Silver and BlueBlood

Colt Galloping to Heisman?

(Pardon me while I slip into Burnt Orange mode a moment.)

The Texas A&M Aggies played their “national championship” (of the Republic of Texas) yesterday. They played well. They fought valiantly. They left everything they had on the field.

And…they lost.

The Texas Longhorns narrowly escaped their matchup with Texas A&M, 49-39. Some will hold that against them, since the Aggies are now a mere 6-6. Those who do so either do not understand the dynamics of such a rivalry, the  hostility of that environment, or they didn’t see the game.

Great teams find a way to win, even when an upset is in the air. Upset was in the air at Kyle Field last night. The air was thick with it. The crowd could taste every time they kissed in celebration of another Aggie score.

There were plenty of Aggie scores for one primary reason: His name is Jerrod Johnson. The Aggie quarterback was simply brilliant. By halftime, Johnson had thrown for 199 yards and three touchdowns. He completed 13 of his 15 passes in the first half, too. He was improvising masterfully, throwing accurately, and making timely plays, time after time.

Trouble for Johnson was this: as good as he was, Colt McCoy was better. Colt matched Johnson blow for blow and then one-upped him with a masterful half-ending drive to send Texas to the locker room with a 28-21 lead.

By game’s end, Colt McCoy was 24 of 40 for 304 yards. He threw four touchdown passes. He also ran for 175 yards on 18 carries, including a game-breaking 65-yard TD scamper right through the heart of the A&M defense.

Said Mack Brown after the game, “If anybody has a better Heisman moment than that, I would like to see it.”

Me too.

Colt was big time in prime time and he almost single-handedly willed a vulnerable, exhausted, shell-shocked Longhorns football team to victory.

Shine the hardware. Go ahead and engrave it, too.

That is C-o-l-t.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Garrett Then and Now

Dateline Thanksgiving Day, 1994 – The Dallas Cowboys staggered into the holiday match-up with the Green Bay Packers – a team they had owned throughout the ’90s – battered and beaten.

A worried Cowboys nation nervously gnawed Turkey legs and anxiously awaited the afternoon kickoff, sure this would not go well. After all, Cowboys hall of fame-bound quarterback Troy Aikman was injured and would not play. To make matters worse, the more-than-capable backup QB Rodney Peete was hurt, as well.

The Cowboys were down to their third string quarterback, a redhead named Jason Garrett. Everyone knew Garrett had the grey matter to play the position. We also knew he lacked the natural physical gifts of a frontline quarterback. With Favre leading his Packers into Texas stadium, it figured to be a long day for the silver and blue.

What it figured to be and what it was turned out to be were two very different things.

The game started just as one would expect. The Cowboys stumbled out of the gate with Garrett at the helm. By halftime, the Packers had established a pretty comfortable 17-6 lead over a team that didn’t look like they were up for putting up much of a second half fight. Just get it over with and get to the turkey and dressing.

But Jason Garrett had other ideas.

Garrett connected on a 45-yard touchdown pass to Alvin Harper. Then, he threw a 36-yard TD to Michael Irvin. Later, he hit Emmitt Smith, who turned the pass into a 63 yard gain that led to another touchdown.

The Cowboys scored on their first five second half drives. Garrett out-dueled the great Brett Favre, passing for 311 yards and two TDs. And the Cowboys won what would become a classic Thanksgiving Day game, 42 – 31.

That game changed the perception of the ruddy redhead with the big brain and the somewhat slight frame. He became a folk hero, a fan favorite. Then, years later, as the Cowboys offensive coordinator, in the 2007 season, he became the hottest commodity in the NFL, after helping to guide the Cowboys to a 13-3 record with his high-powered offense.

My, how times have changed. The genius tag has been pulled and replaced by the “What the @#$%! is he thinking” tag.

Jason Garrett changed the perception of a team and their fan base once upon a Thanksgiving. Can he do it again? The table is set. The turkey has come all the way from the west coast, freshly plucked, gutted, ready to baste and bake.

Come on, Jason. Light that oven. Cook this turkey’s goose. Be our Thanksgiving hero again.

Popularity: 6% [?]

two wild and crazy guys

One is eighty and the other pushing seventy. One looks like the skeletal remains of an aged 1930s Chicago-land gangster and the other like a Michael Jackson starter kit with his recent face work and new teeth.

One built the Raiduhhhhs into one of the NFL’s elite franchises and then systematically shredded it, piece by piece. The other resurrected America’s Team from its late ’80s shallow grave, restored it to its glorious place among the champions, and then, for the sake of his own fragile ego, ran the architect of the Cowboys’ resurgence out of town and started looking for hand puppets so he could coach the team without anyone really knowing it (though most everyone suspects it).

Between them, Al Davis and Jerry Jones have the ownership of eight Lombardi trophies, though Jones only actually participated in winning three of his franchise’s five. The Raiders have been to five Super Bowls under Davis, winning three of them. When he was sane (or at least crazy like a fox rather than just plain mad), the Raiders general managing partner built the team into an enviable organization.

He did it by emphasizing a down-and-dirty, take-no-prisoners defensive mindset; a hard-nosed, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust running game; and a vertical, quick-strike passing game. He did it by signing players no one else would touch; mean suckers with a past, if not a rap sheet.

Jerry, conversely, made just the right hire for just the right time. He brought in a young, energetic, single-minded college football coach who would eat, drink, sleep football; divorce his wife; ignore his kids; and slave drive his staff until he got where he was going. And where Jimmy Johnson was going was just where Jerry dreamed it could be: to the very pinnacle of National Football League success. He was going – and dragging a giddy Jerry Jones along – to the place no team had been before. He was going to build a team that would win three Super Bowls in four years.

But Jimmy Johnson wouldn’t get that third ring.

Valley Ranch is an expansive football facility, but it could not house the enormously big heads of Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson…and Jones had the keys to the place. He paid the mortgage. In the divorce, Jimmy got hush money and Jerry got the Boys and the ranch. Jimmy got some gold, but Jerry owned the mine.

Meanwhile, fans of the Dallas Cowboys simply got the shaft.

Oakland Raiders’ and Dallas Cowboys’ fans know they owe a debt of gratitude to the men most responsible for making the right decisions, pulling the right triggers, and pushing the right buttons to get their teams to the status of storied franchise. Unfortunately, they also know that the line between genius and madness is razor thin and the cartoon-like leftovers of the teams’ owners/general managers are dancing like demented jesters all over that line.

Crazy like a fox is cool. Crazy as a mad hatter is sad.

One only needs to ask this question for perspective on the two teams’ current state of management: If either Jerry Jones or Al Davis were to fire himself as General Manager, would any other NFL team hire him as theirs?

I rest my case.

Dallas Cowboys. Oakland Raiders. Insanity in the owner’s box. Desperation on the field. Turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie on the table.

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ha! You missed!

Cowboys 7, Redskins 6.

One could almost stop there and declare, “Enough said.” But it isn’t enough to repeat the shocking score from the Redskins’ first ever visit to the new Jerry World (aka, Cowboys’ Stadium).

No, we need to dig a little deeper if any lessons are to be learned from a 6-3 Cowboys team barely surviving against a 3-6 Washington squad. So, let us dig.

Lesson One is for Jason Garrett.

Hey, Red! Neither the media, nor the fans, nor a delusional owner are really qualified to hammer out a game plan. We know you took so much flak from all quarters after the Green Bay bit-spitting, that you decided you would show everyone and just run, run, run the ball.

Come on, man. Be a man. Plan your work and work your plan. Tell Jerry that he hired you to do a job and he can either allow you to do it or quit beating around the bush and do what he always dreamed of doing anyway: Namely, put on the headset and call the plays himself.

Granted, the plan Jason Garrett rolled out looked like it might work until the Marion Barber fumble deep in Redskins’ territory stalled the maiden drive. Still, Garrett ran and ran and ran some more. He ran so much that the passing game never really got untracked until desperation set in late in the fourth quarter, when it became eminently obvious that an upset was not only possible, but increasingly likely.

Everyone clamoring for more “balance” in the Cowboys’ attack might check the numbers from yesterday’s game. The running and passing were almost dead even. And the offense managed but seven points against a team that is contending for exactly nothing in 2009.

Lesson Two is for Wade Phillips.

Wade, you physical specimen, you. I cannot tell you how ridiculous you look when, after your defense has allowed the opponent to march into field goal range, only to have their kicker misfire, and you start fist-pumping and high-kicking like your team just accomplished something.

Please note that an unforced error by your opponent is not validation of your team’s prowess. Your defense was stellar and gave you plenty of opportunities and reasons to celebrate. Capitalize on those, if you must. Do cartwheels when they sack the quarterback, force a fumble, or get a pick to seal the deal (as they did yesterday). Just, please, for the sake of dignity, stop waving your pom poms on missed field goals.

Lesson Three is for Roy Williams.

Dear Roy, you are not in Midland anymore. You are not even in Austin. This is the NFL. You will not be able to put yourself on cruise control and rely on your natural talent to elevate you to the heights you envision for yourself. Everyone here is talented. And most of them are determined.

Get yourself some of that determination.

Lesson Four is for the Dallas Cowboys fan.

Your team is good, not great. They are talented, but not singularly talented.

The Dallas Cowboys have enough talent on the field to do some real damage in the playoffs, but the head coach is weak and the owner/general manager is…well, he’s Jerry. Enthusiasm for the team’s progress must be tempered by the knowledge that a weak head coach winning a Super Bowl title is an extremely rare occurrence in NFL history.

Lesson Five is for all of us.

This is the NFL. There are no Florida Internationals or Tennessee-Chattanoogas on the schedule. A win is a win…and it is precious.

“So, Good job everybody…?”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Rival Coaches

There was a time when the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins comprised one of the NFL’s fiercest and most notable rivalries. All of the cliches about “throw the records out the window when these two hook up” really did apply.

There was no love lost between the teams. Cowboys players like Staubach and Lilly really did despise those Redskins. The coaches didn’t like them either. And the feeling was mutual. It was, most fans thought, a rivalry for the ages.

Great stories exist between the two franchises, stories that date back to the very birth of the Dallas Cowboys. While original Cowboys’ owner Clint Murchison was trying to bring the NFL to Dallas, he bought the rights to the Redskins’ anthem, “Hail to the Redskins.” Murchison threatened to prevent the Redskins from using the song unless Redskins’ owner, George Preston Marshall agreed to back Murchison’s bid to land an NFL franchise. Marshall agreed to back the bid and Murchison returned the rights to the song to Marshall.

Then there was the flap over the original NFL “spy gate.” Before George Allen became the head coach of the Redskins, he was with the Los Angeles Rams. Dallas Cowboys’ General manager Tex Schramm claimed that Allen had sent his head scout to spy on a Cowboys’ practice. Schramm even filed an official complaint with the league that never went anywhere.

The unflappable Allen countered by claiming they had spotted Cowboys’ scout Frank “Bucko” Kilroy spying on their practice from the limb of a Eucalyptus tree. Kilroy was a 300 pounder. It was a good joke on Schramm and his Cowboys and it would later serve to fuel the Cowboys – Redskins rivary when Allen was named the ‘Skins’ head coach.

Then there was those classic games. From Clint Longley’s incredible comeback victory over the Redskins on Thanksgiving Day, 1974 to Staubach’s miraculous fourth quarter comeback victory in 1979 (final score: 35-34), Cowboys fans have many fond memories of this storied rivalry.

But so do Redskins’ fans. In the 1972 NFC Championship Game, the Redskins defeated the Cowboys, earning the right to play Miami in the Super Bowl. The Redskins would win their first Lombardi trophy that year.

The two teams have combined for 31 NFC East division titles and eight Super Bowl victories. Yes, it is a rivalry for the ages.

Or is it?

These days, it seems it is mostly just a rivalry for the aged.Only those fans with enough snow on the roof to remember the glories of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s can really appreciate the significance of Cowboys – Redskins.

For the Dallas Cowboys fan, the Redskins today are but a blip on the radar. Much more angst and ire are reserved for the hated Filthadelphia Eagles and the New York Giant-Pains-In-The-Arse. Those teams, year in and year out, represent a genuine threat to ruin any Cowboys’ hopes of winning the division.

The reason for the shift, one might think, is simple enough. The two teams just aren’t what they were. Neither the Cowboys nor the Redskins have fielded legitimate Super Bowl contending teams in a decade or more. When one has been decent, the other has been horrid. Just simple math.

Mere win-loss records, however, are not enough by themselves to shoot a good rivalry in the foot. It takes more. And we got it.

For the Cowboys fan, the trouble started when the Redskins hired Joe Gibbs. Here is the likable, upstanding, Christian coach who does everything the right way and never stirs the pot of controversy with ridiculous claims or incendiary remarks. Now, how is the Cowboy nation supposed to hate a man who reminds them so much of their beloved Tom Landry?

Then, there is that thing that has diluted all NFL rivalries: namely, Free Agency. Gone are the days when players spent their entire careers with the same team and played twice per year against the same divisional rivals. The players and coaches could really build up some animosity.

Not now. It’s just laundry. You play against the same uniforms every year (well, sort of; they are subject to frequent changes, too), but not the same team.

It isn’t just a problem of player movement, though. It is also the coaching carousel. The Cowboys had one coach patrolling the sideline for 28 years. In the last twenty years, they have had six. Not even the coaches have enough time to get really tired of losing to the same team every year.

So, when the Cowboys and Redskins line up against each other today, it won’t be to renew a rivalry. They will just be getting acquainted.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Who am I? Why am I here?

“Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

I do not know who said that first. I first heard it from a preacher named Lee Roberson, back in the seventies. Then, John Maxwell popularized it in more recent memory. Whoever said it, said it right.

All you can really add to it is, “Amen.”

The Dallas Cowboys are a team in desperate need of a leader. Plenty of players have emerged as positive locker room and field leaders, not the least of which is Keith Brooking. But the dearth of leadership on the sideline is ominous and distressing to the Cowboys faithful.

Last weekend, before the Green Bay game, my wife and I went to dinner with her parents. For my father-in-law and me, the subject turned, as it often does, to the Dallas Cowboys. We were talking about this very subject: the dreadful state of the head coaching position.

Coming off that huge win in Philly, my father-in-law was optimistic and hopeful.

“You know, Gene,” he said, “They don’t really have a head coach. They have an offensive and a defensive coordinator.”

I said that they do have a head coach. His name is Jerry.

He agreed.

He said he thought the team was mature enough and had enough team leaders to compensate for Wade Phillips’ lack of leadership. I said I hoped he was right, but I rather doubted it.

After Sunday’s debacle, he called and said, “I was wrong.”

Now, I do think he is right about being wrong. But I wish he wasn’t.

All of this got me thinking. I wondered who were the worst coaches ever to win a Super Bowl? I thought I would list the five worst Super Bowl winning coaches of all time.

That is a tough assignment. I only came up with two candidates I felt worthy to fill the five slots. But I will fill them anyway.

1. Don McCafferty won Super Bowl V with the Baltimore Colts. He only served as a head coach in the league for four years, posting a 28-17-2 record (a .600 winning percentage). Baltimore fired him five games into the 1972 season, just two years after he won his ring. His team was 1-4 at the time of his firing.
2. Barry Switzer is number two on my list, but could get serious consideration for number one. The legendary coach of the Oklahoma Sooners may have proved Jerry Jones right when Jones said, “Any of five hundred coaches could have won a Super Bowl with this team.” Jones said that as he was firing Jimmy Johnson. Barry won Super Bowl XXX with the Cowboys. He was fired by Jones two years later, after his team went 6-10. Switzer’s record as a head coach: 40-24 (a .630 winning percentage).
3. Brian Billick coached the Baltimore Ravens from 1999 – 2007. He posted four winning seasons and won Super Bowl XXXV. He also built one of the league’s all-time best defenses, with more than a little help from one Ray Lewis. He had a record of 80-64 (a .560 winning percentage).
4. Mike Ditka posted a winning record in seven of his 14 years as a head coach. His Chicago Bears destroyed New England in Super Bowl XX, 46-10 on the strength of one of the greatest defenses ever to take an NFL field. Ditka’s record as a head coach was 121-95 (a .560 winning percentage).
5. Jon Gruden won Super Bowl XXXVII with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 11 years coaching the Raiders and Bucs, he posted a 95-81 record.

As you can see, even a list of the “weakest” Super Bowl-winning coaches gets pretty strong after you get past those first two slots. I doubt many would call Billick, Ditka, or Gruden “bad” head coaches.

So how does Phillips measure up? Through the 2009 season, he had posted a 76-52 regular season record (a .594 winning percentage). The rub comes, however, in the post-season, where he is 0-4.

The problem with Wade Phillips is not his regular season coaching record. The problem is his laissez-faire approach to leadership. The problem is his penchant for over-celebrating minor victories and down-playing major losses. The problem is his tendency to become defensive, when he should become determined. The problem is that he is not now, nor has he ever been, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

I just don’t see any way for that not to matter.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Jerry Jones and the Way We Were

Landry's Long Shadow

Can it already be twenty years? Is it really possible that it was two whole decades ago that Jerry Jones informed the disbelieving Dallas Cowboys nation that he would be involved in (and in charge of) everything regarding the team, right down to the “socks and jocks?”

It has not been easy for old school Cowboys fans to accept the brash, swashbuckling, micro-managing owner’s ways. This isn’t the way we were taught a successful team was built and managed.

Clint Murchison, The beloved and long-since passed original owner of the Cowboys, the man who gave the team life and then entrusted it to the tender loving care of Tex Schramm and Tom Landry, was the antithesis of Jerry Jones. Murchison loved football, obviously, but never fancied himself a football man. Instead, he identified a man with a personality as big as the state after which he was named and a reputation for knowing the game, hired him, and gave him the reins.

Schramm immediately went after the young defensive coordinator of the New York Giants, a man known for his steady ways and extraordinary football acumen, a man destined to become one of the NFL’s most recognized and recognizable figures, the Fedora-wearing, sharp-dressing, seldom-smiling, franchise cornerstone, Tom Landry.

Together, Murchison, Shcramm, and Landry carved out a legacy. They built what would become one of the NFL’s flagship franchises, a team that NFL films would one day dub “America’s Team.”

And then along came Jones. (Of course, there was the Bum Bright interlude, but it is hardly worth remembering, so we will just pretend it wasn’t there, for argument’s sake.)

Jerry Jones and His Coaching Carousel Versus Clint Murchison, Tex Schramm, and Tom Landry

Twenty years is long enough for Jones to have established a legacy. Since Murchison only owned the team four years longer than Jones has at this point, it is not too early or unreasonable to compare eras and try to answer the nagging question: which was better?

Old timers will answer without reading another word. “Of course the Murchison years were better! Jones is a total idiot. He couldn’t carry Murchison’s jock strap.”

The kids will say, “Who the heck is Murchison? When were the Cowboys great? They haven’t won a playoff game since I was like 5 or 6. They suck, man.”

The thirty-something crowd will say, “Three Super Bowl Rings, Holmes! Jones wins, hands down, even if he is an idiot.”

Inside the Numbers

But what do the facts say? If we compare the two eras side by side, how does one measure up against the other?

Glad you asked.

I have compiled some data for your consideration. We will look at winning percentages, playoff appearances, Conference championship appearances, Super Bowl appearances, and Super Bowl wins.

1. Winning Percentages. Each regime got off to a slow start. The Murchison era because it was an expansion franchise with little on-field talent, and the Jones era because it was an aging team in decline when he bought it and subsequently blew it up to essentially start from scratch.
   • The Murchison Record: 223-126-6. That is a winning percentage of 64%
   • The Jones Record: 179-149-0. Winning percentage of 55%
   • Edge: Murchison by a healthy nine percentage points.
2. Playoff Appearances.
   • Murchison, Schramm, and Landry: 17 playoff appearances in 25 years (68% of the time), including one streak of eight consecutive years (1966-1973) and another of nine straight years (1975-1983). Those streaks were only separated by one aberrant season, meaning they made the post-season 17 times in 18 years.
   • Jones and Company: Eleven playoff appearances in 21 seasons (53%), including a streak of six consecutive years (1991-1996), and eight times in nine years.
   • Edge: Murchison, Schramm and Landry (and not even close.)
3. Conference Championships.
   • Murchison (Old School): Landry’s teams appeared in a whopping twelve conference championship games in those first twenty-five years, winning five of them (42%).
   • Jones (Old Fool): Jones’ teams (most would correct this to Jimmy Johnson’s teams) made four consecutive conference title games, from 1992 to 1995. They won three of the four (75%).
   • Edge: Murchison for the sheer numbers, but Jones’ teams had an incredible success rate in the big games, so that narrows the gap some, but not enough to give Jones the nod.
4. Super Bowl appearances.
   • M-L-S: Five Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s.
   • JJ: Three Super Bowl trips in the 1990s.
   • Edge: Murchison, et al.
5. Super Bowl wins.
   • Murchison, Schramm, and Landry won three of their five Super Bowls (40%)
   • Jones, Johnson, and Switzer won all three of theirs. (That is 100%, if you are keeping score.)
   • Edge: Jones and Company.

So, out of five major categories, Murchison and the dream management team he assembled win four of them. Jones, many might argue, more than redeems himself with three Lombardi Trophies in four years, and that is a valid consideration. However, the current twelve year drought without a playoff victory would seem to dilute that argument just a little.

Outside the Numbers

When you consider intangibles, such as structure and stability, the scale tilts even more in favor of the Murchison team. For its first 28 years, the Dallas Cowboys had one coach, and that coach led them to 12 conference title games and five Super Bowl appearances. In Jones’ first 21 seasons, the team has plowed through five head coaches and is now on its sixth.

On the business side, Jones may be peerless in the NFL. He took one of the great sports brands and built it into a franchise which Forbes Magazine has valued at somewhere around 1.5 billion and rates the number one professional sports franchise in the world.

Confusion of Biblical Proportions

When I think of Jerry Jones and how confusing it can be to determine whether he is one of the best or one of the worst owners in the NFL, I am reminded of a story in the Old Testament, in the book of Ezra. Zerubbabel led a group to rebuild the temple, which had lain in ruins for many years. When it was done, there was a celebration.

Ezra 3:11-13 describes the scene. It tells us that the young men were shouting for joy while the old men, the ones who remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple, wept. The shouting and the weeping mingled together, so that you could not distinguish one from the other.

That is kind of how it feels to be a Cowboys’ fan. You shout for the joy of those unforgettable, magnificent teams of the nineties, but you weep for the glory of the past, a glory that may never be duplicated or restored.

Twenty years of Jerry Jones, and I still don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Cards for EVERY Cowboys Occasion

On this glorious Monday morning in Dallas, the morning after the biggest Cowboys win in two years, this enterprising entrepreneur is busy designing Thank You cards for the Cowboys fan too busy to write his own. The window for such a venture is very, very small, so I am wasting no time.

Here are a few of the offerings from the newly-formed Silver and Blue Blood Hallmark Moment Press.

To Andy Reid:

Dear Coach Reid,

Thank you for angering the football gods, annoying the officials, and poking Philadelphia fans in their bloodshot eyes, waving red flags like a demented matador with a death wish, and kicking a useless field goal with precious little time left and no timeouts in your pocket.

PS- My brother suggested you have David Akers on your fantasy team. Is this true?

To Victor Butler:

Dear Vic,

Thank you for making a play every single time you get an opportunity to do so (which is not very often, for some reason known only to Wade Phillips.) Your shoestring tackle of Donovan McNabb was a game-saver. We owe you. More importantly, Wade owes you a closer look.

To Tony Romo:

Dear Tony,

Thank you for growing up before our eyes. You turned your cap around, protected the football, withstood the blitz storm, made just enough positive plays, took sacks rather than throwing the ball up for grabs, and didn’t once use the word “fun” in your post-game interview.

To Miles Austin:

Dear Mr. Awesome,

Thank you for being the anti-T.O.

To Roy Williams:

Dear (the current) Roy Williams,

Thank you for navigating your way through all the “baiting” by local media types without going all T.O. on everybody.

To DeMarcus Ware:

Dear D Ware,

Thank you. Just…thank you.

To Greg Ellis:

Dear Fussy Pants,

Thank you for taking your bitching to Oakland. You would not believe the difference in attitude now that you are not a “team leader” …and Keith Brooking is.

To the Month of November:

Dear Mother of All Cowboy Months,

Thank you for being so kind to Romo and his Cowboys. Thirteen straight wins under your umbrella. No one has done that since 1950. Oh, and thank you for Thanksgiving and turkey and football (and family that helps eat the turkey and doesn’t interfere with the football.)

To Santa:

Dear SC,

All I want for Christmas is a December to remember for something besides late-season collapses.

These are just a few of the cards we are rolling out for the elated fan. Get yours now! Supplies are limited.

Popularity: 12% [?]