Silver and BlueBlood

The Pro Bowl is just days away, and for the first time since I was a starry-eyed kid, I am actually into it.

Let’s face it: while the NFL stands alone among the major American professional sports organizations in matters of marketing, branding, and quality control, it lags far behind the others when it comes to packaging and selling its annual all-star game. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 94% [?]

If you have ever watched MartyB TV on YouTube, or if you are a follower of Jupiter’s Crunch on Twitter, then you know what a Devil-may-care, fun guy Martellus Bennett is.

From his rap about having “Jerry Jone (sic) money, iPhone money” his rookie year to hosting the controversial “Black Olympics” thing with his cousin, Marty B is a prime product of the irreverent-but-always-connected Generation Y. (Or is it  Generation Z? I don’t know. I can never keep up.) Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 36% [?]

Shhh. Listen. Do you hear that? It is crickets chirping all over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Dallas Cowboys Nation in general.

Jerry Jones announced yesterday that he is keeping Wade Phillips on as head coach, and besides the few radical fans that respond violently and vociferously to any piece of Cowboys’ news, his announcement was met by a collective yawn and a “Yeah. What else is new?” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 26% [?]

Next Year's Champs?

Before the wild card round, I wrote an article predicting Super Bowl XLIV would feature the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys. After the wild card round, with San Diego home cooling their heels and the Cowboys summarily dismissing the Philadelphia Eagles 34-14, my prognostication skills were looking quite strong.

Then came the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

It wasn’t really surprising that the Minnesota Vikings beat the Cowboys. They do, after all, have a very strong team featuring two of the best offensive players in the entire league and a defense that led the league in sacks. The game figured to be a great match up—perhaps the best of the entire playoffs. As the number three seed, The Cowboys’ road to the Super Bowl was sure to be fraught with difficulty…and nowhere would that be more apparent than in the Mall of America Dome, where the home team had been a perfect 8-0 during the regular season. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 34% [?]

Old School still schooling the Kid

Just when I am reluctantly purchasing my ticket for the Keep-Wade Phillips-Around-Another-Year bandwagon, he reminds me why I hate myself for even thinking such a thing.

With the game still young, the offense moving the ball rather effectively, and the scoreboard clear of points, Ol’ Wade coached scared and stupid, sending in Sean Suisham to attempt a 48 yard field goal with the ball on the Vikings’ 31 yard line and only a yard shy of a crucial first down. Remember, this same Suisham is a former Cowboys’ castoff, a 2009 Redskins’ castoff, and a late-season addition to the team. He is not Mr. Clutch. Heck, I doubt whether he could even find the clutch in a standard-shift car.

Predictably, the oft-traveled, never-money kicker sent the ball wide of the upright and, consequently, sent Minnesota onto the field with excellent field position and a little wind in their sails. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 24% [?]

High Noon. Be there!

Everyone knows that long before he packed his bags and took that boyish grin to Dallas, Tony Romo was a Wisconsin boy, a cheese head. Everyone knows he idolized the Green Bay Packers great, Brett Favre. Everyone knows that, in today’s NFL, there is no other quarterback whose game more closely resembles Favre’s than Tony Romo’s.

Everyone knows that Favre is the master and Romo is the pupil.

Now, in the divisional round of the 2010 NFL playoffs, generations clash. The old gunslinger comes face to face with the young gun. One has more than a few notches in his gun belt; the other is gunnin’ for him. The two meet at high noon (Central time) to settle once and for all (or at least for now) who gets to wear the stetson to the NFC championship. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 20% [?]

Choice run

I am sure NBC’s stellar broadcast crew hoped for a better game to close out Chris Collinsworth’s inaugural season in the catbird seat. They would have loved a nail-biter, a classic, one for the ages.

They didn’t get a nail-biter or a classic. They did get one for the ages. They got the game that finally put an end to so many sorry moments and haunting memories for the Dallas Cowboys, their coach, their quarterback, their owner, and their fans. They got the game that made the D in Dallas big again.

So, welcome to Big D, where the D stands for…

Determination

All year, there was a different look and feel about this team. Stung by his post-game comments a year ago, after his team suffered one of the most humiliating losses in team history— a 44-6 rout at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles— when he said, “If this is the worst thing that ever happens to me, I have had a pretty good life,” Tony Romo changed his tune. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10% [?]

Here's your sign!

“What is crude, crass, classless, Alex.”

(Answer to the Jeopardy question: “What are the three best words to describe a typical Philadelphia Eagles fan?”)

So, Pulitzer candidate and editor of PhiladelphiaEagles.com Dave Spadaro hocked a loogie on the hallowed midfield Star at Cowboys Stadium before last Sunday afternoon’s game, recorded it on his web cam, and posted it to the Eagles’ website, thus forever endearing himself to the City of Brotherly Lust-For-Just-One-Super Bowl-Win-Please.

This from a representative of the organization whose classless coach Buddy Ryan once ordered to fake taking a knee in a game they had well in hand, and then fire a touchdown pass, adding insult to injury. This from the team whose fans gathered in mind-numbing temperatures in that toilet known as Veteran’s stadium to spit on opposing teams and pelt their players and coaches with everything from snowballs to batteries. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10% [?]