Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Wednesday Morning Blog

Mac Engle takes a good look at the Cowboys off-season spending ….

Jerry Jones prevents himself from saying "money well spent," but, every week, he gains confidence the big cash he put down this off-season wasn't dollars down the drain.

The Cowboys owner/general manager spent nearly $33 million in guaranteed money during his free-agent spending spree. The trip to the NFL's Free Agent Mall included signing cornerbacks Anthony Henry and Aaron Glenn, guard Marco Rivera, nose tackle Jason Ferguson and quarterback Drew Bledsoe.

With his team at 4-2 sitting atop the NFC East, Jones can have some satisfaction that his large investment is, thus far, yielding nice dividends.


I would have to agree with the article. They have really spent well. They knew what they wanted, they went and got it, and it is working. Despite the fact that it is not cool to acknowledge that Parcells is good at what he does, I will run the risk and do so anyway. I guess I don’t agree with that part of the article, the part that suggests that Jerry is the architect of this off-season. That is a good one.

New NBA Dress Code


The following is a list of items that players are not allowed to wear at any time while on team or league business:

Sleeveless shirts

Shorts

T-shirts, jerseys, or sports apparel (unless appropriate for the event (e.g., a basketball clinic), team-identified, and approved by the team)

Headgear of any kind while a player is sitting on the bench or in the stands at a game, during media interviews, or during a team or league event or appearance (unless appropriate for the event or appearance, team-identified, and approved by the team)

Chains, pendants, or medallions worn over the player's clothes

Sunglasses while indoors

Headphones (other than on the team bus or plane, or in the team locker room)


Blackistone offers his thoughts on the new code

FC Dallas readies for the playoff push to Frisco


No. 1-seeded San Jose and No. 4 Los Angeles will slug it out in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

No matter how it turns out, the winning team won't come away unscathed. That is great news for FC Dallas.

While those sides are pounding each other, FC Dallas (No. 2) will face Colorado (No. 3) in a series devoid of the venom shared in the California matchup.

Dallas' road to the MLS Cup is about as favorable a matchup as a club could ask for, especially considering the championship will be played at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco on Nov. 13.

Dallas went 2-0-2 against the Rapids in the regular season.

The aggregate-goals two-game playoff series begins Saturday in Denver, where Dallas beat the Rapids 2-1 and tied 0-0.

The second leg is scheduled be played at Pizza Hut Park on Oct. 29, where Dallas earned a 0-0 draw with Colorado two matches ago. The first local meeting was a 2-1 victory for Dallas at the Cotton Bowl.

From a personnel standpoint, Dallas is simply more talented than Colorado in attacking potential.

Dallas boasts a high-powered offense with Ronnie O'Brien (6 goals, 11 assists), Carlos Ruiz (12 goals, 2 assists), Roberto Mina (7 goals, 4 assists) and Ramon Nunez (5 goals, 3 assists). Colorado features Jeff Cunningham's 12 goals and 3 assists, but can't match Dallas' depth and creativity.

Anything less than a victory for FC Dallas in this opening series will be a case of underachieving.


Peter King MMQB – Tuesday Edition



Astros try again tonight

This is great! glossary of terms from the 1920’s for Gribble’s new bit

Quick hits for Carolina 21, Detroit 20

Boss Bailey is a phenomenal athlete, his interception and return was breathtaking…Steve Smith broke another 80 yarder..Detroit could not run the ball to save their lives…Jake Delhomme looks awful. Airmailed 2 passes in the 2nd Quarter that both were returned for touchdowns…Shaun Rogers is the best DT in football if you ask me…Detroit’s defense is playoff caliber, the offense is still a joke. And it isn’t just Harrington, although I should point out that he looks about as bad as any starting QB I can remember seeing, but the line is horrible, too…Both teams DL’s were very impressive…8 Turnovers in the game made this one sloppy, too. Delhomme was knocked out of the game by Kenoy Kennedy’s big hit while Jake was sliding. Chris Weinke came in with the score 20-14 Detroit and 3:00 to play. He then threw 6 consecutive passes to Ricky Proehl with the last one ending up as the game winning touchdown…Terrence Holt was attempting to cover Proehl…

Chiefs 28, Redskins 21

Jared Allen is one of the least talked about sackers in football…Sure seems like Chris Cooley is target #1 for the Redskins. Very similar to how Frank Wycheck used to be in Tennessee…I know this is unfair, but I can’t convince myself Trent Green is anything better than ordinary…Santana Moss is so fast it is scary, but I guess we knew that, didn’t we?...I think it is time to get Larry Johnson more work…Priest is still very good, but Johnson is a real weapon now…Derrick Johnson doesn’t dominate consistently like I thought he would…Chris Samuels is so good at LT for Washington, but his battle with Jared Allen was so/so. Allen would switch to RDE and LDE and get sacks from both on consecutive plays…The Redskins lost this game in the turnover battle (-3)…Otherwise, they outplayed the Chiefs in Arrowhead…


21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Orange is GAY.

Anonymous said...

Taking time to decide what colors are gay...is GAY.

Anonymous said...

just took a second.

Anonymous said...

... still GAY

cracker1743 said...

Bob, you're starting to sound like Larry King in your NFL quick hits.

"My two cents...Kevin Jones is the best RB in football!...If you only see one movie for the rest of your life, it should be "Gattica"...Santana Moss is so fast he could catch that fart and paint it green!... The more I think about it, the more I realize one of the great figures of the 20th century has to be Leonard Maltin!"

That is, unless you were going for the Blackie Sherrod effect, in which case you really need Clarence the Janitor and random gunshots in the background.

Anonymous said...

(Taken from ESPN.com)

Mr. Buccigross,
According to the data I was able to find, the NHL plus/minus mark for all 912 skaters from [the NHL's] last [season] was a minus 313. Now this made no sense, so I tried to figure out how that was possible. This is what I found out.

Plus/minus considers it an EVEN situation when, at the end of the game, the goalie is pulled (since technically this is NOT a special teams situation). I was able to find 189 empty-net goals that were scored last year.

Therefore, since it was technically a five-on-five situation, the regular plus/minus applies. But since the goalie was pulled, it would actually be a six-on-five situation, meaning that there would be an aggregate score of DEFENSE (minus-5) and OFFENSE (plus-6) for an overall total of plus-1. That means the 189 ENG would make the league's overall plus/minus a plus-189. However, if you simply add together the plus/minus numbers of all skaters from the 2003-04 season, their total for plus/minus is minus-313.

What gives? Can you help to answer this mystery? Thanks for your time.

Ray Flowers

-Buccigross:
My head just exploded.


Hey Sports Sturm, any answer?

Anonymous said...

Regarding the crazy +/- question, the one thing that you didn't account for is short-handed goals. If you take a look at shorthanded goals, you will see that if someone scores a shorty, the scoring team gains a +1 (for a total of +4) and the defending team gams a -1 (for a total of -5). That could be part of it. Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

Does Blackistone see racism in EVERYTHING that doesn't favor blacks?

It certainly seems like it to me.

Anonymous said...

****NEWS FLASH*****
norm is annoying, who cares if he doesnt know what kind of team tech is. norm has NO common sense.

cracker1743 said...

Re: Blackistone -- yes, he has an agenda. And he is also a moron. Treat him like Skip Bayless.

(Favorite joke from Stevens and Pruitt in the early 80s = "What's the first thing you do when you open the Dallas Morning News? -- 'Skip' Bayless.")

Rimshot. Hey, screw me!

Anonymous said...

PLEASE DO NOT read Blackistones articles! thats exactly what the DMN wants you to do!

We all know what he is going to say about the dress code...

Anonymous said...

Keving Blackistones favorite website.

http://thatisracist.ytmnd.com/

Anonymous said...

Kevin even, damn these spastic fingers....

PHE said...

Bob, LOVE the 20's slang! Keep it up! Don't let those two palookas (Gribs and Dan) gum up your works!

Flappin'

Pete

Anonymous said...

If Cowlishaw had written that column, nobody would have raised an eyebrow.

Anonymous said...

If Cowlishaw had written that column, he wouldn't of played the race card. Guess what, white players are affected by the dress code also.

Anonymous said...

Leave it to Blackistone to make it a race issue. It's about dressing like an adult when representing your employer.

Even you and Dan learned about dressing like grown-ups, eh?

cheers,

gary

Anonymous said...

I'm no fan of the hip-hop culture, but a dress code is not gonna help any player hit a 15 ft jumper, or move without the ball, or run the fast break. These are the things that make the game watchable, and the absence of these thing is why I have stopped watching the NBA.

And one more thing... GO 'STROS... WORLD SERIES HERE WE COME !!!!

Dano
Houston

curtis said...

The KC defense is having some difficulties playing up to the expectations of the city-but shouldn't they? It's not easy to replace Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith. As a Chief fan, I only hope that one day soon we will have a balanced attack on both sides of the ball, instead of having the #1 offense and no defense like the last few years, or having the #1 defense and no offense like the 90's.

Anonymous said...

Here's a thought for Blackistone...

You know, it sucks that they make us wear sport coats and ties to work everyday at my current job. But the funny thing is, even though the work force here is probably around 25% black, we all have the exact same dress code. Is it supposed to work differently than that? Does that mean the company I work for are a bunch of racists? Now I'm confused...

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's just my experience, but I've shot off 2-3 e-mails to him regarding prior columns in which he alleges racism (i.e. Tyrone Willingham firing), yet he doesn't respond even when confronted with valid, even damning, points.

Yeah, and firing Willingham and hiring Weis was a horrible decision for ND wasn't it? Man, they went right in the tank after that. And look at Washington, didn't they just nearly beat USC last weekend? Oh, yeah, maybe not...