Tony Romo has a new best friend. Or, he should have, anyway.

DeMarco Murray, rookie running back out of Oklahoma, has given the Dallas Cowboys’ offense what it has lacked since Emmitt Smith left for the Arizona desert: A legitimate threat at the halfback position. And that has made Tony Romo a more effective quarterback.

Romo completed 23 of 26 passes on Sunday for 270 yards, including three touchdowns and excluding any and all interceptions. It was one of his most dominating and impressive performances.

After the game, Romo reminded everyone that it helped that he was actually healthy. He wore no flak jacket on Sunday. He felt good throwing the ball.

Good health was probably key to Romo’s success. So was DeMarco Murray’s 135 rushing yards on 20 carries. When the opponent’s safeties and linebackers have to respect the threat of a break-away run, it makes stretching the field with the downfield pass more doable.

It is no accident that since Murray has taken over running duties for the injured Felix Jones, the Cowboys are 3—1. During this stretch, Murray has run for 601 yards on 75 carries. That is a whopping 8.01 yards per carry.

DeMarco Murray may be the team’s most valuable player right now. The rookie running back has made Romo a better quarterback, Jason Garrett a smarter coach and Rob Ryan’s defense a more effective unit. He takes pressure off Romo, gives Garrett options and gives the Dallas D a chance to catch its collective breath between battles.

Mark it down. Right now, DeMarco is the man…and Tony Romo’s new best friend.

Rob "The Dude" Ryan

Don’t look now, Dallas, but your resident football genius and redheaded step-son, Cowboys’ head coach, Jason Garrett, has just hired “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski—aka, Rob Ryan— to whip your team’s defense into shape.

The Princeton scholar has hired a fellow who graduated from Clown College. Or was it Hamburger U?

Wait. It’s coming back to me, now. Rob Ryan attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University. I think the entrance exam there consists of one problem: “Spell ‘Princeton.’ If You cannot do that, hit this tackling dummy hard enough and you are in.”

I could be wrong about the entrance exam. One thing I do know: Anytime your college has a multi-directional name, it is not likely to be invited to any BCS bowl games or produce many Rhodes scholars. It may, however, be the perfect breeding ground for a defensive guru with a nasty disposition.

Will it work—this unlikely pairing of Garrett and Remus “Rob” Ryan? (That is right. If Wikipedia can be trusted, Rob’s given name is Remus. I cannot confirm that Rex’s given name is Butthead.)

Well, it just might.

Some matches are made in Heaven, they say. Some are decidedly hatched in hotter regions. We won’t know if the oddest couple to coexist n Dallas since Tex Schramm and Tom Landry will work until it does…or it doesn’t.

At first blush, I was against this hire, mainly because Rob is a Ryan, the son of Buddy and the brother of Rex. Rex has mostly kept his annoyances in the Northeast, but Buddy Ryan was Public Enemy Number One in Dallas for years.

Then, I remembered why we hated Buddy around here. It was because his Philadelphia Eagles team was good and he rubbed our royal football noses in it. How dare a blue-collared, green-jacketed yard gnome upstage the best-dressed man in football? How dare Buddy Ryan disrespect the legendary Tom Landry?

But the man could coach defense. Just ask the fifteen teams the 1985 Chicago Bears annihilated on their way to a near-perfect season and a resounding Super Bowl victory. Can you remember any other Super Bowl where the defensive coordinator of the victorious team was carried off the field on his players’ shoulders?

Rex Ryan seems to have his father’s knack for coaching up the “D” while rubbing every other cat in the NFL’s fur the wrong way. He also has his Jets—a team with an offense only slightly worse than that of the Trinity High School Trojans’ in Euless, Texas—in the AFC Championship game for the second consecutive year.

The Ryans are genetically predisposed to be bombastic, crude, in-your-face, and brimming with braggadocio and bravado. They are not above firing a shot across the enemy’s bow from the nearest media podium. They will call out players, argue with fellow coaches, and generally agitate.

The Ryans are also about defense—really, really good defense.

Jason Garrett, conversely, is about structure and discipline. He is about doing the right things the right way “each and every day.” That “each and every day” thing is his favorite crutch phrase. Or is it a whip, cracked in his players’ ears over and over until they hear it in their dreams?

Jason is also about innovative offense.

A successful coaching staff does not need to be homogenous. It doesn’t even have to be cohesive. (The Bears’ coach Mike Ditka once challenged his defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan, to a fist fight at the halftime of a game.) It does need to be complementary. The strengths of one coach need to complement those of the other.

Rob Ryan will bring—along with an attacking, swarming 3–4 defense— a fire and passion to the sideline. He will inspire his players. He will hold them accountable, something Wade Phillips failed to do. And, he will not coddle them, something Phillips did with such fervor it made motherly look like a passing interest.

Ryan may be to the Cowboys’ sideline what the drunken uncle is to the family gathering. The adults hate to see him coming and hold their collective breath, wondering what he will say or do next. But if he wasn’t there, the whole affair would be drab and colorless. Atrophy would set in.

Besides, the kids love him.

Cowboys’ fans will love Rob Ryan, too, if “The Dude” can coach them up a nasty, play-making, slobber-knocking defense.

So will Jason Garrett.

Gotta love this YouTube fun bit…

The Patrick Crayton trade was a good deal for all involved.

It was a good deal for Crayton because as a thirty year old receiver with middle-of-the-road skills, the market for his services was not great. Every team in the NFL has a Crayton or two on it. Most of them are a little younger and earn less money than Patrick.

Jerry and Stephen Jones did Crayton a massive favor and showed their appreciation for his services by finding him a place where he can play on a contending team with a top-flight quarterback in need of a dependable receiver. A more perfect scenario for the lately disgruntled receiver is hard to imagine.

It was a good deal for the Chargers because they got good value for their money. Where the Cowboys are deep, the Chargers are not. Norv Turner and Phillip Rivers needed a receiver they could count on to make solid plays at crucial times. Patrick Crayton is just such a receiver. While the Cowboys would consider Crayton overpaid for what he brings to the table, the Chargers shouldn’t.

Moreover, San Diego only had to give up a seventh round pick to get him.

It was a good deal for the Cowboys because they had to do something. The handwriting was on the locker room wall. The arrival of Dez Bryant pushed Crayton another notch down the depth chart. A couple million bucks for a third receiver is not a bad deal. For a fourth receiver, it is a bit much…especially when the Cowboys think they have other less expensive, equally viable options, such as Kevin Ogletree.

It was also good for team chemistry. Since the departure of Terrell Owens, the Cowboys’ locker room has been as harmonious as a nunnery. Team spirit has been high. Camaraderie has been noticeable. Excuse-making has mostly been reduced to the office of the head coach, and even he sometimes owns mistakes and admits there might be room for improvement. Finger-pointing has been relegated to the lunchroom buffet line.

Crayton did some nice things while with the Cowboys. He was a good player for them. But he was mostly just a guy, seldom a game-changer. And now he is a guy for the San Diego Chargers.

And everyone should be happy with that.

I love you, man

Hines Ward, it is well-known by now, called out his quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on national television before the Pittsburgh Steelers – Baltimore Ravens game last Sunday. His comments dropped jaws all over NFL fandom, and sent shock waves through the Steelers’ locker room.

Roethlisberger, after practicing all week, cited headaches he was experiencing on Saturday (which were feared to be related to a concussion he suffered in the Steelers’ previous game) as the reason he and team doctors decided he would not play in the game against the Baltimore Ravens, a game with serious divisional and playoff implications.

Said Ward, “This game is almost like a playoff game. It’s almost a ‘must’ win. So, I can see some players or some teammates kind of questioning like, ‘Well, it’s just a concussion. I’ve played with concussions before. I would go out there and play.’ So, it’s almost like a 50-50 toss-up in the locker room. You know, should he play, shouldn’t he play. It’s really hard to say.”

Ward, apparently, was expressing frustration other Steelers’ players had expressed privately. Privately! In the locker room! The question is this: Why did the knucklehead receiver feel it necessary to take that frustration public? Why did he grab Big Ben and chunk him under the bus called Public Opinion? Why say any of that?

While listening, with jaw dropped, to Ward’s comments, I felt this eerie sense of deja vu. Where had I heard such comments by a receiver regarding the team’s quarterback before?

Wait! I remember. It was in Dallas. It came from the future hall of fame lips of one Terrell Owens. It was noise about secret meetings and covert game planning between quarterback Tony Romo, tight end Jason Witten, and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.

Boo hoo. They are conspiring to keep me from getting the ball.

The result was a reputed divided locker room. Players like Roy Williams and Patrick Crayton were sucked into the vortex (or cesspool, if you prefer) created by T.O. They reportedly called for, and received, a private audience with Jason Garrett to air out their concerns.

The Dallas Morning News had this gem of a quote from the “disenfranchised” Terrell Owens:

“I’m not jealous of Witten. I’m not jealous of nobody. I can take the approach that I got paid, so screw everything, but that’s not me.

“I just want to win. I’m not trying to create a war of words with anybody. I thought we had a productive meeting, and I just talked to Jason about Tony reading the whole play because other people are open besides Witten.”

Yes, and when Terrell Owens implied that his former teammate and quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers Jeff Garcia was gay, well, it was just because he is so passionate about winning. And when he was a Philadelphia Eagle suggesting that the team would be better with Brett Favre than Donovan McNabb, he was all about winning. Nothing more.

Terrell Owens never met a locker room he could not divide. He never saw a ship his loose lips and “I love me some me” attitude couldn’t sink.

The Buffalo Bills are perfect for Owens. The team is going nowhere. They can focus on getting T.O. his “touches,” so he can celebrate meaningless touchdowns in meaningless games on a team going where he belongs: Nowhere.

Pittsburgh can keep Ward. Buffalo can have Owens. The Dallas Cowboys are just fine with Miles Austin, thank you very much.

A leaderless locker room is a rudderless ship.

The Dallas Cowboys are a team needing compensation. The absence of sideline leadership under Wade Phillips has led to frequent chaos. The Patrick Clayton flap is just the most recent evidence that there is poor communication between the coaching staff and the men in the trenches. Crayton said he did not even know he had been demoted. No one told him.

I believe him.

A weak head coach heightens the need for players to step forward and become the vocal and spiritual leaders of the team. What exists in the Cowboys organization today is not unlike the Barry Switzer era. That team managed to overcome the absence of a strong head coach, primarily because there were established leaders on both sides of the ball. Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Darren Woodson did what Switzer could not – would not – do: they inspired their teammates to rise to every challenge, to meet adversity with single-minded determination, to excel, to exceed expectations.

It didn’t hurt that they happened to be stacked with talented players at practically every position. But history has proven that the most talented team is not always the last team standing. Winning a Super Bowl takes more than talent.

It takes a team.

And a team needs leadership. It needs people confident and strong enough to stand up and say, “Follow me. I know the way.”

It is a mistake to assume that a great soldier will automatically make a great General. The current crop of Cowboys have some great performers. DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten, Jay Ratliff, and others have proven they have the talent to do their jobs at the highest level. They have yet to prove they can inspire their teammates to do the same.

Enter Keith Brooking.

Brooking is proving himself to be the best off-season move the Cowboys have made in some time…and it isn’t just the quality of his play on the field. Watch him in the defensive huddle. Keep an eye on him when he is on the sideline. Listen to him in interviews. The man has assumed a leadership role on a team in desperate need of a natural born leader.

Brooking hasn’t bullied his way into his new-found role. Nor has he been officially appointed to be the leader of the Dallas defense. He has just been himself. Leaders lead. It is inherent in their nature. Born leaders are the most effective kind.

The idea that a professional football team doesn’t require on-field leaders is just wrong. It is more important at that level than any other. In college, high school, or Pop Warner, the leadership is almost always provided by the coaching staff. But these are grown men, playing their game at the highest level in the world. The rah-rah coach may inspire them, sure. The intellectual football genius coach may instruct them. But it takes a peer with skins on the wall, with a proven track record of his own, and with the innate ability to lead men to truly galvanize them on the field.

Otherwise, you have fifty-four individuals performing. One team will always trump fifty-four individuals.

The Cowboys are just another Brooking or two away from finding themselves in spite of their milk toast head coach.

…to replace the Village Idiot.

I Love Buffalo!

Terrell Owens is gone and it says here that that’s a good thing. It is good for the cohesiveness and unity of the team. It is good for the effectiveness of the team leadership. It is good for the morale (and the sanity) of Tony Romo. And it is good for the development of the Austin Miles and Sam Hurds of the world.

Now, T.O. and his dwindling fan base would argue that a T.O.-less team is never going to be as good as a team with T.O. on it. So far, however, three out of three teams for which he has played have been more than willing to make that sacrifice just to be rid of the nut case egomaniac. T.O. likes to tout himself as a good teammate. If only he could find a team that, after a year or two of his antics, would agree with him.

Terrell thinks himself good for a team because he reasons – and has stated as much – that whatever is good for T.O. is good for the team. It makes perfect sense in his mind. Get the ball in his hands and good things are going to happen. Those good things are good for him, sure, but they are also good for the team. Touchdowns are good things for players and teams.

But Terrell misses the subtle point at work here. His philosophy is one of selfishness and self-promotion, not that of a team guy. The selfish player insists, “What is good for me is good for the team.” The team player, however, says, “I will gladly do whatever is best for the team, even if it means I have to do less so the team can succeed.”

Think Terrell ever had that thought run through that thick noggin of his? Think he ever ran a decoy route he liked? Think he ever participated in a big win for his team that included little attention paid to him and genuinely celebrated the victory?

But enough about that. Terrell Owens has been banished to the wastelands of the NFL, otherwise known as Buffalo. What remains in Dallas is a receiving corps that must produce without him. Plenty of attention is being paid to Roy Williams in training camp. People are wondering if he will be able to step up his game and assume the role vacated by T.O.

Owens found the end zone 38 times in 3 seaons with the Cowboys

I can end the suspense right here and now. No! He will not. Roy may prove to be a nice player for the Cowboys. He may turn in some stellar performances in the upcoming season. But he will not replace the on-field production of Terrell Owens. He won’t because he can’t. He is not the same creature. Whatever T.O. was negatively off the field, he was often an overachieving, field-stretching, touchdown-scoring machine on it.

Williams cannot replace Terrell Owens. Neither can Miles Austin or Sam Hurd or Patrick Crayton. Not even the great Jason Witten can do that. Individually, every one of these players will fall short of  replacing the dynamic presence of one of the most dominating receivers in league history. Alone, none of them can do it.

Let’s do a little comparison shopping, shall we?

• Miles Austin’s best season (out of only three) was 2008: 13 catches for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns.
• Patrick Crayton’s best year to date was 2007, when he had 50 catches for 697 yards and 7 touchdowns.
• Sam Hurd’s best season was also 2007 when he gained 314 yards on 19 catches and scored one TD.
• Roy Williams, in 2006, had 83 receptions for 1310 yards and 7 TDs. It was his only 1,000+ yard season.
• Owens’ best season was 2000 in San Francisco, when he posted 1451 yards on 97 receptions and scored 13 touchdowns.
• Owens’ best season as a Cowboy was 2007: 1355 yards on 81 catches and 15 touchdowns.
• Owens, in 2000 vs the Bears, had a 20-reception, 283 yard game (the best in the history of the sport.)
• Owens has caught 139 touchdowns in his career, including 38 in three seasons with the Cowboys.

So, how do the Cowboys replace T.O.? With Roy Williams? Miles Austin? Sam Hurd?

No. No. And no.

Team!

They do it with Williams, Austin, Hurd, Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice. They prove that having a great team trumps having one of the greatest ever to play a particular position. They prove that selfless participation in a team goal beats selfish promotion masquerading as a team player.

They do that, or…they prove T.O right. If they fail, they will load the gun and he will fire the “look, they were better with me than without me” bullet right at Jerry’s head.

Poor Baby!

During the 2008 off-season, I began to call for Greg Ellis to be cut. I contended that, rather than being the leader he was purported to be, he had become a locker room cancer. In a recent radio interview – while on his way out of town to play for the NFL joke known as the Oakland Raiders – Ellis confirmed that he is more than just a selfish whine-bag: he is a moron, as well.

Here’s what the Dallas Morning News reports Ellis as saying:

“It’s a disgrace when DeMarcus Ware comes off the field just so I can get in the game and when the coaches tell him to come on the field, he tries to hide so I can play,” Ellis said during an appearance on ESPN 103.3′s Michael Irvin Show. “And you’re telling me we’re trying to win the Super Bowl?”

“On his own,” Ellis said. “He would say, ‘G, come on.’ And I would tell him, ‘No, DeMarcus, go ahead, man. You’re coming up on your contract year. Don’t mess that stuff up. Go ahead and do you, and we’re just going to do what the coaches, or whoever the powers that be, what they want to do.’”

This is wrong on so many levels.

First, I want you to notice that subtle nuance in paragraph two: the intimation that the only thing this is ever about is your own contract. I know this is professional sports and the man’s livelihood, but for four years, Ellis has made it crystal clear that he puts his own concerns above the team’s one hundred percent of the time. The guy was never underpaid. In fact, his compensation (that commisserate with a first-rounder) was more than adequate to reflect his performance and value to the team.

Second, a few days later on Sports Radio 1310 (the Ticket), I listened to an interview with DeMarcus Ware. He did not out-and-out call Ellis a liar, but he didn’t get his back either. He said, “I think I was in there like 95% of the time.” He said every time he happened to be on the sideline for a play, it was for a valid reason. Ware was certainly in there enough to record twenty sacks on the season!

Third, Ware being off the field has no bearing on Ellis being on the field. They do not play the same position. Ellis doesn’t back up Ware or vice versa. One is strong-side; the other weak-side. Ware won’t say it, so I will: Ellis is either twisting the truth, misinformed, or making up stories.

Fourth, Greg Ellis has to be a moron to think that the media would just bob their heads and accept whatever he said at face value, as though they don’t watch the games themselves, as though they don’t have access to the other player in question. And even if the media let it pass, knowledgeable fans will not.

For years, every time a Cowboy fan saw Ellis on the field, he was reminded of the player the Cowboys bypassed in order to draft him. That would be Randy Moss. While Ellis has enjoyed a career as a serviceable – but never a standout – player, Moss has stretched defenses, caused offensive coordinators nightmares, and established himself as a top five player at his position.

For four seasons, Ellis has spent every off-season bitching and posturing. If it wasn’t money, it was the team switching to the 3-4 (the move that helped finally make him a Pro Bowler for at least one season). Or, it was team management. It was always something. Then, the season would begin and he would be hailed as a team leader. No wonder they have gone nowhere in a dozen years. Leaders like that never take an organization to the pinnacle of success.

So, good riddance to poor, mistreated Greg and good luck to the Raiders.

I have an idea for Jerry Jones. In future contract negotiations, put in an extra incentive for the player NOT to make YouTube videos (hello, Marty B) or write a blog. More often than not, no good comes from it.

Mike Jenkins recently announced via his blog that he was the starting cornerback coming into training camp and it was his job to lose:

Heading into training camp I’m the starter at right cornerback, and my job is to maintain that position. I’m back in Florida training at IMG to get my body right, get my head right, be mentally ready heading into the season.

Now, that may be a fact. Perhaps the coaches have told the young player, “Mike, it’s your job to lose.” Sharing that information on his blog like he did, however, smacks of poor taste at best and braggadocio at worse. It is hard to imagine how such a declaration contributes anything positive to the health of the team in general or to his relationship with other candidates for the position, like Orlando Scandrick.

What’s more, Jenkins opened the door to media scrutiny and criticism. And he got it. It came so fast and furious that the novice blogger/aspiring starting cornerback found himself issuing a clarification a couple days later. He wrote:

Because of all the talk that’s been going on about my last blog, let me say this: I don’t think the starting job is mine because of the round and pick I was drafted, and I don’t think it’s going to be given to me because there’s favoritism.

That’s not my way.

I’m far from my peak, I have not played or showed any comparison to what I did at South Florida and a lot of fans, writers, coaches don’t know that. Me and Orlando are two totally different players. You can’t coach me the same way you coach him. Just like Nnamdi and Asante Samuel, we have two totally different styles.

So for closure, I’m coming into camp with a chip on my shoulder and I think the job will be mine because of the confidence I have in myself and not because of anything else! Everyone is trying to make this a big issue when this is just a needle in a haystack. The big picture is to win our games no matter who the starter is and make the playoffs.

Point blank, period.

Never mind his poor communication skills and ignorance concerning the meaning of certain idioms (e.g., “needle in a haystack”) and the common use of prepositional phrases (“for closure” versus “in closing”), Jenkins should shut down his blog today because nothing good can really come of it.

It can, however, lead to plenty of headaches and distractions.

Mike Jenkins was not hired to be a “celebrity blogger.” He was hired to play football, to make a significant contribution to the success of a team. He would do well to focus on that responsibility and leave the speculation, conjecture, and declarations to those whose jobs depend on such things…or those who cannot think of anything better to do (like me).

The best advice someone could give young Mikey right now? Something like this:

“Hey, kid! Shut up and play. There will be plenty of time to blab and blog and blow your own horn when your career is done. It goes faster than you think.”

“My biggest thing is winning. All I want to do is win. My goal is 75 catches, 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns. But If I catch two balls and we win that will be OK. I’m trying to prepare myself for the season. I am trying to get myself better to make this team better.” ~Roy Williams

If Roy really means what he said, he may already be an upgrade over T.O. One thing we know from experience: winning alone was never enough for Owens. He had to be the center of attention. He had to be the object of the quarterback’s affections – or at least the bulk of his passes. Otherwise, he could be seen ranting on the sideline at some poor coach.

For many, myself included, Terrell Owens’ diminishing bang-to-hype ratio, coupled with the “focus on me and we will all be better for it” mentality, became tiresome. It is refreshing to hear a receiver (God knows, not many of them would) say that winning is more important than his own numbers. If Roy meant what he said, then he is already an upgrade on a team that has recently been way too focused on “me” and not nearly focused enough on “us.”

So, I say, Go Roy! Make it so…and you will find a home in your home state.

Terence Newman has recently developed a bad case of diarrhea mouth. First he called out Tony Romo regarding his love life and then he blasted his defensive coaches for lacking creativity in their scheming.

In the first case, Dallas Morning News beat writer Jean-Jacques Taylor aptly observes, he broke the locker room code of ethics. Taylor writes:

There are two things players should never talk about publicly: another player’s money or his woman.

Terence Newman violated that rule the other day, when he talked about Tony Romo’s relationship with Jessica Simpson affecting his ability on the field.

That’s just wrong.

Here’s the interview:

In the second case (same interview), Terence faults the defensive schemes, claiming they are too simple and everyone knows what’s coming. Maybe he is right. Seems like a team meeting or a private meeting with the coaching staff would be a great place to express those concerns.

Here’s what he said:

We’re pretty simple on our defense, I think. We line up and teams are calling out what we’re doing. In the middle of games, they’re calling out, ‘OK, he’s coming, he’s coming,’ and they’re right.

No wonder Big Bill slapped gag orders on people when he was here. Some are better seen and not heard. Isn’t it high time for high-priced players like Newman to put up AND shut up? Shouldn’t they let others critique their teammates and coaches? Shouldn’t they develop more of a bunker mentality? As long as key players stand around and point accusatory fingers, Cowboys fans can expect more of the same under-achievement, I’m afraid.