Silver and BlueBlood

Deuce-Deuce is da One

Emmitt Smith was a no-brainer for the 2010 NFL Hall of Fame selection committee. One wonders whether his presenter had to do any more than stand and say, “Emmitt Smith: I rest my case.”

Despite his Hall of Fame credentials, Emmitt Smith is still a lightening rod. Most people outside Dallas do not think of him as the greatest running back in NFL history. Heck, most people in Dallas don’t either.

Most people I have talked to, read, or listened to have said he was not even the best running back of his own generation. That honor is usually bestowed on Barry Sanders, the Detroit Lions’ running back whose premature— and unexpected— retirement paved the way for Emmitt to be the first and (to this point) only runner to surpass the legendary Walter Payton on the NFL’s all-time leading rusher list.

Emmitt Smith was a triplet.

He was not born a triplet. Rather, he became one upon being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. He, Quarterback Troy Aikman and Wide Receiver Michael Irvin would become the three-pronged offensive attack of the 1990s’ greatest NFL team. Together, they won three Super Bowls in four years. Together, the were shock and awe, slice and dice, score and strut all rolled into one dynamic silver and blue package.

Still, Emmitt is met with mixed reaction in the very city where he forever immortalized himself and forced his way into Canton. Some see him as the most self-absorbed of the Triplets. Emmitt often came across as being a team guy when being a team guy was best for Emmitt. While Michael Irvin might incur a fine for throwing a ball to some sick kid in the stands after he scored a touchdown, Emmitt meticulously had each touchdown ball marked and placed in a chest for safekeeping. Of course, that same Emmitt would famously play with a badly hurt shoulder when his team needed him most.

Some see Emmitt as selfish; others as singularly focused.

However you see him, it cannot be denied that the man squeezed every ounce of accomplishment out of his own talent. He was not the fastest running back in the NFL. Far from it. He was not the strongest. He was not the shiftiest. He was not the most fluid. He was, however, one of the best to ever carry a football.

Should you doubt his greatness, let me throw just a fistful of facts your way:

• Emmitt Smith is the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 18,335 yards. Let that sink in a moment. Think of all the great backs that have graced the league. He stands alone and above them all in sheer number of yards gained.
• He was the first back in NFL history to rush for 1400 yards or more every season for five consecutive seasons.
• He rushed for 1000 yards or more 11 seasons in a row!
• He had 164 career rushing touchdowns.
• He had 19 rushing touchdowns and seven 100-yard rushing performances in postseason play.

Smoove Operator

These in no way represent all of his accomplishments, but if you aren’t convinced of his greatness by now, you don’t need more facts: you need a signed note from a doctor certifying your sanity.

Indomitable, irrepressible, incomparable, incoherent, illiterate…

These are just a few words used to describe the great Emmitt Smith. As great as his unlikely on-field accomplishments were, his off-field communications and antics have been equally great (or at least good for a laugh). From winning the Dancing with the Stars contest to stumbling over whether a team is “blown” or “blowed” out to predicting a 7-9 finish for the 2009 Cowboys, the off-the-field limelight has been more of a harsh glare than a warm glow for Smith.

Perhaps Emmitt’s greatest hall of fame moment as a world-class butcher of logic and language came in his infamous “We Had Some Diamonds” quote, which can be heard on the MP3 player at the end of this article.

The exact quote is as follows: “We had some diamonds, but we had a lotta cow poo poo around it, and the diamonds was mixed in with the poo poo…it just all look like poo poo.”

Try diagramming that sentence.

Another collection of Emmitt nuggets:

Is Emmitt a no-brainer for the NFL Hall of Fame? That question doesn’t even warrant an answer, because it shouldn’t be a question at all.

Moreover, if there were a Hall of Fame for professional athletes who lack communicative and cognitive skills (maybe we could call it the No Brain Hall of Fame), you would have to assume Emmitt Smith would be a first-ballot selection there, as well.

So, congratulations to hall of famer Emmitt Smith. He made our jaws drop and our ears bleed. He made us hit the rewind button and question our own sanity. He made us proud. He made us cheer. He made us laugh.

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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: 95% [?]

Will The Eagles Steal Christmas Again?

The NFC East is boiling down to the Big Three and the Big Mess. Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York will duke it out for the Division Title while the Redskins just duke it out. (Of course, this assumes the Giants will right their listing ship soon.)

All Dallas Cowboys fans get nervous as the holidays approach and the dreaded month of December looms like a team of deranged reindeer with bloody eyes furiously driven by a band of renegade elves. The way the ‘Pokes have played in December and January in recent years makes it hard to enjoy Santa’s bounty, even if it does include a wall-covering flat screen HD television. Who wants to see Wade Phillips and Jerry Jones explain and excuse all over themselves in such vivid detail, anyway?

But I digress.

The thing to do here is look at the schedule of the three legitimate contenders, compare them, and ask yourself, “Does my team have a snowball’s chance in the hot place of getting to ten or eleven wins and either winning the division or securing a wildcard spot?”

So, here goes…

For the New York Football Giants, the remaining schedule looks like this:

11/8, SAN DIEGO, 4:15 pm

11/15, BYE
11/22, ATLANTA, 1 pm
11/26 (Thu), @Denver, 8:20 pm
12/6, DALLAS, 4:15 pm
12/13, PHILADELPHIA, 8:20 pm
12/21 (Mon), @Washington, 8:30 pm
12/27, CAROLINA, 1 pm

1/3, @Minnesota, 1 pm

No cakewalk there, with six, maybe seven legitimate playoff contending teams on the docket. The remaining opponents have a .630 winning percentage to date.

The Giants are currently 5-3, with a bye week yet to come.

Next, the Philadelphia Eagles.

11/8, DALLAS, 8:20 pm

11/15,@San Diego, 4:15 pm
11/22, @Chicago, 8:20 pm
11/29, WASHINGTON, 1 pm
12/6, @Atlanta, 1 pm
12/13, @New York Giants, 8:20 pm
12/20, SAN FRANCISCO, 1 pm
12/27, DENVER, 1 pm

1/3, @Dallas, 1 pm

The Eagles’ homestretch run is brutal. Nine games left and eight of them against teams expecting to make a playoff run. Five of the nine games are on the road, and that last one, in Dallas, could conceivably be for all the NFC East marbles. Their upcoming foes have so far combined for a .600 winning percentage.

The Iggles are currently 5-2, tied with the ‘Pokes atop the East.

The Dallas Cowboys fare no better in the stretch run. They have posted a 5-2 record to date, having played one of the NFL’s most favorable schedules through seven games. But business picks up in town this Sunday, and the breaks are few and far between from there on.

Here’s how the Cowboys’ remaining schedule looks:

11/8, @Philadelphia, 8:20 pm

11/15, @Green Bay, 4:15 pm
11/22, WASHINGTON, 1 pm
11/26 (Thu), OAKLAND, 4:15 pm
12/6, @New York Giants, 4:15 pm
12/13, SAN DIEGO, 4:15 pm
12/19 (Sat), @New Orleans, 8:20 pm
12/27, @Washington, 8:20 pm

1/3, PHILADELPHIA, 1 pm

Oakland and Washington represent the only patsies on the remainder of the ‘Pokes’ schedule, and Washington is a division rival, and that always means something. The Cowboys’ remaining opponents have posted a .560 winning percentage to date.

December is the deal. That’s the month that haunts the Dallas Cowboys. They need to put to rest the Ghosts of Christmases Past and close strong.

Easy for me to say. It won’t be easy for them to do. Three of the five games in December are on the road, including tough trips to New Orleans (currently undefeated) and New York. The two weeks they do get to stay home, Norv Turner bring his Chargers, always a bit desperate themselves come the holidays, to town. Then, the Eagles will plan to ruin yet another new year in Big D.

The task begins Sunday in Philly, the scene of the merciless Massacre of 2008, the game that should have cost Wade Phillips his job and did cost Pac-Man Jones and Terrell Owens theirs. A win Sunday puts Dallas in the Drivers’ seat on an NFC East bus headed downhill with no brakes.

Better to be steering than steered on such trips.

Popularity: 2% [?]

He was a world famous athlete before he joined the Dallas Cowboys. Already a world record holder in the 100 meter dash and the owner of an Olympic gold medal, “Bullet” Bob Hayes was known as the the fastest man in the world. In 2009, he remains the only man to ever earn an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring.

The Bullet!

Bob Hayes changed the game of football. He was fast, sure, but as former Cowboys master scout Gil Brandt pointed out, he was not a track man who tried his hand at football; he was a football player who excelled on the track field.

Bob Hayes impacted the game of football immensely. In a day when the run was dominant in the NFL, Hayes averaged twenty yards per reception. He scored a touchdown every five times he touched the football. Eighteen times, Bob Hayes scored touchdowns of fifty yards or more. And even though he retired in 1974, and has been succeeded by wide receiver greats like Drew Pearson and Michael Irvin, Hayes still holds the Dallas Cowboys’ record with 71 career touchdown receptions.

It is a shame of monstrous proportions that Bob Hayes was posthumously enshrined in pro football’s greatest fraternity. Hall of Fame voters, though they may never admit it aloud, held his post-career legal problems against him. He did some hard time for drug trafficking and that was all the excuse the anti-Cowboys faction in the northeast needed to rob him of the honor he has long deserved. The NFL Hall of Fame is supposed to consider the on-the-field contributions of players – that and nothing else. If they had done that with Bob Hayes, he would have been in Canton to personally accept the honor and see his bust where it belonged.

Of course, the same Hall of Fame voters ignored the drug problems of New York Giants’ great, Lawrence Taylor, and enshrined him as quickly as possible. He deserved the honor. So did Hayes. Both men changed the way the game was played. Taylor redefined the position of linebacker, especially as it related to rushing the quarterback, and Hayes is credited with prompting the implementation of the bump-and-run defense because of his blazing speed.

While Cowboys fans everywhere understand that this is a time for celebration, we are also reminded of the backlash from being fans of a team that plays in Dallas and counts three major east coast media markets as its chief rivals. The evidence is too great to ignore the bias that kept players like Hayes and Rayfield Wright out of the Hall of Fame for so long…and continues to deny players like Cliff Harris and Drew Pearson their place among the all-time greats of the NFL. It is telling that Bob Hayes is only the eleventh Dallas Cowboy to be enshrined in Canton…especially when you consider the great teams the Cowboys fielded in the late ’60s, the ’70s, the early ’80s, and the early to mid ’90s.

Bob Hayes’ biography on the official site of the NFL Hall of Fame includes the following paragraph:

Hayes demonstrated time and again that he possessed tremendous football skills and instincts that helped him to develop into a terrific NFL wide receiver. Still, his world class speed was a major factor in his and the Cowboys offensive successes. “Bullet Bob” terrorized defensive backs and demanded the kind of deep double coverage rarely seen in the NFL at that time. It is often said that the bump and run defense was developed in an attempt to slow down the former Florida A&M running back.

Kind of makes you want to ask the voters, “Did you just now figure that out? Or did you know it all along and vote him down anyway? Why did it take the old-timer’s voters to finally get “Bullet” Bob the recognition he deserves?”

They were only about thirty years late. Better late than never just doesn’t seem quite good enough.

Popularity: 3% [?]

“Early in the third quarter, the Giants had their backs to the wall, just as they had all season. They were an established NFL power in America’s greatest city, with a lineup of star athletes expected to dominate the league for years to come…”

So writes Mark Bowden, author of The Best Game Ever. With an eye for detail and a flair for stating the dramatic in a sufficiently understated way so as to make it more dramatic, Bowden weaves the story of the game many still say is the greatest ever played.

From My Library

The 1958 NFL championship game at Yankee Stadium between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts was a game for the ages. It would be the first nationally televised NFL championship game. It would pit, as Bowden aptly points out, the league’s stingiest defense (the Giants) against the league’s most powerful offense (the Colts). It would become the first NFL game to go to sudden death overtime…and it would officially awaken the consciousness of a nation to the sport that had long labored under the long shadow of major league baseball. Today, no sport is more widely followed by American sports fans. No league is more wildly successful and lucrative.

This was not the case in 1958.

In 1958, the great postwar boom was still in full stride, but some new and discordant notes had sounded…Just over the horizon was a decade of restless social, political, and cultural upheaval, but none of that was obvious yet. Americans had never been more affluent, and had never had more leisure. And pro football, which was about to catch hold, would just shoulder on through all this coming change, growing ever more popular and ever more rich.

The names involved in this championship game alone make it singular. Baltimore players sported name like John Unitas, Raymond Berry, Alan Ameche, Art Donovan, Lenny Moore, “Big Daddy” Lipscomb, and Gino Marchetti. The Giants fielded giants, as well. Their players included Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Rosey Grier, and Pat Summerall. The Colts were led by now legendary coach Weeb Ewbank, who would become the only man to win both the NFL and AFL championships as a head coach. Flanking Giants’ head coach Jim Lee Howell were offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry.

It was the greatest concentration of football talent ever assembled for a single game. On the field and roaming the sidelines, including Giants owners Wellington and Jack Mara, were seventeen future members of the NFL Hall of Fame.

The game itself was a masterpiece, but the stories surrounding the game were also the stuff of legend. From the wit and humor of the gregarious Art Donovan to the meticulous – obsessive, even – work habits of Raymond Berry and John Unitas, Bowden opens the curtains to the behind-the-scenes action and drama leading up to, surrounding, and following the great game.

The chapter on Raymond Berry depicts the story of achievement in the face of odds and athletic accomplishment despite physical limitations, the likes of which would never be written as a work of fiction because it would be considered entirely too fanciful. Writes Bowden:

The story of Raymond Berry is more than the story of an overlooked, talent-deprived young athlete who by dint of sheer effort, will, and dedication turns himself into a star. There are players who fit that description on every team…His personality and his obsessions changed not only his own life, but those of his teammates and the Colts’ organization, and ultimately the history of pro football.

The other stories and back stories are equally important and receive attention from Bowden’s keen eye and sharp pen. He doesn’t overlook the influence of the father of modern football, Paul Brown, on the game. He doesn’t miss the unlikely way the Colts got hold of the man who would become forever the gold standard for pro quarterbacks, John Unitas. He highlights the genius of Lombardi and Landry. He reveals the chess game that played out on the field between the defensive guru Landry, his star linebacker Sam Huff, and Unitas.

Adding to the book’s appeal are odd insertions of the stories of random fans who were watching the game. People whose names may have never appeared in a published work before and may never after give color and clarity to the meaning and magnitude of this game. Consider Ed Chaney, Jr…

At Henry Mack’s pub on Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Ed Chaney, Jr., one of about three dozen Colts’ fans watching on TV, called his boss at a nearby service station to say he would be late for work. The boss fired him. Chaney hung up happily and ordered another beer.

We may debate which is the greatest pro football game ever played, as my Dad would say, until the cows come home. But any honest debate, even a half century after the fact, must include the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. For people like me who were born after the fact – I would not enter the world until 1961 and would not develop a fully functional pro football consciousness until about 1970 – this book brings to life the game that changed the game forever, and the men who made it what it was.

The Best Game Ever may not be the greatest sports book ever. But for a true fan of the NFL, for a fan who wants to look beneath the glitz and glamor of today’s game and understand its roots, this book is a must read.

And it’s a good read, which makes it all the better.

Popularity: 4% [?]

As part of the SilverandBlueBlood.com Top Ten Top Ten Lists, I present for your amusement, argumentation, and amendment the top ten Dallas Cowboys non-players of all time. This would include coaches, management, ownership, and all other non-player personnel.

Plenty of men have played a role in team history and then gone on to make their real mark on the world in other places. In compiling this list, I concerned myself solely with the impact a person had on the Dallas Cowboys.

And now for the list:

10. Norv Turner, Offensive Coordinator (1989 – 1993). Head Coach Jimmy Johnson was the motivational and organizational leader of the team that would become a dynasty. Norv Turner was the X’s and O’s man. He was the steady hand at the wheel of an offense that was both remarkably simple and simply remarkable. Troy Aikman credits Turner with helping to mold him into the successful Hall of Fame quarterback he became. Norv Turner is the only assistant coach to make this top ten list…and he deserves to be here.

9. Stephen Jones, Executive Vice President (1989 – Present). Stephen has been credited with getting in Jerry’s ear about cutting ties with Terrell Owens. As he takes on a larger role and higher profile, Cowboys fans can at least take consolation in the fact that he is lucid. Where Jerry often engages in crazy talk no one can quite follow, Stephen is well-spoken and thoughtful in his communication. Stephen is involved heavily in the negotiation of player contracts and the management of the salary cap.

8. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1972 – Present). The brainchild of Tex Schramm, this is the most recognizable group of its kind in the world. They had a TV movie made about them in 1978 that received a 48% share in its time slot. They have toured the United States and overseas, performing for soldiers for the USO.

7. Barry Switzer, Head Coach (1994-1997) – Many see Switzer as a bumbling buffoon and a blight on the history of the franchise. Fans, still bitter over the departure of Jimmy Johnson while the team was at its zenith, saw the Switzer hiring

Where's My Couch?

as insult added to injury. Switzer was the antithesis of Johnson. Jimmy was a manipulative, mind-game playing, whip-cracking motivator. Switzer was a relaxed, laissez-faire coach who believed that the players, if not interfered with too much, would perform. They were men and he intended to treat them as such. Truthfully, Johnson’s approach was better suited to a young, inexperienced team. As the players gained experience and matured, the games he played would inevitably become less effective. Switzer may well have been a mistake, but he is one of only three coaches in team history to coach a Super Bowl winning team, and the only coach besides Johnson to win both an NCAA championship and a Super Bowl. Barry may well have been, as Jones once intimated, “one of five hundred” coaches who could have coached that particular team to a Super Bowl. but he is the one who did it. Besides, you have to love a guy who is so relaxed he is seen eating a hot dog on the sidelines while coaching in the Pro Bowl.

6. Gil Brandt, Vice President of Player Personnel (1960-1988). Brandt revolutionized the way NFL teams scouted and found players. He was the first to use computer analysis on prospects. He found prospects in small colleges, playing basketball, and running track. Cliff Harris, Drew Pearson, and Everson Walls were some of his undrafted, free agent triumphs. Brandt stood alongside Schramm and Landry as one of the architects of America’s Team.

5. Jerry Jones, Owner/General Manager (1989 – Present). Perhaps no NFL owner is more maligned than Jerry Jones. Fans of his team hate him with as much fervor (albeit for different reasons) as those who despise the Cowboys. Local media types have consistently called for him to fire himself as GM of the team, some going so far as to challenge him to do so in interviews. He did not endear himself to the Metroplex when, shortly after acquiring the team, he unceremoniously fired the city’s greatest icon, Coach Tom Landry. For all of his misfires, missteps, and miserable attempts at expressing himself, the man did oversee the resurrection of a franchise that had plummeted to the hard rock bottom of the NFL. He helped construct the first NFL team to win three Super Bowls in four years. While most pundits reserve all the credit for that accomplishment for Jimmy Johnson, that hardly seems fair. If not for Jones, Johnson would never have been given the opportunity to do the things he did.

4. Clint Murchison, Owner (1960 – 1984). Murchison was the antithesis of Jerry Jones. He was the ultimate non-meddling owner. He hired football men, gave them long contracts, and let them do their jobs. The result was twenty straight winning seasons from 1966-1985, five Super Bowl appearance, and two wins. The only gripe any fan would have about Murchison is that, when he sold the team, he sold it to a bum…Bum Bright.

3. Jimmy Johnson, Head Coach (1989 – 1994). Jimmy took over a franchise in decline. The whole thing bottomed out in his first year, when the team posted only one win. He had just one player on that team with superstar status: the

Jimmeh!

great Herschel Walker. He and Jones knew they needed much more than one aging star to put the team back on track, so they traded the running back to the Minnesota Vikings. It was the biggest trade in NFL history, and a coup for the Cowboys. Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, and other key pieces of the Cowboys soon-to-be-Super Bowl team became part of the haul from the Walker trade. Johnson became the first coach to win both an NCAA championship and a Super Bowl. He won back-to-back Super Bowls and was set to make a run at a third. The relationship between Johnson and Jones, however, had deteriorated to the point that Jimmy ended up accepting a buy-out and walking away from the team he had helped to build. Most people blamed Jones for the loss of Jimmy. There was, in fact, plenty of blame to go around. Nonetheless, Jimmy had forever made his mark on the franchise and the league, and established his legendary status.

2. Tex Schramm, Team President/General Manager (1960 – 1989). During his reign over the Cowboys’ organization, Schramm was widely recognized as one of the NFL’s most powerful GMs. He had carte blanche from owner Murchison

Architect Par Excellence

to operate the club, including voting on behalf of the organization at league meetings. Schramm hired Landry. Schramm envisioned and brought to reality the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Schramm aided in the negotiation of the merger between the AFL and NFL. Schramm was the chief influence behind the rookie combine as it is known today. A bigger than life figure with one of the all-time great names in pro football history, Schramm was ultimately slighted an honor he greatly deserved. As the founder of the Ring of Honor and, for twenty-nine years, its one-man election committee, Tex was himself denied induction due to a strained relationship with new Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. In fact, Texas E. Schramm was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame before he was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. Finally, in 2003, Jones decided to put Schramm in, but the great architect of America’s Team died before his induction.

1. Tom Landry, Head Coach (1960-1989). Hardly anything need be said here. Any legitimate list of top five coaches

Man in the Funny Hat

in NFL history would have the name of Tom Landry on it. His 29-year tenure is surpassed only by George Halas. His 270 career wins is third all-time. His team posted an unprecedented twenty consecutive winning seasons. He coached the Cowboys to five Super Bowls, winning two of them. He was the architect of the Flex defense and the Mutliple offense. He revived the Shotgun.  Tom Landry is not only the greatest icon of the Dallas Cowboys; he is the greatest icon in the city’s history. No politician, no businessman, no athlete or celebrity ranks above the man Roger Staubach affectionately dubbed “The Man in the Funny Hat.”

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Jerry Jones likes to make a splash. With the impending opening of his new stadium in Arlington, Texas, the Cowboys’

Bigger is Better

owner will do just that.

One of the most impressive features of the Jones Mahal is the world record-setting scoreboard, which stretches from twenty yard-line to twenty yard-line. Andrea Ahles of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Stephen Jones told the University of Texas at Arlington Business Week audience:

“It cost $40 million to build Texas Stadium. At the new Arlington stadium, the scoreboards alone cost more than $40 million.”

Once the scoreboard is installed and operable, Mitsubishi intends to apply to the Guiness’ Book of World Records to have it listed as the world’s largest. In her report, Ahles reveals the following data concerning the scoreboard/replay screen:

• Each sideline display is 160 by 71 feet, and contains 10.5 million LEDs
• The area of each sideline screen is 11,393 square feet
• The end zone screens are a mere 50 by 28 feet
• Total weight about 390,000 pounds

As a Cowboys fan, I say that all of that is well and good. This is Texas, and we always like to do things bigger. My biggest concern, however, is to know that we will see seventy-one foot tall Cowboys scoring more TDs than their giant opponents on those screens.

Texas Stadium was unique, original, and a marvel in its day, too. The thing that made that place special, however, was that it housed one of the NFL’s greatest teams, a team that made eight Super Bowl appearances, won five rings, set a record for consecutive winning seasons, and was labeled by NFL films as “America’s Team.”

If the Cowboys lay an egg this year the way they did last year, it will be a world record-sized egg. The Jones family just raised the stakes on their own success. If they fail to deliver a winner, they will turn their dream into a giant nightmare, reminiscent of those grainy old Japanese Godzilla flicks.

Jerry and company ought to know that around here a Mitsubishi triumph is far less impressive than a Lombardi Trophy.

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Roger Goodell followed up news about a bad idea, namely taking the traditional Thanksgiving Day games away from the Cowboys and Lions and spreading them around, with news of an idea whose time has come. Fox News reports that Goodell has confirmed that one of the major items discussed at the Owners’ meetings is the expansion of the NFL regular season from 16 games to 17 or 18 games.

“We are looking at a variety of formats for restructuring,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the conclusion of the meetings. “Our goal is to improve the quality of what we’re doing.”

That is as much about decreasing the number of preseason games, which Goodell acknowledged are not quality games, as adding to the regular season. The latter, of course, is a way “to grow the game,” according to Goodell, as well as create additional revenue.

Few things are a bigger waste of a fan’s time than those final two weeks of preseason football. I can only think of MLB games any time prior to September, any NBA regular season game, all NHL regular season games and cottage cheese. Moreover, being the violent sport that it is, playing four or five preseason games only increases the probability that a few teams will start – and, sometimes, even conclude – their season without the services of a key player due to unnecessary injury.

We will cross our fingers and wait expectantly for the good news that the deed is done.

Popularity: 2% [?]