Sports Then and Now

Six games into the 2010 season, the Dallas Cowboys are playing anything like the star on their helmet. A 41-35 home loss on Oct. 25 to the division rival New York Giants in their only Monday night game of the season dropped the Cowboys to a dismal 1-5 with their third straight loss. Dallas is 0-3 at home this season and is off to its’ worst start since 1989 when it finished 1-15. As if things could not get any worse, starting quarterback Tony Romo suffered a broken left clavicle in the loss to the Giants and will be sidelined anywhere from six to eight weeks.

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo lays motionless after taking a hit from New York Giants' linebacker Michael Boley in the second quarter. Romo suffered a fractured left clavicle (non-throwing side) on the play and will miss six to eight weeks.

All of a sudden a team picked to contend for the Super Bowl finds itself all alone in the basement of its’ own division. A winning record let alone a wild card playoff berth seems to be a distant and unlikely feat this season. All those lofty preseason expectations have seemed to gone up in smoke.

Yet, when a talented team like the Cowboys stumbles, they need to look at themselves. Such is the case for Dallas this season as the Cowboys have defeated themselves. Penalties, turnovers, bad plays, breakdowns in special teams, and poor play calls by coaches have all been factors in the losses. Everyone from owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones is involved in what is a serious case of underachievement.

It started in a week one loss at Washington when a holding call on right tackle Alex Barron nullified what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass from Romo to Roy Williams on the final play in a 13-7 loss. That was the final mistake in a night of goofs for Dallas which committed 12 penalties for 91 yards. Furthermore, Romo had two passes intercepted. Read the rest of this entry →

Two games into the season, the Dallas Cowboys are staring at 0-2. While most fans are screaming for the heads of players and coaches, not all is lost. It is early in the season and too early for anyone to be throwing it all away.

Statistically, teams that start 0-2 don’t always make the playoffs. One team that did start 0-2 was the 1993 Cowboys. That team won the Super Bowl. There is a big asterisk by that team as it was without hall-of-fame running back Emmitt Smith who was holding out due to a contract dispute.

Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, was signed in time to play week three and the Cowboys reeled off seven straight wins en route to a 12-4 season and their second straight Super Bowl win. However, there is not a running back the caliber of Smith this time around. Furthermore, Dallas does not have a dominating team like it did in 1993.

Dallas linebacker Anthony Spencer converges on the Bears' Jay Cutler

While the Cowboys have promise and potential, they are young. They are good enough to give it a good run this season and are capable of making the playoffs. However all that is just talk right now. Dallas has to focus on playing better football.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier. Dallas plays at Houston – who beat the Cowboys in the preseason – next week. With a bye the following week, the Cowboys face a must win against the Texans. No team wants to go into a bye off a loss and no team wants a week off to dwell over 0-3.

After the bye, the schedule really becomes competitive with home games against Tennessee, division foe New York, and Jacksonville along with a road game at Minnesota, also 0-2. There is time to turn a dismal start around. Focus, preparation, and execution are needed. Pointing fingers, letting these two losses linger with you, and panicking are not. Read the rest of this entry →

The consensus is that the best rivalry in the National Football League is between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins.

For the past 40 years, the Cowboys and the Redskins have staged many memorable games in their annual quest to be the best in the NFC East.  One of those memorable games occurred on the opening day of the 1999 NFL season when the Cowboys came back from a 21-point fourth quarter deficit to knock off the Redskins 41-35 in Washington D.C.

This opening day was supposed to be special for Washington as it was the first regular season game with Daniel Snyder as owner of the Redskins after he bought the team in May 1999 for $800 million.

Despite the fact they had finished 6-10 the year before, expectations were high for the Redskins as they had acquired quarterback Brad Johnson from the Minnesota Vikings for three draft picks.

While the Redskins seemed to be on the rise, the Dallas Cowboys had the look of an aging dynasty. In 1998, the Cowboys won the NFC East under first year head coach Chan Gailey but were stunned at home by the Arizona Cardinals 20-7 in their Wild Card playoff game.

Dallas had major off-the-field issues during the offseason as offensive tackle Mark Tuinei died of a drug overdose and defensive tackle Leon Lett was suspended for the entire season because of drug use. Read the rest of this entry →

On April 22, 1990 – after the Dallas Cowboys selected him with their first-round pick in the National Football League Draft – Emmitt James Smith III arrived in Dallas for the first time ever as a Cowboy wearing a brown and yellow jump suit with polka dots. Smith, the 17^th pick overall, wore the same thing at his introductory press conference. Soon, the legendary running back will be wearing the famous gold jacket.

Can you say extreme makeover? Absolutely. Smith’s attire has not been to shabby since that polka-dotted jump suit. Outfits such as the uniform of America’s Team, striped suit coats at press conferences, and his silky smooth green sleeveless shirt he wore on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars have dotted his wardrobe over the last 20 years. However, the gold jacket is in a class by itself.

In coming full circle, Smith has earned much respect for his on and off-the-field achievements. The National Football League’s all-time leading rusher with 18,355 yards, Smith is on the doorstep of football immortality with only the formal and official festivities left to secure his place in history.

Smith displays his new jersey while decked out in his polka dotted jump suit at his first press conference in Dallas in 1990.

Smith is one of seven players, the maximum allowed in one year, that will be inducted into The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on Saturday Aug. 7 in a ceremony starting at 7 pm EST. Smith joins Jerry Rice, John Randle, Rickey Jackson, Russ Grimm, Dick Lebeau, and Floyd Little in making up the Class of 2010. Smith and Rice are both first-ballot inductees while Lebeau and Little were elected as senior committee nominees.

Smith’s journey to football’s ultimate honor started with some bold aspirations. Heading into his rookie year in Dallas, Smith made a list of goals he wanted to achieve during his pro career. Among things like leading the team in rushing and being a pro-bowl player, Smith also stated that he desired to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.

Considering he stated this just two weeks after being drafted, before he had signed a contract, before he had ever been in an NFL training camp, and before he had ever touched the ball as a pro, he had his critics. Yet Smith had heard criticism before. NFL head coaches, scouts, personnel directors, and pro football media people did not have him rated as the best running back available heading into the draft. They claimed he lacked speed, was too short, too small, and not strong enough for the pro game. Read the rest of this entry →

Michael Irvin wore number 88 during his Hall of Fame career for the Cowboys.

The Dallas Cowboys made a nice move becoming the first NFL team to have their first round pick from the 2010 NFL Draft signed and ready to start training camp following the signing of wide receiver Dez Bryant to a five year, $11.8 million contract.

Too often in recent years, talented college wide receivers have hindered their NFL development by holding out for additional dollars. Being able to get Bryant’s contract out of the way should be a positive for both the team and the young receiver.

Playing in Dallas and for Jerry Jones is pressure enough, but Bryant will be under extra pressure in 2010 as he is joining a team that expects to be playing for a championship next February.

Depending on how you look at it, the Cowboys either put even more pressure on Bryant or gave him an amazing vote of confidence (or perhaps both) by announcing that he would be wearing the number 88.

Most teams with a storied history have certain numbers that are special to the franchise. Some teams have chosen to retire many of those numbers, but others have instead been strategic in which players they let wear a number that a previous player in franchise history wore while performing at a special level.

For the Cowboys, number 88 is one of those numbers. It is a number that has been worn with distinction not once, but twice by special wide receivers. Read the rest of this entry →

Jerry Jones seems bound and determined to ruin the NFL.

Boy there seems to be a lot of sports news these days about players, coaches and owners who seem to think they are exempt from the laws of common sense to which the rest of us must live. Of course, when our own Congress doesn’t seem to understand where sports should be among our national priorities, how can you expect anyone else?

Goodbye NFL

With their decision this week to discontinue the revenue sharing plan among NFL teams and the seeming likelihood that the NFL will play the 2010 season without a salary cap, I think it is now safe to say that the golden era of the NFL is officially over.

For decades, the league was able to fend off the attempts of owners such as Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys to hoard as much money as possible and put smaller market teams at a disadvantage.

However, with the union seemingly vulnerable and owners looking to take back some of the concessions they have given over the years, this seems to be a perfect opportunity for Jones and company to ensure that teams like St. Louis, Buffalo and Kansas City stay down. Read the rest of this entry →