Monday Without Cowboys Angst

Lots of links, very little original content today, but that is the way the cookie crumbles on a weekend with no Cowboys and no relevant college football on Saturday.

Irvin, at best, makes a very poor decision …

Mr. Irvin told the AP that the drug pipe police found in his car belonged to an old friend who had left a Houston rehab center to spend Thanksgiving with the Irvin family in their Carrollton home.

"I know the type of demons they have to fight and I am going to help them, because it's the only way I can keep them from getting to my family. I have to clean up my friends because they are around my boys. It's upsetting."

Mr. Irvin said he put the pipe in his car rather than leave it in his house where his four children might find it. He said he intended to throw it away but forgot. Mr. Irvin would not tell The Associated Press his friend's name.

Again, even if you buy his story, you still have to suggest that the dude should realize that he cannot decide to “hold his buddy’s crack pipe”.

Lebreton on the case …

Back in February, the first time Irvin did not make the Hall of Fame cut, I wrote quite a bit about the football aspect of it all. I was checking it out this morning to review it, and thought you might want to do the same thing:

February 8, 2005 and February 9, 2005 …

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From the “you cannot write this stuff” department, Aggie tosses Horse feces on the Longhorns band ….

A sophomore member of Texas A&M University's Parsons Mounted Cavalry was charged Friday with throwing horse feces onto members of the University of Texas band before the A&M-UT football game.

John Richmond Sullivan, 20, was seen by a University Police Department lieutenant throwing a shovel full of horse feces onto band members at Kyle Field at about 10 a.m. Friday, according to an officer's affidavit.

UT band director Robert Carnochan told police that he and the band members did not want to press criminal charges, though they did want Texas A&M to discipline Sullivan, the court documents state.

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Eagles accuse Jerry Jones of tampering while on the Ticket! …

Click here for the audio …
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Mavs try to make plans without Josh Howard for a while …

Stackhouse is eager to return, but the Mavericks want to make sure his right knee is free from swelling before he makes his season debut. Doug Christie was waived last week, further weakening the depth at shooting guard and small forward.

"We're pretty light in that position without Stackhouse and with the Christie situation," Nowitzki said. "Obviously, I'm concerned. But what are you going to do? We've never seen him hurt. So we'll have to respond."

Coach Avery Johnson has several options for altering the playing rotation. He has had success with small guards Jason Terry and Devin Harris on the floor at the same time and could move Marquis Daniels to Howard's small forward spot.

Or he could slide Keith Van Horn into the lineup, with Nowitzki moving to small forward for a bigger look.

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Jere Lehtinen is back with a vengeance …

Lehtinen has points in five of the past six games, including four goals and two assists. He scored the first goal Saturday night in a 3-1 victory at Nashville and continues to lead the Stars with 12 goals this season.

Though scoring is up throughout the league, it's hard not to notice the 32-year-old Lehtinen's resurgence this year. With three game-winning goals in only 23 games, he is one shy of his total from 2003-04. And the winger needs only one more goal to reach 13, his total in 58 games that season.

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Another week, another new and exciting way to get a loss Eagles 19, Packers 14 …And yes, I still care…

Coakley not having a blast in St Louis …

"It's very frustrating when you're not on the field and you feel as though you could help," Coakley said. "When you're standing on the sideline, that's not the place you want to be. If you have an ounce of competitiveness in your spirit, in your bones, you want to be out there on the field competing with the guys.

"So, it gets tough at times. ... But I can't worry about what the coaches are doing. If I try to focus on what they're doing, then I'm not focused on playing football. I'm not going to get caught up in, why this guy or that guy is not playing. When you do play, just go out there and make plays."

A nice feature on the new Rangers GM …save for this very concerning quote:

Nevertheless, Daniels stressed at the GMs' meetings, "We're not the Yankees. We're not the Mets. We're not the Red Sox. We are a mid-to-lower-third-tier-payroll team. For us to accomplish our goals, we're going to need to continually be developing our own players.

" ... I don't want to be a team that has one [good] year. I'd love to have success at any point, but I want to be able to have success and sustain it for the long term."

Mid to lower third payroll team? The “lower third” constitutes teams 21-30 in major league baseball. DFW is media market #6. You do the math.

Here is some weekend +/- numbers for the Mavericks thanks to Mike Bacsik:

Memphis vs Dallas Loss Game 12

Terry -12, Daniels 0, Howard -4, Nowitzki -7, Dampier -7
Harris -24, Van Horn -16, Diop +1, Powell -16, Armstrong -5, Marshall -5, Mbenga -5

Dallas vs Miami Game 11

Terry +5, Daniels +23, Howard +12, Nowitzki +1, Dampier +2
Harris +9, Diop +7, Van Horn +5, Powell +1

Leia’s metal bikini.com …I swear.