change, he's too nice and too much of a cheerleader. There isn't any question that the Cowboys have as much talent as any team, if not the MOST. It's the discipline. It's simple though for Coach Phillips. This team not only needs to be in the playoffs but win a game or two in order for him to be back as the head man in 2010. The best scenario in my mind if '09 turns out to be more of the same "underachieving talent", that Mike Shanahan ought to be brought in and Wade to be moved over to where he probably belongs, defensive coordinator. It's all a just wait and see kind of thing. And it's only June 17.

What do the so called experts really know?

The Cowboys are kind of under the radar from an expectation standpoint. Based on what happened in 2008. A year ago at this time, they were almost a unanimous pick to at least be in the Super Bowl, which was based on 2007. 2007 was when they were the best team in the NFC but choked in the playoffs. 2008 was when they had lofty expectations but had lots of injuries, which basically made them like a track star on crutches. Romo breaking a finger and missing three games, two of them lossess. Losing their pro-bowl caliber punter for the year in week 6. Losing Felix Jones in the same game, also for the year. Romo broke his finger in the SAME damned game at Arizona. The turmoil followed based on the team all of a sudden under achieving. It turned into drama. Marion Barber hurting his toe on Thanksgiving in an easy win against Seattle (Isn't that usually when a key injury happens? A game that you are winning without breaking a sweat), caused him to be less than 50 percent in the last four games. He didn't play at all against Pittsburgh. If he had, they would have closed that one out for sure. Choice filled in for him decently but there wasn't any other runner in there to spell him since Felix Jones was lost back in October. Felix was an upgrade from Julius, who was an average back on a 13-3 team in '07. Both he and Barber are back 100 percent. The only real question mark I think is at the number one receiver slot obviously. Roy Williams has potential but the Cowboys could very well be better and more effective if they mix in a nice 50-50 run, pass ratio. And Williams could have dynamic year if teams don't take him nearly as serious as T.O. This team if harnessed right and healthy, is going to be very good. By harnessed, I mean, team concept, accepting the roles, and DISCIPLINE. And as I recall, in a few other instances where, nobody talked about a team going into a season, then the team wound up a suprise or should I say, better than everyone thought. The 2007 Giants. The 2008 Cardinals. The 1995 Packers come to mind as a team that had lost I think NINE free agents, and not much was done to compensate much less improve the team according to the so-called experts. And they made it to the NFC Championship game, battling valiantly before losing to the eventual Super Bowl Champ Cowboys, and then dominating and winning it all the following year. Remember the 1999 Rams? They came out of nowhere. The 2001 Patriots were unheralded until Bledsoe goes down in week 2 and this unknown named Tom Brady steps in and the rest is history. Tony Romo was an unknown before he took over for Bledsoe in 2006 in the seventh game of the season and has gone 27-12. And the Cowboys of 2009 certainly wouldn't be looked at as a team that came from nowhere to go on a playoff run. People are quick to base something off of the year before when it comes to negativity without remembering the facts and circumstances of why this highly touted bunch only went 9-7 and missed the playoffs. I mean there were probably FIVE games last year that the Cowboys should have won but didn't and that's just how the ball bounces. Then there is the coaching thing. Who is to say that Wade Phillips doesn't finally have his day? People said the same thing about Tom Coughlin. About Doc Rivers. About Joe Torre. People want to bash Norv Turner but he's gotten the Chargers further into the playoffs than anyone else ever did since that time that they were the sacrificial lambs to the Niners under Bobby Ross in 1994. (The REAL Super Bowl that year was the NFC Championship between the Niners and Cowboys) And Jimmy Johnson was the genius who became the first head coach to ever win a NCAA Championship and the Super Bowl, which he did back to back and who knows how many more he would' ve in Dallas had he stayed. And then he didn't taste really any more playoff suceess in Miami then say Wade Phillips has to this point. Three more months until football and not a moment too soon. And no reading into any so-called power poll rankings because they are a load of crap as I've mentioned earlier. There really ought to still be a nasty taste in the mouths of the Cowboys lingering from that ultimate no show in the last game against Philly.

Can this finally be the year?

Well, it looked like 2007 would be the year that the Cowboys would at least get to the Super Bowl. They were unquestionably the best team in the NFC that year, having bested the Packers in that November showdown(both teams came into the game at 10-1) and taken care of the Giants twice. (the Giants were really not even considered a darkhorse despite making it in as a wildcard) And then we know what happened next ofcourse.

And then 2008 was REALLY supposed to be it but the problem was that they probably believed it too much. So the year turned out to be injury plagued, inconsistent, sloppy play, and a very dissappointing end. Humbling. And they felt the need to let T.O. go. Is that addition by subtraction? Is Roy Williams the Number One guy? Can the running game stay healthy and be the potential lethal trio? Will the defense indeed be deep due to lots of experience now from the younger guys that got forced into playing in '08? Is Tony Romo finally going to take that next step? Will Wade Phillips finally taste success in the postseason?

Not much has been said except from DE Jay Ratliff, who recently said that there are tighter rules now, and that everyone, in order to be a TEAM, has to one by one, check their egos at the door.

It's clear that this team is overdue. And it's also possible for someone to go 16-0 in the regular season and still biff it in their first playoff game. But the regular season is what comes first and putting yourself in position to at least have the homefield advantage. And THEN worry about the playoffs. There will be no playoff success if you don't even get there in the first place. Nothing is a given in this league. The Dallas Cowboys should have as much say in the big picture as anyone. I myself have been optimistic about it being a question of when rather than if.