I don’t get it

The sports mediots are spinning again.  I’m sick of hearing how great Philly played Monday night.  They really didn’t.  If you take away the two TDs the Boys gave them (and Romo gave them those TDs, no one questions that at all), then this game wasn’t score-wise even a close game.  And then in the 2nd half of the game, the Dallas D held them to a honest 7 points. 

The game was exciting but if those two gimmes hadn’t have happened, it wouldn’t have felt so exciting and close.  It would have been a Dallas blow out.  I know McNabb didn’t have his two best receivers but there are plenty of teams already being plagued with the injury bug.  It is the lot of football.  But really if those two TDs are removed from the equation, what kind of a game was it then?

Monday Night Football at its greatest

I hate MNF.  Who can turn it off and just go straight to sleep?  Well after last night, I can tell you there are people in Dallas and Philly walking around in a daze, unable to function this morning.  WHAT A GAME!!!!!!

Bonehead DeSean Jackson gets to see that non-touchdown a thousand more times in his life.  What a first half TO had!!!  Romo had his standard interception (he has one every game, it is the price we pay for the thrills he gives us) and made me laugh when he said in his press conference “We seemed unstoppable until I gave up the pick and the fumble”.  Hey at least he can laugh at himself.

Like most fans, I wish we had seen a stronger defensive game but to give credit, Philly had the offensive going full blast last night.  Our defense did make great adjustments in the second half and was able to get some strong pressure on McNabb.  I thought it was funny that Wade had to start defending Roy Williams (who I am sorry broke an arm) right in the press conference. Guess he knows what the Dallas fans will be fussing over first.

Just a great game.  I enjoyed watching the first half with CT, who doesn’t quite know all the rules yet, but can sit there and scream with me “Run Felix Run!!!!”.  Life is good when you have a kid who can watch the game with you and enjoy it.

The refs hate TO

T.O. draws our first overly-sensitive celebration penalty

By MJD

Terrell Owens scored on a deep ball in what’s looking like a fun and competitive Browns/Cowboys game. Owens was fairly open and the touchdown looked easy … but then he made the ensuing kickoff more difficult for his special teams unit.

After scoring, Owens walked back towards the goal line, shaking and loosening his legs. He got down on a knee, lifted up into a sprinter’s stance, pretended to burst out of the gates, and that was it. A mild tribute to Usain Bolt, and he jogged off the field.

No props, no delaying the game, no taunting anyone. Just 15-yards of joy-sucking yellow laundry. Wade Phillips argued vehemently (or at least, as vehemently as the cuddly old fellow can), but to no avail. He didn’t say a word to Owens, though.

A little something to make you laugh

or maybe scream like a little girl…

It is just wrong

When my bestest friend who lives so far away emails with my family to laugh at the fact she has TO on her FF team and I don’t.

And to think she accused me of breaking her laptop in revenge (if only I had thought of that idea).

This is why I love my Dad

Today’s email exhange between us…

He starts the conversation…

Happy birthday hon.  You should be getting to that stage where you sort
of don’t even want to think about that anymore.
For a birthday present, I got them to schedule a Cowboy game for you
tonight. They said “who the hell are you?”, but went ahead and put one
on with all the backup players. Oh well.

Love, dad.

So I emailed back…

Glad you are always thinking of me.  See I had arranged a game between the Cowboys and an old nemesis in your honor, but I got them to play the starters and have it at a decent football watching time.  They said “He’s still living????” and put the game right on the schedule.

He is not the gushy type.  While I was growing up, he worked nights and I rarely saw him, except when a football game was on.  So somewhere along the way, i decided if we were going to have a relationship, I would learn football.  Let me tell what a hardship that was…I got addicted watching Staubach win games in the last two minutes of a game.  I learned to love incredible defense watching Too Tall, Randy White and the boys.  From there, my father and I grew into a good healthy relationship.  He and I are very much alike in personalities and it often becomes my job to act as a go between for my parents.  “Dad, Mom is worrying about you because you didn’t get emotional about your mother’s death.  You ok?”  He says yes and I go back and tell Mom that Dad is doing fine, that he doesn’t spend much time worrying about things that can’t be changed and while he misses her, he knows she isn’t in pain any more.  All is good. 

I talk politics, religion and all kinds of current events with my dad.  I’m one of the few who can work him out of a bad mood.  I have promised my mom that if she dies first, I will take care of my dad.  I’ll make sure he eats and has fresh batteries in his remote control and his cable bill is always paid. 

I’m lucky to have a friend like him.

Little things that made me laugh this morning

1.  The instant a football player has problems with his home team, the trade rumors start up because Jerry Jones and his half way home for wayward football players.  Steve Smith will not come to Dallas.

2.  My son’s athletic handbook – his coaches are holding the atheletes to a higher standard and will be enforcing it.  I love what I read, especially the part where a coach will not come rescue a player from a teacher, that if the coaches get called in, the player will not be happy.  I’m thinking if the kids across the street keep verbally harrassing my little ones, I will have a talk with the coaches.  I don’t think they will be happy with a freshman football player bullying a 4th grader.

Football

Ahhh, a deep breathe.  Football season is here.  It beats Christmas because Christmas is short lived and so materialistic.  It beats all the calendar season because it starts in hot summer, goes through fall and can carry you almost throughout winter.  You don’t have to go to a game, you don’t have to spend a dime on it.  You can change allegiances throughout the season and still be labeled a homer.

First WT is in high school football, freshman year.  Today is the start of two-a-days.  Now for me the challenge of two-a-days has to do with cleaning his practice uniform twice a day.  This is especially complicated by the fact that I’m nowhere near home in between the sessions.  So the poor boy has to do his own laundry and I have to try to find enough for him to do two loads a day with.  His complications has to do with the fact that mom is not around to taxi him around.  So he has to ride his bike to practice a mile away.  Now after grueling work-outs, a mile ride home is not considered ideal (although no one will complain about him being in condition).  However, this afternoon as the temperatures were in the low 100’s with a humidity around 25-30%, anyone would say this is harsh.  I have counseled him about drinking (and the coaches are excellent on watching the boys) and I have loaded him up on bananas for potassium.  It will be a grueling few weeks and he is sure to lose some weight.  He did a conditioning camp all summer so that this would be not quite as bad.  He is gaining in speed and strength.  I really hope he gets to play some first string ball this year.  Always in the past he was first string on the B team, which meant he got playing time in meaningless games.  I love that our school puts so much emphasis on trying to have a B team so kids get the playing time and not just bench warming.  He has learned a lot through football and is really gaining some self-esteem about himself.  He is a big guy.  At 14.75 years, he is 175 lbs and 5′8″ and stout material.  He has played mostly offensive line.  Now I’m smart enough about football to treasure the underrated value of the OL, but let’s face it, it is hard to cheer for your son for a good block on the other side of the play.  I do dream of him being a DB and getting some sacks.  If I had been a guy, that is the position I would have wanted.  Offensive stars get all the glory, but as a football fan, my greatest memories are of Randy White, Too Tall Jones, Bill Bates and others.  I love a great sack or stuffing the running back behind the line.  Oh and I love great interceptions too (except when Romo throws them).  So as a frustrated girl who never got to play, I keep hoping that my son will get to play some defense and make a great defensive hit.  Ok, I’m not your typical girl.

I live in a little Texas town.  It has a very strong European ethnic community which I’m not descended from.  We are the outsiders, the minority around here with Anglosized names.  I’m not a good beer drinker nor am I Catholic.  But the reason I wanted to live in this town was because they are crazy for their sports here.  Whatever the season, the community is about the sports and thus about the kids.  One year I was sitting in the stands during the B team game and talking with an older couple.  I asked them which kid was thiers and they said none of them.  They just come to watch the games.  We aren’t talking about stellar football when you are talking middle school B team games.  Yet this town does this, for football or baseball.  The little weekly town newspaper has a least 2 pages out of 8-10 pages dedicated just to the kids’ sports.  No matter if we are the home team or the away team, the stands are full of the team’s supporters.  We had to drive to a game that was an hour and a half away and we outnumbered the home team’s fans at least 5 to 1. 

Last year my X only made it to one of the games.  At first WT was really hurt by it and I told him that he could always count on me being at the games.  He smiled his little smile and said he doesn’t even take a lot time looking for me, he just trust I’m there and if I’m ever not there, he will call the hospital to find me.  How could I not be there?  First of all, I have loved football since 1976 and secondly I get to see my oldest son play the game I wish I could have played.  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

I’m BBBBBAAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!!!

Ok, the laptop died an unpleasant painful death TWO WEEKS ago!!  The shop said it would take 3-4 days to fix, either to remove the virus or to put in a new hard drive.  Well naturally it was a new hard drive and much longer than 3-4 days.

And I have to be nice about internet usage at work, so no blogging.

So many things to share, so little time tonight.  I still have to reconfigure the laptop, install programs and refind all my favorites.

And Dallas Cowboys training camp started today!!!!  Here comes football.

Pacman news

Tank to Commish: ‘Please, let (Pacman) play’

By JAIME ARON
AP Sports Writer

IRVING, Texas — Tank Johnson looked into the camera and sent a message to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, loudly, clearly and with a big smile: “Roger, please, let him play! From Tank. Thanks, buddy.”

“Him,” of course, is Adam “Pacman” Jones.

Jones still can’t set foot on team property, much less join his new teammates for organized team activities being held Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Goodell could give permission for either of those without fully welcoming him back to the league — sort of like he did with Johnson last year. Goodell let Johnson practice about a month after being signed, three weeks before his suspension ended.

Jones is suspended indefinitely, but Goodell repeatedly has said he’ll review the case before training camp.

“I speak to him on the phone often,” Johnson said. “His head is in the right place. He’s eager to get out here with his teammates. He’s eager to get acclimated to our system. He understands the position he’s in, and he’s ready to prove everyone wrong. … It’s tough when you’ve been through as much as he has in such a short amount of time. He knows it’s his last straw, so he’s going to take extreme caution to everything he does.”

Johnson’s best advice?

“You got to make sure your good decisions outweigh your bad ones,” Johnson said. “I told him, ‘I will be your right hand. Whatever you need, I will be there for you.’”

Speaking from experience, Johnson said it’s important to know the Cowboys have a support system in place.

“I felt like my back was against the wall and the world was against me and there was no one in my corner. I think for him to feel that there’s someone in his corner who is supporting him, who cares about him, who wants to see him succeed — sometimes that’s all you need,” Johnson said.

“Now that I’ve gotten a chance to know him on a personal level, I think he’s definitely matured a lot through this process. I think he’s figured a lot of things out. I think the maturation process for some is slower than others. Mine was a little slower, but now it’s gotten to a point where I can handle myself. And I think Pacman is at that same level.”

“He’s a good guy, a fair guy, and he’s going to do what’s best for this league,” Johnson said of the commissioner…

___

May 28, 2008 – 4:45 p.m. CDT

Copyright 2008, The Associated Press.

————-

I have deleted a lot of the fluff out of that article, but the meat is there.  I really like that the Cowboys are taking chances with people like Tank Johnson and hopefully Pacman Jones.  I’m a believer that many of these boys are given more than their backgrounds ever prepared them for and they enter the league making some horrible life choices.  The thing is that some of them are more than just the results of those choices.  The Cowboys have done a terrific job of helping these boys mature into men with their lives and giving them that chance to show it.  This goes much deeper than just football field.  This is the sort of thing that stays with them the rest of their lives.  There is so much power in the knowledge that someone believed in you enough to invest time, energy and money into helping you overcome your past.  Not all of the boys who enter the Cowboys rehab program come out of it having matured into men but enough have that Calvin Johnson has made differences in lives.  I don’t know that Pacman will be able to play for the Cowboys and if he does that he will make a difference on the field.  But I know that already a difference has started in his life with the knowledge that someone is willing to take a gamble on him.  What he does with this last chance is still an unknown.  But at least someone is offering him a lifeline. 

I know a lot of people have laughed over the gamble.  They laughed when we picked up TO, known locker room destroyer of team spirit.  They laughed when we got Tank Johnson and his arsenal.  Oh well, like I said, the Cowboy organization is more than just a football team and while I may not always like Jerry Jones, I will salute him for realizing that the Cowboys are really the good guys.  Doing the right thing is sometimes just giving a person one more chance at life.