Friday, September 29, 2006

T.O.T.G.I.F.




That’s right! The Cowboys actually have a game this week


Officially, Owens is listed as questionable on the injury report for Sunday's game at Tennessee. Parcells said a final decision on whether Owens will play will come Saturday night.

The Cowboys have contingencies in case Owens does not play. Sam Hurd, a rookie free agent, said he worked some with the first team Thursday, and Parcells added Patrick Crayton into the mix of possibly taking turns in Owens' spot.

"You wouldn't know he had a hand injury," said cornerback Nate Jones, who worked against Owens some in practice. "He was out there doing what he does."

What will Parcells have to see in today's practice and the Saturday walkthrough to make a decision on Owens?

"The same thing I need to see from every player – that he looks like he's functional and prepared with the game plan," Parcells said.

Owens politely declined comment Thursday. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was not made available for comment. And Owens' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, did not return phone calls.
As Owens sat alone on one of the blue couches in the center of the Cowboys' locker room, cameras filmed and clicked. He read a copy of Dallas Cowboys Weekly and wore a black t-shirt that read, "U big dummy," with a picture of comedian Redd Foxx.


Police Department drops “attempted suicide” label …which has really been my only beef with everything to begin with.


Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said that the incident had been reclassified as an accidental overdose Thursday – but he was emphatic that officers who initially responded to the call acted properly and correctly reported what they saw and heard.
"We have great confidence in the accuracy of the original officers' offense report," he said during a Thursday afternoon news conference where un-redacted copies of the original incident report were distributed, as well as a narrative detailing the follow-up investigation.

"We'd have to get inside Mr. Owens' head to know whether it was an attempted suicide or an accidental overdose," he said. "What I'm saying is, I don't know what happened."


Right. They don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened. And you don’t know what happened.

So isn’t the issue here this: Why did the entire world label it as a suicide for the entire day on Wednesday? Owens will never live that down, and now all that happens is a small, qualified retraction?

I am not saying the officers did not report exactly what happened. What I am saying today is what I was saying on Wednesday. He wasn’t trying to kill himself. Now, let’s move on with our lives.

And his trainer is now available


James "Buddy" Primm, Terrell Owens' personal trainer, said Thursday that the Cowboys wide receiver had relieved him of his services and was no longer speaking to him.
In a telephone conversation with The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Owens acknowledged as much and said Mr. Primm "had no business" discussing details of his private life with the news media.

Mr. Primm, 55, said Wednesday that Mr. Owens had been distraught over not being able to see his son, who celebrated his 7th birthday Monday. Hours later, he said, the receiver's fiancée, a woman he had dated for three years, ended their engagement.
"He shouldn't have been telling you anything about my personal life anyway," Mr. Owens said. "That's where it stops – right there. He should have never said anything remotely involving me or my personal life, especially my son or even my ex-girl."


LA Times looks at the media’s role, including Deion and Mike ….



Frogs, this is no way to act when you are on “elite probation”. Yet again, TCU whips the Big 12, then trips against others …BYU looks like a nice team, but you got to beat them in Fort Worth…


Losses always sting, and the soul searching that follows does, too.

TCU coach Gary Patterson said blame starts with him for the Horned Frogs' 31-17 loss Thursday night. Senior quarterback Jeff Ballard declined compliments for a 296-yard passing night, countering instead with instances when the offense failed.

BYU beat No. 17 TCU at Amon G. Carter Stadium on four days' rest, snapping the nation's longest winning streak at 13 games and putting in jeopardy the Frogs' goals of winning the Mountain West Conference and advancing to the BCS.

"I am a pretty good person to close the door and move on," Patterson said. "We've done it every time we ever played before. The bottom line to it is, you've got to go find a way to win."

The Frogs play again Thursday at Utah in another crucial conference game, and another loss would all but close the door on the Frogs defending their 2005 conference title. A BCS bowl would become a goal for next season's team.


Where it went wrong last night


No, the rubble of this unexpected defeat showed evidence of missed tackles, of an offense that sputtered and of a pass defense that allowed too many BYU receivers to roam free.

"When you throw long balls, you've got to make plays," Patterson said of his defense.
"In the first three games, we made plays. Tonight, we didn't make plays."

TCU's freshman cornerbacks, for once, played like freshmen.

Shoddy tackling sometimes suggests an inattentive week of practice. Not so, Patterson said. He claimed to have seen no hangovers from the giddy 12-3 victory over Texas Tech.

"I didn't think so," Patterson said, when asked whether his team's thoughts were still stuck on the Tech game. "At least, we tried not to.

"Every time we seem to have a big win here in the last two years, we've followed with a loss."

No, this wasn't Texas Tech, a neighbor that needed no introduction. This was BYU, a
Mountain West Conference rival that was running a variant of Tech's offense.

And with one telling difference -- Tech's quarterback was inexperienced sophomore Graham Harrell. BYU's was senior John Beck, whose maturity and poise were apparent.


Jimmy Burch Big 12 Insider focuses on Aggie/Red Raider


The Aggies head into Saturday's matchup (2:30 p.m., WFAA/8) against Tech (3-1) with a new defensive coordinator, a fresh scheme and some lingering nightmares about past matchups against the Red Raiders' pass-happy offense. They also enter with a fresh resolve.

Players have been pointing to this game for months, safety Melvin Bullitt said during Tuesday's news conference in College Station.

"Right now, this is our bowl game," Bullitt said. "We want to go out there, beat Tech and show everyone we're for real this year."

With a victory Saturday at Kyle Field, the Aggies build on their budding confidence and boost bowl hopes. Another loss reinforces the notion that little has changed since last year's 56-17 blowout in Lubbock, the Red Raiders' fourth victory in the past five meetings in this series.

Warren, a senior, understands Saturday's significance for players and coach Dennis Franchione, who is 20-19 overall and 10-14 in the Big 12 since taking over at A&M.
"We're four years into this program, and the sense of urgency right now is very high," Warren said. "People realize we've only had one winning season out of the last three. So, we really want to get back to a bowl game...and just be the old Texas A&M that used to be up there with Oklahoma and Texas."

That requires passing Tech in the South standings. To do that, A&M must contain Tech's passing game. That's been a daunting challenge for the Aggies, who have surrendered an average of 47 points per game in the past four matchups. Last year, 433 of the Raiders' 627 total yards came through the air.


Even though you are well aware of my inability to predict football results, here are my Predictions for this week:

Texas Tech 31, Texas A&M 24

Aggie is going to have to show me they are still capable of beating good programs. Tech is no world beater, but they were almost 6 Touchdowns better 11 months ago.

Dallas 21, Tennessee 17

The Titans have a lot of talent, and if Kerry Collins hits his open receivers, they can beat you. This is a very important focus point for the 2006 Cowboys.


Youtube:

In honor of playing the Titans, here is the Music City Miracle - 5:58



The Peter Crouch Bicycle kick



Steve Carrell learns to play goalie – 1:55

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, Gay, and proud of it!

Merkin

Anonymous said...

More T.O! More T.O!

No funeral.

Merkin is getting old too.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Bob, I'm glad YOU can be clairvoyant and know what T.O. was thinking. As for me, if it comes down to T.O. or the cops, I'm going to believe and support the Dallas police.

Anonymous said...

"Looks like someone took the slow train from Philly."

Anonymous said...

I think both are shady.

Andy Douthitt said...

I am officially over T.O.'d. Wow, I love this guy but I hope we never hear from him the rest of the year. Just produce on the field man. That's all we ask.

Anyway,

Aggie football.

Being a Sooner fan, I am partial, but living in Texas my whole life, I respect and appreciate Texas football. I love it. Having said that, there was nothing better than the SWC and the awesome AtM teams and players of the 80s and early 90s. How has that program gone from the Wrecking Crew to just an average every day team now?

Bucky Richardson, Quentin Coryatt, Dat, even Reggie MCNeal. Great players and great systems they were in. What now? I can't name one player on that team and RC Slocum has to be rolling over in his living grave. This is really sad and I really hope that AtM can turn it around in the next couple of years.

Anyway, sorry Ags. This must be a really hard time being a fan of that. Just beat Tech because that place has no tradition and is a toilet. Even the uniforms piss me off and don't get me started with former OU great Mike LEach. He is just plain weird.

gig em.

Anonymous said...

Should be a lot of fun tomorrow, but as a UT fan, I'd love to see Tech blast Aggy into oblivion again. Aggy doesn't give Tech the respect they deserve and I hope they put Aggy in their place tomorrow.

As for TCU, I definitely feel for them as I would have loved to have seen them get into the BCS since they're an old SWC team. Bummer.

Anonymous said...

As a Texas born Sooner fan (yes, I should be shot for this), I have to echo Andy's sentiments. Hell, Jackie Sherril is rolling over in his living grave.

I want Aggy to return to the elite of the Big 12.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Music City Miracle. I got to see it on TV as it unfolded and I was shocked I saw history.

TCU was over-rated and will be. You have to like BYU's style of football. I'll tell you what I told Jen Floyd, as long as strength of schedule is an issue in BCS, you will not have a national champ in Dallas or Fort Worth.

Raider over Aggie as predicted, but this is not for bowls or cash, this is for legitimacy and we all know legitimacy = pride.

BTW - I took a stroll through ESPN's list of players by college. Aggie has a TON out there far > Longhorn. It makes me wonder if the program has anything to do with longevity in the NFL. Remember, those were Slocam's boys.

Jef

Anonymous said...

I've got a box of kleenex for you Douthitt. (typical Sooner) There should be a rule that if you didn't go to a school in the conference you can't talk s about schools in that conference.

Anonymous said...

anon at 9:31,

Is there anything in Andy's post that isn't correct? If you're an Aggie fan, can you be happy with the current state of the program?

cracker1743 said...

This Aggie team better be respecting Tceh, b/c we've been getting our ace's kicked for quite a while. And please, please, do not say the word "bowl" again. For the love of God, just show me the program's turning around and give me a couple of quality wins. Beating juco's and nearly crapping your britches against Army doesn't count.

For all you Cowboy fans in Houston (I think it's just me and Jay), the NFL has yanked the Cowboy games off the local FM station here. They say out-of-market teams can't market themselves in another team's market. But yet, I can't watch the Rangers or Cowboys on the MLB or NFL tv packages b/c those teams are deemed to be "in-market" for Houston. WTF? Those stupid rules make no sense. Trust me, showing Cowboy games down here in no way cuts in to the Texans' fan base, it just releases their hostages. B*stards.

Anonymous said...

is this the same dallas PD with the fake drugs?

Sturminator said...

Fake Gribble-

I guess I am saying the cops just admitted they didn't know, nor did they have any way of knowing. So, my question is why did they say they knew on Wednesday? They can't reverse the damage, although they are not worried about that.

Bob

Anonymous said...

"Ugh...I hope it's urine."

Anonymous said...

31-24 Tech, are you crazy? Allow me to inform you of a closely guarded secret -- A&M is terrible. Since A&M is terrible and Tech is ok I am calling thsi one more like 48-17.

I am no huge fan of either team but I can see past the end of my face. Bob you should surrender your sports expert card after A&M gets blown off the field.

Anonymous said...

Woo Hoo!!! It's payday! I've got me 978.36 reasons to be alive. Scoreboard!

Kill me.

Andy Douthitt said...

my response to 9:31

dude, I am not talking s about the aggies. I am just having a legitimate sports opinion about the state of college football in aggy-land.

Right now we have talent in Texas football in this order:

UT
TCU
TECH
BAYLOR
AGGIE
RICE
UNT
SMU

You all should be 2, best case scenario because of the rise of UT football over the past decade. AtM over the past decade has fallen off the face of the earth in Texas. Right now, even Okie State would beat you all by double digits. Coming from Sooner, that is ridiculous.

Speaking of the Big 12, we should have the old SWC back in place along with a handful of the old Big 8 powerhouses to make up a solid re-alignment of southern schools. I don't like the current format at all.

Anonymous said...

C'mon, do we really want or need Houston, Rice and SMU back? The current Big 12 is fine. The old SWC was great in it's day, but things and times change.

I wouldn't want them to go back to the way the old SWC was again now. TCU is the only former SWC school that I wouldn't mind seeing play the Big 12 schools on a regular basis.

Is TCU better than Tech and A&M right now? Sure they are, but none of them are anything to really write home about this year anyway. Texas is easily the best of an average lot, but the Big 12 will be a lot stronger next year once these QBs get some experience.

Flaco said...

"I can't be on top of you 24/7..."

Anonymous said...

Andy --

You forgot couger high.

Andy Douthitt said...

your right... can't forget cougar high.

Add them to the mix below SMU.

Anonymous said...

yeah, everyone knows the dallas police don't lie....unless it comes to cocaine as evidence in a trial.....

good work sturm, this is just the stupid media trying to speculate a story....

Anonymous said...

In other news, Morrow's the captain.

Anonymous said...

Cougar high still beat Okie State.

So either they are underrated, or Aggie is still overrated.

Anonymous said...

1st of all..."That's what she said."

"Next time, maybe you'll estimate me."

Flaco said...

Im concerned about this whole Morrow captain business. (I mean, I and my signed Morrow jersey LOVE Morrow..but...)

Did anyone ask Modano about this?

Is his play going to suffer?

Not that it matters, because Turco sucks anyways....!!

Anonymous said...

29th and suck it!

Fake Sturm...you're great! But I don't really understand your statement... "Yeah...they should have just sprinkled some crack on him." Are you agreeing with 10:59 Anonymous's sarcastic treatment of the police, or are you directing sarcasm at 10:59 Anonymous, implying your respect for the POlice and your disdain for conspiracy theorists? I think it could be read either way. If you are disagreeing, perhaps you should have refered to 10:59 Anonymous as a "Moron" or "Jackass" or "F'ing AssMonkey" and then proceeded with the sarcasm?

Thanks for your fine comments...
TheHumorHelper

Anonymous said...

humor helper,

the cocaine is not a theory, they actually used fake cocaine to secure convictions...i'm just saying its foolish to take to Dallas Police at their word...

thanks for the humor help

Anonymous said...

I think it's more foolish to take T.O. and his publicist at their word.

Bottom line, the Dallas fire and police folks possibly saved T.O. from a bad reaction or death due to medication, and then get thrown under the bus for their efforts.

Note to Dallas officials: the next time they call, let them die. We don't need their kind in our city. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Cracker--
I'm another Dallas expat living in Houston now. I did notice that the Dallas/Jax game was not on a local Houston station as I was driving in from Austin and I lost the signal from San Antonio. But you're saying that the NFL says that no one in Houston can carry the Cowboys radio feed? That's ridiculous...

Does that mean that when the Texans and Cowboys play at the same time this Sunday that they aren't going to freaking have it on TV either?

Yeah I just checked and Shoot-me-in-the-freaking-head, they aren't. With the Astros winning and the Cowboys off the TV, this place just fell into the Seventh Circle.

Unknown said...

don't forget the kyle field factor!!!

The Texas A&M University - 48
Texas Tek - 1

Anonymous said...

A&M - Tech 06 - "Battle of the Spares" This time who cares.

Anonymous said...

fake gribble,

you think it is better to take the dallas pd at their word...hmm, i wonder if the people who were falsley accused by the Dallas PD for cocaine distribution would trust the Dallas PD.

i'm just surprised the police report wasn't written in crayon.

Anonymous said...

!:21 Anonymous,
I understand your point. The cocaine scandal is a huge black mark on the record of the Dallas police and the DA's office. But if I look at this situation on its own merits, I have T.O. on one side and the Dallas police on the other. I don't see what the Dallas police had to gain by making up something on the report, but I can see what T.O. had to gain by trying to spin it another way.

Anonymous said...

fake gribble,

i'm not saying they purposely mislead anyone, i think their incompetance led to the police error.

Anonymous said...

F.

U.

Tom.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm better 99.99999% of us were not in TO's loft when this whole thing went down.

Therefore, we don't know between the cop who filled out the initial report to Kim "TU" Etheredge, who's entirely being truthful.

Anonymous said...

"Battle of the Spares" This time who cares.

Kinda like the OU-Texas game this year...looks good on paper, no BCS though. HSO.

Anonymous said...

Bill Parcells is fat.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Music City Miracle clip.

I am a HUGE Titan fan and was in a sports bar watching the game. I was deflated after the Bill field goal and went to drain about 30 minutes worth of beer I'd been drinking and missed the entire play live. :( I came out of the bathroom and the whole bar was going crazy.

BTW, Bob you keep missing the key point about the TO policy report. The PRELIMINARY (and leaked) police report stated they thought it was a suicde attempt based on the initial facts they had when the report was completed.

While an official document, it was not a complete investigation.

The fault lies with the media for giving a preliminary report the same credence as a completed investigation. There are many incident/arrest reports that are signficantly different than the final report.

Unfortunately, the media was in such a frenzy to report this issue they gave the preliminary report too much credit - and are now trying to backpedal and blame it on someone else. You can't blame the police for a leaked preliminary report being taken as the same as a completed investigation. The real problem was the media's zest to report facts/develop conclusions based on the partial facts available at the time.

Anonymous said...

"I love inside jokes. I hope to be a part of one someday."

Good weekend everybody, and be sure to pack your fun jeans.

Anonymous said...

ed,

good point, i think most of the blame rests with the media not the police.

the musers were by far the worse offenders. they basically had a speculation round table regarding a person's alleged suicide attempt then they play the "poor media, everyone blames us card" i swear george has to be the dumbest human being on the face of the planet and anything that comes out of his fat, hamburger inhaling mouth should immediately be ignored.

Anonymous said...

The difference between an "Accidental OD" report and an "Attempted Suicide" report is what the people at the scene tell responding officers.

Anonymous said...

better = betting.

anon at 3:02,

The media was simply reading off the leaked initial report. It specifically mentioned the words 'Attempted Suicide'. How should the Musers have handled that situation on Wednesday?

Anonymous said...

Leave it to ESPN's Bill Simmons to put this whole story in PERFECT perspective. Amazing it took a columnist from LA to bring some sanity to this story...
--------------------
Why are we still wondering what happened with T.O.? Isn't it clear? He took some painkillers, received a physical therapy session (which always puts you in a weird mental state) and accidentally took a couple more painkillers. That was followed by his PR lady coming in, mistakenly overreacting and calling police. When they showed up, a zoned out T.O. acted erratically enough that police jumped to the wrong conclusion. They took him to the hospital and realized he was fine. And then everyone subsequently tried to cover it up the fact that he has been depressed/moody/sullen enough lately that his PR person thought it was CONCEIVABLE that he could have tried to kill himself.

Basically, we learned people close to T.O. believe he's moody, erratic and potentially a threat to himself. All of which we already knew. Making this one of the single dumbest sagas of all-time ... unless you're a Cowboys fan and it's threatening to derail your season. Then it's something else.

(By the way, it's truly alarming when Terry Glenn is considered the sane receiver on a football team.)

Anonymous said...

Poor Aggy, yet another second division finish is looming...

Anonymous said...

"We will hit 'em! We will wreck 'em! Hit 'em, wreck 'em Texas Tech! And the victory bells will ring out!"

Suck on it wannabe-Army boys!

Anonymous said...

Nice pick on the Tech game Sturm... almost right on the money.

Tech had a bad game, really. Fumbled a TD away in the first, then allowed the kick return TD... should have been 31-7 at the half.

Then the Ags come clawing back, pounding it out on the ground and blitzing Tech into submission. Take the lead, and then go into the "prevent" zone coverage and that 3 ft. tall DB got scorched again on the bomb to Johnson. The Aggies will be sharpening the knives after this game.

Oh and Arsenal won, Chelski ties and the Scousers lose. Great Sports Saturday!

If only the Boys can win, ManUre and Spuds lose on Sunday, what a REAL treat!