More Pigskin Blogging

Still a very football intensive blog. I hope everyone still likes football.

Eddie Sefko finds out what Dirk thinks of Romo’s situation …not a bad idea…

If Dirk Nowitzki could impart one piece of advice to Tony Romo, he would tell the Cowboys' quarterback to get over it.

Dwelling on the negative for too long can be unhealthy for anybody, Nowitzki said Wednesday. He and the Mavericks went through it last spring when they were upset in the first round of the playoffs. A week later, Nowitzki collected the MVP trophy in an uncomfortable ceremony.

"Everybody deals with stuff differently," Nowitzki said. "I just had to get away [to Australia] and get my mind away from basketball.

"I'm sure he's going through some tough times. But at some point, you got to get over it and look forward. He's still young and has a great career ahead of him. You can't just always look at the negative."

The Mavericks found out Wednesday how the Cowboys' season can impact them. They were greeted on a light practice day by probably the biggest media throng of the season for any practice.

"I've been here 10 years, and everybody lives and dies with the Cowboys," Nowitzki said. "It was bad for the city, but things happen. We experienced it last year in the first round."
Jerry Stackhouse said it's now the Mavericks' turn under the microscope.

"We know that the Cowboys are out of the picture now and probably a little more attention will shift to us and the Stars," he said. "We were enjoying floating under the radar for a little bit, but I guess that's over now."

Jen discusses the exit of the Bill Parcells disciples from Valley Ranch …

And just like that, poof, whatever remnants of Big Bill's philosophy remained at Valley Ranch flew South.

Not just for a winter. For good.

Dolphins types officially tapped under-appreciated Cowboys assistant Tony Sparano to lead them Wednesday. He joins poached scouting guru Jeff Ireland in Miami, with Paul Pasqualoni and Todd Bowles likely stored in an overhead bin.

Big Bill predicted this not long before his Valley Ranch exit, noting "in a couple of years you will not even know I was here." He was right, and in only a season. And save how this is a good thing for Big-Bill bashers. It is not, not at all.

The Cowboys' best hard-butt assistants are exiting the building daily and without a fight. What we have now at Valley Ranch is Coach Cupcake, a good-guy coach obviously lacking in butt-chewing and belly-fire ability. Not to mention he's operating with very little wiggle room after
Sunday's choke-job loss to NYG.

Many already want his butt fired. Like yesterday.

Owner Jones declared that a nonstarter, yet looked and sounded frustrated enough to believe this free pass lasts only a year. And therein lies the problem.

Not that Coach Wade only has a year. That is about right, although, I do not think I'd rip Owner
Jones too passionately if he pulled the rip cord right now.

The problem is everybody knows Coach Wade is on double-secret probation and if Jason Garrett decides to turn down head-coaching jobs in Baltimore and Atlanta and stay in Dallas, everybody will also know he has been promised the next spot on Jerry's dance card.

Let me set the over-under of when speculation begins that JG is stepping in right now at Week 3. And I'll take the under. By a lot.

Obviously, Owner Jones decided the red-headed genius is the only assistant worth keeping. Nor is this surprising considering he demoted Sparano to hire him.

I like JG. Think he did a great job this year.

He's going to make a good head coach in this league and certainly the plan was for him to make that leap in Dallas. But having him ready just in case, with Coach Wade on shaky ground, is a recipe for disaster.

And people were worried about Jess being a distraction.

This would be a chaos, every week speculation if Coach Wade had done enough to stave off Owner Jones tapping his arm and going to his bullpen.

This is not fair to him. Or the players. Or JG.

And this is exactly the kind of craziness Big Bill would have kiboshed. He would have told Owner Jones that enough distractions exist for a football team. You do not create your own. But Big Bill is gone, as are his guys. And whatever lessons he taught obviously left with them.

Barber and his new agent, Drew Rosenhaus want to get PAID …

Marion Barber's Pro Bowl season and career-high 975 rushing yards make him a hot commodity once free agency starts Feb. 29.

Barber is a restricted free agent, and the Cowboys could put the first- or second-round tender on him. In that case, if a team wants to sign Barber, it would have to give the Cowboys a first- or second-round draft pick.

On Tuesday, Barber's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said he's open to dealing with the Cowboys but also understands several teams could be interested as well.

"I'm sure I'll see the Cowboys at the Senior Bowl and the combine, and we have plenty of time to talk about this," Rosenhaus said.

Rosenhaus has plenty of experience dealing with some of the top running backs in the league, such as Edgerrin James, Frank Gore, Fred Taylor, Clinton Portis and Willis McGahee.

Michael Turner anyone? …he will be expensive…

The Cowboys don't want to rely on Barber to be their only featured back if Julius Jones departs. That leaves players such as Michael Turner of the Chargers, whom Wade Phillips liked when he was in San Diego. Derrick Ward, Vernand Morency and Chris Brown are other options.

Speaking of expensive, Are the Lions getting ready to shop Roy Williams? …for a #1 pick? I am in…Here a Lions writer projects a trade…

I believe Williams is going to be used as trade bait leading up to the draft because he'll likely bolt when he becomes a free agent in 2009.

ond_dorados.html> Today in Quincy Carter News …

Former Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Quincy Carter could be coming back to the Rio Grande Valley next season — this time to play for the arenafootball2 Dorados.

On Wednesday, RGV coach Marty Hammond said there is a “50-50” chance Carter, who quarterbacked the af2’s Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings last season, could be the Dorados’ starting QB in 2008.

Carter has faced an ongoing battle with drug addiction and recently checked into a rehabilitation center in Florida.

“I think he’s interested,” Hammond said.

Of course, so are other teams.

Last month, Corpus Christi Sharks owner Joe Avezzano talked about signing Carter in an interview with KRIS, the NBC affiliate in Corpus Christi. Avezzano — a former Cowboys special teams coach who knows Carter through their time together in Dallas — was not available for comment, and Sharks coach Mike Trigg wouldn’t confirm if the team is still interested in Carter.

“I’m not going to comment on recruiting, particularly in a market that’s trying to recruit him as well,” Trigg said.

One af2 team not interested is Bossier-Shreveport.

Carter threw for 3,254 yards and 66 touchdowns in 12 games last season with the Battle Wings, who beat the Dorados twice in Hidalgo, the second time in the National Conference semifinals.

But coach Jon Norris and Carter didn’t always see eye-to-eye, and Carter was suspended for four games, ostensibly for missing a team meeting.

“I don’t think that’s going to be in the cards,” Norris said of Carter returning to the Battle Wings. “(Coaching Carter) was a lot of work. And I don’t know what his situation is right now at rehab, if he’s out of rehab or what the deal is.

“It was my understanding that he was going into a pretty detailed deal that was going to be about six months long.”

In late November, Carter checked into the Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., about one month before Hammond spoke with Carter. The two had a “15- to 20-minute” conversation, mostly about Carter’s attempt to get his life together, Hammond said.

“He stresses that he wants to get his life right, wants to do the right things, and that’s mainly what we talked about, making the right decisions and things like that,” said Hammond, who also said Carter has had several workouts with AFL teams.

Giants – Cowboys – 45 million viewers …

Fox's domination also extended to the other demos like adults 25-54 (5.2/12) and persons 12-34 (3.7/11), while CBS held the edge over Fox in overall audience (13.3 million to 12.9 million).

Key to Fox's victory was Sunday, where the final hour of the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys NFL playoff game drew more than 45 million viewers and a 45 share in 18-49. Game overall averaged 40 million viewers, making it the most-watched telecast on any net since February's Academy Awards on ABC.

Now, on to insane people that happen to cheer for the Green Bay Packers…

Knucklehead #1 …

Upset that his 7-year-old son wouldn't wear a Green Bay Packers jersey during the team's playoff victory Saturday, a man restrained the boy for an hour with tape and taped the jersey onto him.

Mathew Kowald was cited for disorderly conduct in connection with the incident with his son at their home in Pardeeville, Lt. Wayne Smith of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department said. Pardeeville is about 30 miles north of Madison.

The 36-year-old Kowald was arrested Monday after his wife told authorities about the incident. Kowald was taken to the county jail and held until Wednesday, when he pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $186 and was released.

Kowald's wife filed a restraining order Wednesday, so Kowald will not be able to have contact with his family, Smith said. Smith said other domestic issues have surfaced, though he wouldn't elaborate.

The boy refused to wear the jersey Saturday, when the Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks in a playoff game, Smith said. Smith said the incident sounded strange when reported at first, but the mother took pictures with her cell phone and that type of evidence is difficult to dispute.

Kowald, contacted later Wednesday by the Portage Daily Register, said the incident started as a joke. His son challenged him by saying he wouldn't root for the Packers. When he tied the boy up, the youngster was laughing while his wife took pictures, he said.

"Then he couldn't get out and he got upset and that's it. It lasted a minute," he said. "I didn't mean no harm, and he knows that, but I haven't been able to tell him that."

District Attorney Jane Kohlwey said there wasn't enough evidence to support felony charges.
"I wouldn't agree with what he did, but legally a parent can restrain a child," she said. "I have no proof of emotional damage. ... I have to follow the law.

And the shredder being used for evil …

A little housecleaning nearly cost the Rev. Walter Hermanns a seat at Sunday's National Football Conference championship game.

Hermanns, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, was getting some help from a friend last Friday when he asked him to take care of a stack of papers left in a bin for shredding.

When his friend got to four Green Bay Packers tickets bundled together with a rubber band, he took off the band, put one in the shredder and then stopped short.

"Something rang a bell and he said, 'Are you sure you want to shred these?'" Hermanns said.

Too late. The ticket was in shreds.

They emptied the shredder, collected pieces of the ticket and put them in a plastic bag. A call to the Packers' ticket office remedied the situation, but not without some explaining.

"It almost sounded like they had heard crazy stories like this before," Hermanns said.

It helped that he had purchased the tickets with a credit card, still had three remaining tickets and had gotten the tickets through a special lottery for handicapped-accessible seats.

Anyone curious what the Jets are thinking about? why hasn’t Favre been their QB for the last 17 seasons? …

While fans of the Giants and Packers are dreaming of a trip to the Super Bowl, all this NFC Championship game does for Jets fans is serve as another painful reminder of what might have been.

Brett Favre could have - maybe even should have - been a Jet.

The Jets had a deal with the Cardinals to move up two slots in the 1991 draft -- ahead of the Atlanta Falcons -- so general manager Dick Steinberg could draft their quarterback for the future.

"We were going to pick Brett Favre," Ron Wolf said by phone from his Jupiter, Fla., home Tuesday night. Wolf, now retired, is well known as the Packers general manager who acquired Favre and built a Super Bowl champion, but before he worked in Green Bay he was an assistant in the Jets front office. And he pushed hard to draft Favre in 1991.

"But when it came time for the Cardinals pick, they told us the guy they wanted was on the board, so they didn't do the deal," Wolf said. "They picked their guy, the Falcons picked Brett Favre and that was it."

The Jets, understandably angry and frustrated, had to move on. So they looked down their chart of quarterbacks and took the next one. It was Browning Nagle. Everyone knows how that worked out.

This story is nothing new, especially for Jets fans. Wolf even admitted he bumps into Jets fans from time to time who mention this to him. But seeing Favre all these years later still among the best quarterbacks in the league, preparing his team one win away from another trip to Super Bowl, must just eat away at Jets fans.

"That really is rare for something like that to occur," Wolf said. "When you think you have a deal done, you kind of stop trying to do something, stop trying to make moves. Dick thought he had a deal done. And in the end it just didn't work out."

The Falcons selected Favre with the sixth pick in the second, which was 33rd overall. The Jets, Wolf said, rated Favre as the best player available in the draft. They didn't have a first-round pick -- they took receiver Rob Moore in the supplemental draft the year before -- or else they would have taken Favre there.

"It was not a debate," Wolf said. "I thought he was the best player in the draft that year, 1991, and he's proven that. He's even better than the best pick. He's a rare pick. To me, that was the easy part."

ESPN Kills time with dumb questions ..and then I blog them to waste your time…

Why is a quarterback who grew up in Mississippi now the most-famous cold-weather QB of all time?


It really is hard to explain how a man who spent more than half his life in the South can have a 43-5 record at home when the temperature dips below 34 degrees at kickoff. But Packers quarterback Brett Favre,
if you haven't noticed by now, is a unique individual. He's also a great player. And great players can produce under any conditions.

"Brett is a mentally tough individual, so that plays a big part in his success [in the cold]," said Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who served as Favre's quarterbacks coach in Green Bay in 1996. "He also has huge hands and a really strong arm. So you know he's not going to have problems holding onto the football and he's going to get it where it has to go regardless of the conditions.

"I've seen a lot of guys who can't throw once the temperatures drop or the wind picks up. He's not one of those players."

Mornhinweg added that the tougher adjustment is on the receivers who have to catch Favre's passes. The velocity on the quarterback's passes can be so great that it can feel like bricks are flying through the air when it's cold.

But one thing that doesn't change in frigid weather is Favre's preparation. He's never been known to do anything different when a cold-weather game is on the schedule and he probably won't start with this weekend's NFC Championship Game against the Giants.

"Whether it's hot, cold, rainy or windy," Mornhinweg said, "Brett has no problems playing football." -- Jeffri Chadiha

Frank Luksa on the Ice Bowl …

Uwe Blog Sports Awards …I wonder why I linked to it?

To Hockey, the spiraling Stars have San Jose tonight to finish the road trip. They are not looking very strong at the moment. I think the reality of being at least 1 impact player short of being a power is starting to become obvious to the Stars. Now, we wait to see what they are going to do about it…Meanwhile, Alan Muir is asked about Niskanen …\

Are you ready to admit your mistake? A couple months ago, you specifically mentioned Matt Niskanen among a group of Dallas prospects who had no chance of becoming impact players. Today, he was named to the Western Conference YoungStars team. Sounds like an impact player to me. Maybe it's time to eat your words?

-- Michael Finley, Dallas

After seeing him in a couple of camps and limited NHL action earlier this season, Niskanen looked to me like a Trevor Daley starter kit -- great wheels, good offensive instincts, but a second-pairing guy at best. Since the change in power that saw the team replace GM Doug Armstrong with Les Jackson and Hull in November, the Stars have placed a greater emphasis on finding youngsters who could contribute immediately. Niskanen has made the most of that opportunity, skating alongside Sergei Zubov on the top unit and displaying in spades the one asset I questioned: hockey sense. Whether it was a matter of the coaching staff showing more confidence in him, or Niskanen simply finding his comfort level, he's emerged as a cornerstone for the next-gen Stars. Consider my words eaten.

Steve Lavin mixes up his black actors




UFC 80 is Saturday