embarassed and mad

for the 7th year in a row our heroes have failed us in their last game of the regular season. i thought last year was bad but in reality im sure there was a natural letdown knowing they were not playing for any post season hopes.
and i realize that this year a playoff berth was already clinched. BUT...
a win today and an eagles loss and the Boys could have been playing at home next week. instead we were treated to an uninspired, gutless, mistake filled
display of ineptness. watching that game you had to wonder if the boys in blue even cared. i hope the millions of tv veiwers saw it differently than it looked to me at the stadium. as soon as that interception was nullified on the first series it looked
like we just deflated. our first 6 plays gained us a whole 2 yards. woopeee.
i know we eventually scored 31 points, but you do know that was a 2-13 team we were playing dont you ? that 2.7 yards per carry tells me we got whipped. and that powerhouse offense that detroit trotted out there ?? i hope everybody saw that stephen peterman ( you know, that 2nd round draft pick of bills that never played for us) was the starting right guard. im telling you that game was embarrasing.
the crowd was never into it either. my gosh it was only the 2nd quarter when some of those idiots started trying to get a wave going. the game was so bad that when it was over the fans didnt even boo the sorry way it ended. everybody just left.
i didnt even want to stop and buy gas on the way home because i was afraid somebody would want to talk about the game and i wasnt sure i could even be polite about it.
yeah yeah i know we got next week to worry about ...but tonight i need to rant.
so there it is..maybe i will feel better now. nope i dont. later Poke

no time to let down

hey its the last game...its detroit ( with their 2 wins all year)
and the Boys have their place in the playoffs wrapped up.
but remember...the eagles could easily lose to michael vick and the falcons.
it seems every week some team loses that shouldnt have lost.
and if...IF the dog breath eagles lose and the Good Guys win then
ta-da !!! The Boys win the NFC East.
so put on the lucky socks, wear the good luck hat..whatever you need to do,
if you are at the game scream as loud as possible when the lions have the ball.
dont forget last years embarassing loss to the rams when the Boys didnt show up to play. there is still plenty to play for.
having said that, its been an interesting year. who wudda thought that Romo
would have bailed us out, that TO would lead the league in td catches...and also
drops? its been one of those funny years and its not over yet.
so keep your heads up..its no time to let down. later Poke

all i want for christmas is.................

the cowboys to beat the proverbial snot outta the eagles.
dont care how, who does it, lucky breaks, bad calls against
them dog breath eagles...dont care, doesnt matter to me.
the Good Guys have put together too good a season to let it
get away from them now.
a win against any opponent is good but i want the eagles and their
ignorant classless fans to feel bad this christmas..real bad.
i have a long memory ( well sometimes anyway).
the eagles fans booed santa.
they throw batteries.
and they cheered when ol number 88 (michael irvin for you youngsters)
went down hurt. thats just wrong. so payback time, i dont care how many
times we have beaten them since..it ain't enough.
rip their stupid eagle heads off and stuff em down their stupid eagle necks,
tear off their arms and beat them bloody with them and jump up and down on their cold
lifeless uniforms.
and oh yeah...Peace on earth, Goodwill to men..Merry Christmas. later Poke

take it like a MAN and get ready for next saturday

if this was baseball i could fall back on the old
win some, lose some and some get rained out quote...but its not,
its football. sometimes in football the other team just whips your butt.
their tand cryeam shows up more ready to play than your team, their coach
shows up hungrier, more creative and more willing to chance things.
momentum changes...a 77 yard run should make your team play harder,
not softer.
sometimes you game plan for the other team and they suprise you with a
fullback who hasnt scored all year and he scores 3 against you.
so next week you never look at this games films, you tell your guys to just forget it.
look ahead not behind cuz this game is gone,you never get it back.
how mr. romo responds next week will tell me a lot more about his game than what
i have seen so far.
our defense will have to overcome the butt kicking they are getting and get ready to chase Vick around. its not time to hang your heads and cry. its time to resolve
to not let it happen again. it will be very interesting to hear parcells this week.
this is what he gets the big bucks for. i am already looking forward to next week
(cuz this week sucked !!) anyway lets go Boys..later Poke

time to blog this

ok in spite of thousands of requests for daily updates i can only
blog when the muse strikes. or whenever i get 10 spare minutes.
its time i give credit where credit is due. anyone who has waded
thru my months of blogging knows i am not a big Bill Parcells fan.
he is a great coach and all that i just never liked him when he was
at New York or new England and i have a hard time liking him now.
BUT....his decision to swap QB's is looking like genius AND his timing
on getting rid of the liquored up idiot kicker was perfect.
so in the spirit of the season i give Parcells his portion of the credit for
the success the GooD Guys are having.
okay..updates: the Boys are healthy, the saints have a few banged up players
and one who is suspended for 4 games due to steroid use. TO admitted he tuned
out Parcells "what champions do " speech. TO had a birthday party in hollywood
(i wasnt invited..go figure). The Boys signed a safety who was hurt last year
but may provide needed depth for us, they released Skylar Green cuz he didnt
show them anything. and Romo was selected player of the month by somebody.
i am predicting a shootout this week...we have to outscore reggie bush.
please dont wait so long to comment...i often forget what i wrote about and then
i have to re-read what i wrote for all my readers comments to make sense.
anyway i wont be at the game but son of poke will be so if it turns out bad its all his fault........later Poke

we will just have to wait and see

lots of talking...on the radio, in the papers, ESPN.
the gints implode, cowboys are rolling, romo is the greatest,
doomsday is coming, shockey says no way in hell.
experts say cowboys will win, experts say giants will win.
thank goodness they will actually play a game sunday to decide this.
since the Boys let the giants beat them at home, they really need
to return the favor. if/when they do it could be the final nail in the coffin
of the dying new york football giants.
if the good guys want to be a playoff caliber team then this is the kind of game
they have to show up for. they have made it past thanksgiving and are in the hunt.
thats what bill preaches. now its time to do something with that position.
i dont know about ya'll but im digging this important game stuff in december.
im betting low scoring, defensive struggle......but what the heck do i know ??
cowboys 17 gints 13. later Poke

Definitely a thankful Thanksgiving

lagniappe- Pronunciation: 'lan-"yap
Function: noun
Etymology: American French, from Quechua yapa something added
: a small gift given a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase; broadly : something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure
a beautiful north Texas november day, clear blue skies, 75 degrees.
with my wife and 21 year old son , my mother, my recently retired brother and his 20 year old daughter (my favorite niece by the way ).
thick juicy steaks on the grill in the parking lot of the Temple. cold drinks on ice.
HOTTT hot sauce for the chips, pecan pie and some zummo party-time sausages just for fun. plenty of time to enjoy the atmosphere, soak it all in.
a great crowd in the stadium to hang out with, current pop stars to entertain us before and in the middle of the game. if the game never ended it would have been okay with me. no matter how it would have turned out it was truly a day to be thankful for. but of course the game ended. and ended good for those of us who bleed
cowboy blue with silver streaks. been a long time since i saw the Good Guys put a
butt-whipping like that on anybody. but i have to admit the score of the game, at least this one day, was LAGNIAPPE. not to say some of my happiness wouldnt have been diminished if the Boys had lost, but the JOY would have still been there. later Poke

that was so sweet !!!!!!!!!!

wow...i have seen the promised land !!!!
that had to be the best crowd i have ever seen, heard,
or been a part of at The Temple of the Blue Star.
enthusiastic to say the least, loud, boisterous
( booing our idiot kicker when he was doing a big screen
public service announcement counts as boisterous) and
i will add influential. i know the crowd noise had to in some
small way bother the colts. not near as much as ware knocking the fire
out of manning every chance he got but the noise did help. those passes
late in the game that were just a tad off can be attributed to the pressure
our d put archies little boy under. the majority of the crowd was pretty much
on their feet the whole game, starting with the first time the colts had the ball
and continuing till the very end. do you have any idea how hard it is to eat nachos,
drink something and stand up and yell at the top of your lungs ??
our offense started slow, then did nothing much the first half but our d kept
us in the game. the 5 (i think) penalties in the first half was pretty much what
we've come to expect. BUT...the interception return got things firing in the second half, romo settled down and the o-line started making blocks. i was not and am still not a bledsoe hater, but romo can pump fake and still release the ball quicker than
drew seems to. and romo plays with more enthusiasm..when the game was over and the team was headed for the tunnel romo jumped in the air and kicked his heels together..which was exactly how i felt, i just couldnt do it without hurting myself. even ol Bill gets kudos for that long pass to glenn when we really needed a first down late in the game. i know i wasnt expecting it and im sure the colts werent either. so savor the moment, now get over it cuz we play again Thursday and im looking for the same kind of crowd and the same result. later Poke
ps: i know i predicted 30-something points and if the kicker would have made his 2 kicks and if we werent just running out the clock at the end im pretty sure we would have had that many. close enough for me !

a BIG game....yeah yeah i know they all are,

wow..its november. and the Good Guys are actually gonna play in a big
game. big enough that the networks changed it to a 3:15 start time.
big enough that we get a chance to defeat the heretofore undefeated colts.
(my editor issists i start using bigger words even if they may not be right).
big game because archies boy peyton hasnt been to texas staduim before ( i dont think). that same editor wont fork over any money for a researcher but i think im right. besides its a blog, accuracy isnt what brings in the big bucks.
if that 2-1 record from a 3 game road trip is gonna help us over that playoff
hump its time for this team to win games at HOME. all the experts are saying we need
to run run run, just as fast as we can, cuz the colts cant stop that. im saying if
everybody knows that and expects that and has planned for that....then lets pass
like crazy..get in a real shoot-out with archies boy..light it up. at some point in time you gotta trust your defense to do what you need them to do. lets see how
our undrafted free agent from eastern illinois matches up with the pedigreed wonder
from indy..via tennessee. hey ol archie was good but dont ya'll remember the saints
fans wearing paper bags on their heads ?? surely his kid has a few mistakes in him.
anyway..gotta go..time to get my game face on, gotta find that list of the 138 things
that i have to do in order not to mess up the superstitions. and please remember if you go to the game and you can talk afterwards..you didnt yell loud or long enough and its all your fault !! later Poke

PS: that frazzlin editor said i had to predict the score. this is what i get the big bucks for: COWBOYS 37 colts 33.

good and bad

okay its always good to win on the road, and get different receivers involved,
and get some turnovers from your defense and be above .500.
it always is bad when you keep getting dumb penalties ( have you ever seen us get called for so many illegal picks in a year ? im old and i dont remember ever seeing
more than one a year )
its always bad when you lose a Greg Ellis. the man has just been solid every year
and this year he was getting some attention from the national media and doing a good
job in his new position.
i consider it good that on this 3 game road trip we were 2-1, and we should have/could have won that stupid game in washington.
im not gonna say its a bad that our next game is against indy..but, its not who i would have picked to play next. maybe at home we can get some home field advantage going and keep manning from changing the plays every 3 seconds at the line of scrimmage.
it is a good that we still have a reason to play, this race aint near over and the Boys just need to get better and clean up their game some.
its definitely a good that our qb can move around pretty good.
so today the goods outweigh the bads...good enough for me..bring on the colts !!
best wishes to mr. ellis, i hope its not as serious as some media folks are saying,
later revitalized Poke

same old same old

no pressure on their qb, weak coverage on passes, poor blocking on passing downs,
pretty weak special teams, dropped passes, bad coaching decsions and PENALTIES PENALTIES PENALTIES. even the game winning field goal wouldnt have been a possiblity
if not for that last face mask penalty. guess that was only fitting that a penalty
would give the skins another chance. im not going to say the refs were calling it wrong, we got away with some ourselves. you just cannot keep giving any NFL team
chance after chance. and if we dont find a way to use terry glenn and quit trying to
put all our eggs in the TO basket we are done. and it would be nice to have a tight end who could run after a catch . oh well i guess if i could have all that it would be a fantasy league. well you cant say we arent consistent, win one, lose one seems
to be the kind of team we are...again. later disgusted Poke

it will all be for naught if....

that was a great win. first start, on the road, nfc opponent. could mean something when the playoffs come around.
but if the Boys dont come out swinging against the deadskins and post another W
then that fun gutty victory means nothing. hopefully everybodys back wont be sore
from all the patting this week and we can actually win 2 in a row.
and yeah all that kissin makes me a lil nervous too.
what i want to see is ol Bill tear somebody up when they screw up. but hey i guess
some positive reinforcement could go a long way.
now, if we ever get TG and TO going at the same time, with Julius and Marion
running hard and sneaking some stuff to Witten and Fasano then we will have a shot
at playing past the last regular season game.
anyway im still giddy over that win. later Poke

slow to respond

okay im a creep. i should have written this done way sooner. i could say
i havent had time...jobs, family..yada yada yada. but the truth is:
i was disgusted, embarassed, aggrivated, sick, bewildered and just plain mad at how
the Boys played ( or didnt play) monday night.
you just dont show up with that kind of effort for such a big game. at home. on monday night. against a division opponent.
then the big QB change. at the game the week before there were about 30,000 fans
hollering..romo, romo, romo. im sure it was the same monday night even though i wasnt there. my question is....who were they hollering for after that first interception romo threw ?? after the second ?? after the third ?? staubach ?
meredith ?? bledsoe did look terrible. but if the o-line doesnt block it wont matter much whos back there. theres a reason football is considered a team sport.
i dont care how many high paid superstars you have.
anyway that was last week. its a new day. thats behind us.
TIME TO BE BOLD IM GONNA GO WAY OUT ON A LIMB HERE and say that
the Good Guys, DaBoyz, the Pokes are gonna show up in carolina. gonna play a great game, gonna surprise a lot of people and BEAT THEM FRAZZLIN PANTHERS.
NOW JUST LET ME WARN YA'LL....im not doing too good picking winners this year in a couple of pick em contests. but i feel something good is gonna happen here.
im not saying its gonna be all romo to the rescue, cuz i dont feel that way at all.
i just think the TEAM will pick their game up and show us their true colors.
so keep the faith, put on the silver and blue tune in to NBC and lets see what happens. later Poke

a very important game

sure i know every game is important. they all count in the standings right ?
but...BUT this is a game against a division opponent, at home..and its on MONDAY night. so far all the Boys have done is win at home against the rapidly falling deadskins, beaten the titans and their talented but rookie qb Vince Young and then
whipped up on the texans at home. this will be the best gauge yet of how good the
good guys really are.
flozell and the rest of the o-line have got to play their best game yet if drew is
going to have a chance at getting the ball to glenn and owens. i am not an expert
at X and O stuff but even i know our line has got perform this game. if they dont the
giants 2 stud DE's will make it a long night at Texas Stadium.
and our defense really has to come up with some new wrinkles, try to make lil Eli
get confused and make some bad choices.
and it goes without saying that drew cant have another of his bad games, his throws
really dont need to be hiting the turf 5 feet in front of the target. i just think that if he does have time to throw he better make good use of it.
anyway thats just some of my worries for this week, theres plenty more to consider but hey this is a blog not a book. later Poke

win the ones you are supposed to

okay.. another wet rainy day at the Temple of the Blue Star. still a lot of fun though. especially giving the texan fans a hard time. ( only after they started
mouthing off about the "great" mario wiliams. then they razzed TO when he slipped down..i couldnt help it when my mouth flew open and screamed at them..REGGIE BUSH !)
by the end of the 3rd quarter most of them left.
hey i realize it was only the texans but those are the kind of games you have to show up for and win. there is going to be all those games against the tough teams
on the road where winning is harder. you may win but its wont take much to lose one of those games. thats why you have to win the ones where you do have the better team.
no days off.
i was really happy parcells didnt just run the ball when the Boys got the lead. bledsoe seemed to get into a rhythm as the game went on after looking bad at first.
we still dont seem to pressure the qb enough, but the texans went with a lot of quick
release passes so i wont complain too much.
i was sweating ron dayne having another good day against us but the run defense held up strong. our idiot kicker looked okay, but our coverage on punts is scaring me.
what else?? oh yeah the cheerleaders looked great as usual.
anyway, chalk that up as a win...now lets play some nfc east football against the giants monday night. a win then should make us all feel better about the good guys.
later Poke

it is what it is........kinda

im guessing every week is going to be like that.
which o-line will show up, the one that had only given up 4 sacks in 3 games...or
the one that gave up 6 ( or 7? ) in one game. at times our offense looked great,
then at times they looked bad, really bad. the defense, well they too looked great
at times, then boom, gave up more big plays in one game since who knows when..(oh yeah since last years washington monday night game). special teams looked okay sometimes but the missed snap puts us in a hole and we have to play from behind to start the game...thats never a good thing. bledsoe..what can i say? thats 2 games where you have to feel that if he had even played halfway decent we should have won.
i know he was harassed, beaten down,and hurried all day long, i know he put in the effort, all you had to do was look at his uniform...BUT, you still dont expect your veteran, wise OLD QB to throw an interception in the end zone on 2nd down, or to float a pass that looked like it needed a fair catch. so if inconsistency was what we were shooting for we have reached that lofty goal. all you old guys out there just make sure you have plenty of blood pressure medicine, you young fiery guys
stay away from coffee tables that get in your way while watching the game. women and children....just slip out the back door during the pre-game warmups. it looks like
we are gonna be CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT this year. bring on the texans !!!
later Poke

an advertisement..sort of..

okay..so i got this email telling me about this site. there is a webisode
about Roy Williams and his cool place to live.
i dont normally do ads...but what the heck..i cant talk about a game i didnt see so this is what you get. roy williams

first in a long time

okay..now thats the way the Boys should play.
BUT...i gotta admit something, something so bad i hang my head in shame.
i didnt see todays game. not one frazzling play. i wanted to. i tried to.
but i didnt. i couldnt get out of doing something else so i checked the handy tv guide on my cable box...saw where the Boys played at noon, on Fox, set up the oh so modern dvr, and went off doing my thing. avoided the radio and any people who might mention the score and thought about hurrying home to watch the game . i wouldnt even answer my cellphone cause i knew somebody would call and ask or tell me something about the game(ask my son)... perfect plan...imperfect world. you see the dvr i set up was in louisiana...the channel guide said the Good Guys would be on...but it lied. nope when i got home i had a recording of the saints-panthers game. whhooppeee. hey i like the saints, heck about a third of their team is ex-Cowboys, but i sure didnt want to watch them instead of the beloved Boys in Blue. so i apologize to all of Cowboy Fandom...dock my paycheck..i deserve it. and then to complete this fouled up
day of sports , in baseball the Cardinals lost...but so did the Astros. too bad big brother, it would have been the greatest comeback ever. anyway since i didnt see any sports, i guess i cant say anything about them today either..see ya'll next week.
later Poke
ps. and for those of you who know me, NO i did not throw a fit and break stuff and holler and all those other childish things. D!%&*&^%($FEC(&&^$. i feel better now.

now thats more like it !

okay..no more over-reacting. from now on i am going to wait until i have had a chance to rationally think about the game the Heroes have played before i start
ranting about how good or bad we looked. so now its wedenesday, i have had plenty of time, so HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS !!! that was a good game to see at the Temple of the Blue Star. the rain coming down through the hole in the roof was cool to see.
the crowd was into the game early and the late game chants of Redskins Suck was
a joyous change from last years last 4 minute collapse and deafening silent exit.
i will say this, i haven't seen Cowboy receivers drop so many passes in a long long time,and that 100 yd kickoff return was something i wish i had never seen. i guess
once every 13 years for a kickoff returned for a touchdown isnt too bad but that hurt to watch. i am still not too thrilled about draw plays on 3rd and forever but
when the Boys win its a little easier to take.
it was very good to see that at the end of the game we were tackling brunnel instead of letting him scramble for 23 yards like last year. i dont like to complain about the refs but that penalty that took away bradie james interception sure didnt look like a penalty to me. so now we are 1-1, got a bye week coming, and then we play the titans. this is gonna be a boring week with no Cowboys to watch but maybe the time off will give Bill time to tweak his schemes. see, this rational thinking deal is really working, no slobbering screaming rants from me. all i gotta say now is
SUPER BOWL BABY !!!!!!!!!! later Poke

okay..im in off the ledge now

wheew that was close. i was outside, on the ledge, ready to jump. I had worked way too hard getting on that ledge, my fingers dug into the brick, my muscles straining to inch out ever closer to the edge of it.

what a sorry way to open the season. tease us with 1 quarter of vintage Super Bowl looking play, be up 10-0, almost 17 -0 if Bledsoe doesnt overthrow Owens, then BAM!. Crush us with bad plays, penalties, poor execution and a missed field goal.

but hey...that was last weeks game. gotta pick up and move on. dont look behind you.
this week its the redskins...okay the hated redskins. we dont have time to worry about last weeks problems. somehow the Boys need to get a new game plan going, Bledsoe needs to get his back problem ironed out ( i know nothing was officially said
about his back, but cmon ...something was hurting him. you dont go 6 of 10 passing and then 4 of 14. even i didnt age that fast.) the defense needs to play the way they did in the first quarter for the WHOLE game. and maybe our liquored up idiot kicker will suit up and make those field goals.
its just way too uncomfortable out here on this ledge and im not gonna jump off just yet...way to early in the season for that. so i am getting down, going in, start sorting thru the clothes to find that lucky jersey, get some more hot sauce made,
thaw out the zummos party time links and prepare myself for a redskin butt-kicking contest !! AWWW, much better off that ledge. good thing i live in a one story house and the tallest ledge i could find is only 7 inches off the ground. a guy could get hurt being a Cowboys fan if he fell off one of those things ! later Poke

well that wasnt what i expected

wow
who would have thought that
bill parcells is our worst coach since the jimmy johnson era ended ??

flozell adams would be our worst offensive lineman ?

drew bledsoe would be our worst quarterback ?

mike vanderjagt would be our worst kicker ( even though he didnt even suit up )?

terrence newman would be our worst cover corner ? ( even though i do still like him )

troy aikman would be one of the worst guys to broadcast Cowboys games ? ( not all games i just hate him doing Cowboy games )

the Cowboys run a weak draw play on 3rd and 14 ?

that roy williams agressive play would hurt us more than it helped ?

that all the money (EXCEPT the money spent on Owens) that Jerry spent would be wasted?

that i could be sooooo disgusted after just one stinking game ??

later Poke

THIS YEARS PICK EM GAME

HEY COWBOY AND COWBOYETTE FANS

the fine folks at CowboysZone have this years pick em game up and running !
all you have to do is register and make your picks, then sit back and watch the games hoping that you pick the winners better than your friends and enemies so you
can gloat and brag about how smart you are.

to register just go here : pick em

see how easy that was...good luck and remember you always have to pick the Boys to win or you are not a " real" fan. hmm maybe thats why my record isnt any better.
later Poke

is Sunday ever gonna get here ???

okay..its happening.
the excitement is just about to boil over here.
i have been holding back, keeping it contained, putting the brakes on...all that sort of stuff. I CANT WAIT ANY LONGER !!!!!!
with sunday still too many days away i am ready for some FOOTBALL .
all the pick em leagues and pick a winner games and even a pick the losers game have
got me primed and ready for some NFL excitement.
i am dying to see how the Boys do against a tough Jags team, on the road.
an opening day win should mean great things for this year, i know i know its just one game, but a win on the road against a team that is expected to be good starts
things off the right way.
and i gotta admit it.......i am dying to see TO take one to the house for us.
and Terry Glenn, and Jason Witten, and Julius Jones, Marion Barber. oh yeah
and Watkins or Williams or Greg Ellis or Newman. it would be wild to see our defense put some points on the board.
my daddy always used to say that if our defense scored points we would win.
we havent done near enough of that lately.
so get the hot sauce made ( not bought), get the recliner all polished up,
the TV tuned just right and pop up the popcorn cuz its time.
later..poke

self imposed exile

well i did it. i took off blogging here for exactly as long as i intended to.
amazing that through all the training camp events, the terrel owens no-shows,
the 3 good preseason games..( is there really such a thing ? ) i managed to avoid
getting on my soapbox and proclaiming my brilliance to the world.
truth is..i wasnt exiled, too busy, or any of that.
i just didnt have, or know, what to say about this years Good Guys.
so i didnt say anything...
but thats gotta change now. the season is HERE!!!!!!!! finally.
so pardon the typos..my fingers are rusty, here we go.
the final roster, what can i say ?? i never saw some of the moves coming.
no way i expected rob petitti to get cut. shame too cuz i liked him
same for terence copper. if the guys we kept are better than them, then i know it had to be done. still gonna miss watching them though.
greg ellis..did just what i thought he would do, learn the new job and keep being a football player.
terrell owens, really would have liked to see him hook up with his qbs but you know he is gonna be good. i am just keeping my fingers crossed hoping this works out good for us. sure i remember him on the star, but now he is wearing one so its a fresh start. what he does now is what i look at.
our o-line. what the heck do in know ?? i played o-line one year in high school
so dont lok for wisdom here. i just hope them big uglies open up some good holes and keep people off bledsoe so he can choose between glenn, witten or owens. if they do that then we ought to be hard to stop.
everybody is expecting big things from our defense. im waiting until i see it in action against first teamers, with a game plan in a game that means something.
time to put up or shut up i guess.
sunday cant get here quick enough. i am looking at 16-0 again like i always do at the start of a season. super bowl here we come. yada yada yada.

thank goodness the drafts over

okay ..we had the draft.
maybe some of these guys will help, maybe not.
who really really knows ??
i watched the draft ( first round anyway).
im glad there is a draft. ( not really i would like it better if we could just
buy up all the best players)
im glad the draft is over. YES YES YES ( now i wont have to read and listen
to all the experts say who the Cowboys should pick )
time to move on, rookie camps, mini camps, and then TRAINING CAMP !!!
first game that counts SEPT 10th.
i will say this, that Carpenter kid we got to play LB better be good, real good.
they gave him number 54 to wear. yeah, chuck howley, randy white good.
no pressure Bobby. good luck.
and no Bill Parcells hasnt contacted me and let me know what he really thinks
of the TO signing either. im surprised he hasnt called me yet.
later Poke

copy of a post i made on a message board

okay so now its like 2 posts here in 2 minutes.
once i get the Cowboys in my head i cant get them out.
actually a person asked a question on cowboyszone.com
that i thought i would answer.
the question was..who are the 10 greatest Cowboys ever ??

hahaha...no way could i narrow it down that far.
so i decided to pick 10 from each decade.
that almost killed me.
anyway i put so much thought into it i decided to post
my reply here also. i hated to see all that brain power go
to waste.
anyway heres what i remember from all the years of watching the Boys.
i guess its not plagarism if you copy your own stuff is it ??
enjoy. later poke




cowboy mark....

ive seen your post here for a couple of days, there is just no way
i can pick 10 players from 40+ years of watching the Boys.

the more i thought about it i figured i could maybe pick 10 from each
decade even though for me thats still going to be hard.

and i have to tell you these may not be the greatest they are just the ones
i liked the most.

and after doing this 10 from each decade isnt enough, i feel like i owe
a whole bunch of guys apologies because i couldnt list everybody i liked.

and these are in no order at all...except Meredith, he is/was and will always be my favorite.

60's
don meredith
chuck howley
don perkins
bob lily
lee roy jordan
mel renfro
ralph neely
cornell green
bob hayes
dan reeves

70's
walt garrison
rayfield wright
larry cole
jethro pugh (had to get him in and ran out of room in the 60's)
charlie waters/ cliff harris ( i always think of them as one)
roger staubach ( right behind meredith for all time favorite)
dave manders
billy jo dupree
hollywood henderson ( in spite of his screw-ups)
preston pearson ( the original 3rd down back )

80's
danny white
tony dorsett
drew pearson
ed too-tall jones
everson walls
robert newhouse
dennis thurman
jim jeffcoat
mark tuinei
randy white

90's...this is impossible..the team roster could be listed here as far as i am
concerned, but im trying to stick to 10.

troy aikman
bill bates
michael irvin
nate newton
emmitt smith
daryl johnston
leon lett
mark stepnoski
russell maryland
erik williams

*** george teague gets a mention for you know what !!
** dale hellestrae gets a mention for years of not worrying about bad deep
snaps.
* one star for our hired guns..deion sanders and charles haley
cause yes they did make a difference and i ran out of room.

and yes i know i left off ken norton jr, kenneth gant, jay novacek,
kevin gogan, alvin harper, chad hennings, tony tolbert and way too many
more to list. this was not a fair request !!

2000's

larry allen
darren woodson
flozell adams
dat nguyen
greg ellis
la'roi glover
roy williams
jason witten
terence newman
julius jones

i reserve the right to change this as the decade moves on....

i gotta start typing and i sure do dread it....

well i cant put it off any longer. ive been dreading it,
fighting it, worrying it to death and just generally
avoiding it as long as i can.
its been at least a month since i was real serious
about worrying about the beloved Boys.
sure i been keeping one eye on them.
i know we have let go of the last player who played with
a super bowl team here in dallas. (larry allen..duh).
i have already written here about the other departures from
last years team..although i forgot to mention laroi glover,
and that just shows i wasnt really thinking hard about the GOOD GUYS
because i always liked him as a player . im pretty sure we will miss
him at some point next year when we need a play made.
but this time of year i really like just enjoying the sunshine before
it gets so hot you cant breathe. sadly that only lasted till mid-april
when it broke the 100 degree mark twice here in the df&w metroplex.
i like catching a baseball game or two after working out in the yard.
i loved being in florida for 3 weeks.
i am already getting the boat ready so i can go scoot across some water
now that we finally got some rain and the lakes have water in them.
its just doesnt seem right to worry about football right now.
thats what i pay jerry jones and bill parcells to do..at least i guess
thats what those outrageous ticket and parking prices cover. im pretty
sure they make enough money off of alcohol and cokes and $6.00 hot dogs
to pay Drew and Julius and Terrell and everybody else their money.
but my hand is being forced..........
its in the newspaper, its on tv, its all over the world wide web.
its draft time. like this weekend. my vacation is over.
somehow or another i have to wade through about 4 gazillion predictions
from people who dont have a clue and figure out who i want the Boys
to draft. like i really know !!
i dont study college game films, i dont know what the "braintrust"
at Valley Ranch is thinking. i sure as heck dont understand salary cap
ramifications and all that stuff.
then when i figure out who i want us to choose i have to do some serious mind bending
and get my thoughts into the heads of those who actually make those decisions.
what really makes that hard is that im pretty sure i dont have that capability.
oh well..it ought to be fun to see , maybe we pick a linebacker, or an offensive
lineman or maybe a wide receiver. doesnt really matter though. as soon as we pick them
my mind goes into auto pilot and i like them. right then...before they even get their
star from bill at training camp.
oh well maybe the time off was good for me...i still have plenty of time to get into
full blown football craziness.
besides i gotta see if i can help the astros get back to the world series.
see ya after the draft so i can tell you how great all the guys we chose are !!
later..poke

The Sky isn't Really Falling

okay..so i am not really back yet.
but so much has happened ..so quickly.. that i feel the need to calm the masses.
sure we released Larry Allen...okay look at my blog from Jan 9th, not unexpected here.
and yes Dan Campbell is now a Detroit Lion...but to be honest he wasn't the same
blocking force last year that he had been and pass catching was never his strong suit.
Keyshawn is a Panther...and that bugs me more than a little, he did so many things
and he did them all well. We will have to find a guy that will catch balls across
the middle and blocks downfield .
On the plus side we now have "the idiot kicker, who got liquored up and ran his mouth" . Who cares what he says if he makes the kicks !!!!
NOW...on to the thing we are all worrying about..obsessing about and just plain
mortified about. T.O. Terrell Owens The guy who danced on the STAR George Teagues
tackling dummy....
What can I say...I was out of touch when they signed him...didn't read all the
reasons, the logic, how it came to be.
But hey... we do have Parcells. Surely ol Bill has a plan, an idea, some way that
he feels will work with TO. Time for the "jock whisperer" to show his magic.
IF....a big IF..it works won't the Cowboys look smart ??
besides last time i looked we were 9-7 last year, not in the playoffs...so maybe
drastic measures were needed.
i loved the guys from last year, I will love the guys we have this year.
i tend to root for the Laundry..whoever is wearing it is okay with me. its not like
any of them come over for dinner and hang out with me.
so lets keep our eyes on the prize ( SUPER BOWL ONLY ) and hope its a great year.
now the battery on the borrowed laptop is low and like i said...i am not really back yet. enjoy spring training and get ready for opening day. and the draft.
later...Poke

Spring has Sprung

new grass is growing, i got my garden started, the yard fertilized
and the roses have been cut back. all we need now is rain and sunshine
in just the right amounts and then a little patience.
free agency is just around the corner for the Boys.
please let us get an offensive lineman somewhere.
Baseball is getting oh so close, especially the World Baseball Classic.
March Madness is upon us ( even if it is the only time i watch college basketball).

and i am going to take 3 weeks off from blogging.
going to check into a 12 step program to cure my addiction to the Cowboys.
the one step program didnt work at all when Meredith retired .
the three step program failed miserably after Staubach left.
the six step program never had a chance when Father Tom was relieved of his duties.
the nine step program should have worked when the Triplets left but then Parcells
showed up and actually got us into the playoffs his first year.
so i am going to trot out a 12 step chance and see if 3 weeks of not worrying
about the Cowboys will cure me of this lifelong affliction.
I BET IT DOESN'T WORK.
anyway i wont be around here till after March 25...so any rude comments
will go undefended.
and hey its only a few months till training camp and soon i will have baseball
to occupy my mind so its okay. the Astros and Rangers and yes the Yankees need me.
later Poke

I can't seem to stop

okay its still february.
no football.
the olympics have been boring to watch because i don't like tape delays.
baseball is off to its leisurely stroll through spring.
the rumbling in Cowboy Land has started about who to draft, which free agents
to sign....( why are they called "free" agents when everybody knows they are
very expensive to sign ??? )and other assorted worries .
this should be the time of year to relax, stay inside and think of things
not related to the Boys.
cant do it.
i have no "news" to report. i have no earth shattering opinions to share right now.
i am drawn here like a june bug to a porch light.
i scour the internet daily in hopes of seeing something that might..just might
say something about the Cowboys. the little tidbit of information that might
give me great insight into whats going on at Valley Ranch.
not much out there.
sure there are columns in the newspaper, local writers pontificating about who
the Boys might draft.( too bad none of them will be right)
luckily there are message boards where i can read other fanatics ( no sense using
the nicer sounding "fans"...call us what we are ) concerns and worries. none of us
know anything but its nice to know you aren't the only person who actually knows
when free agency starts, when the draft is, when mini camp is, which players
are in NFL Europe, when training camp is and the cap room the Cowboys have for the
upcoming season.
so..i crawl back here. posting rambling thoughts in the same manner that got me
such 'great' grades in school. heck if i had known there was going to be this thing
called the "internet" and "blogs" i might have payed more attention to writing skills in school. I would have definitely actually learned to type in typing class
instead of just using the two finger method so popular amongst the atheletes in that
class.
anyway..i guess i will mosey on out of here..just had to stop in and let ya'll know
i am still around. later Poke

ps. yeah brother the curling is cool. our hockey team isnt. our mens downhill skiers
didn't show anything.
speedskating is good to watch...the short track stuff is WILD...and i never
thought i would say it...but i am ready for the figure skating !!

turn out the lights ...the partys over

thanks brother for giving me the title to todays blog.
the pro bowl has come and gone and the NFL is through for this year.
i was hoping the winter olympics would give me something to get into
but its just not much fun watching a race or competition when you
already know who the winner is.
march madness isnt here yet.
pitchers and catchers report this week...but its still too soon
for much baseball news. even with the world baseball classic .
february is not a good sports month.
NFL Europe may be my only hope.
The NFL draft will liven things up a bit, for 2 days. I dont much care
for all the pre draft speculation about who is gonna go where.
truth is...nobody except the people picking know. and maybe not all of them know
yet either.
i went back and looked at all the "experts". out of 6 sites of supposed experts
last year, only one predicted correctly who the Cowboys would choose first.
only one !!!! and they only got the first choice correct, after that there
were 6 different answers and none of them were right. i need to set up a web
site and go into that business. 1 out of 6 is just about my usual average.
so this year i am not going to help ole Bill make his picks. i am just going
to sit back, watch some NFL Europe, some early baseball, do a little yard work
and let him and Jerry do it all without me.
soooo....let me clean this place up...empty the trash on the ol blog, turn down
the thermostat here, cover the furniture and lock the door on the way out cause
its time to take a month or so off. i will be back if/when something
happens for or to the Cowboys....but till then ya'll are on your own.
later.......poke

ps. i wish they would have had snowboards when i was a kid, that sure looks like
fun...oh never mind we never had any snow.

SUPER BOWL PART 4....The final words

Okay its over. The 2006 season is in the books.
congratulations to the steelers who once again got every break, got every call
in their favor and even had a home field advantage in Detroit. they even sold the
stupid "terrible towel " at Ford Field. gimme a break.
offensive pass interference on that seahawk touchdown ?? You gotta be kidding me.
holding on that pass to the 1 yard line ?
a penalty on Hasselback for the tackle he made after his interception ?
and on and on and on.
yet they won. their best QB was a wide receiver. Big Ben had a qb rating of 22.
Bettis had 43 yards...43 and yet you would have thought he rewrote the record
books with all the face time he had on TV.uhh ohhh I feel a rant coming on..I just
hope my 2 finger typing can keep up with my brain.
what the heck was that national anthem deal ??
and I am old enough to have liked the Stones, then not liked them, then liked
them again, then got tired of them again and then started liking them again
just because they were still around. Is that the best the Super Bowl can do ??
Their performance did inspire the absolute best line of the day though.
it came from my 21 year old son.
after the halftime show and all the old guy jokes and the downright cruel
comments of some about the way Keith Richards looked I decided it was time
to bring up the Janet Jackson performance and all the hoopla it created.
so I innocently asked...." what do you guys consider more obscene, a little slip
of clothing that exposed her...or watching the old worn out, burnt out , anti-establishment band from the 60's ?? "
the question was asked simply to inspire great and insightful thoughts from the folks
at my house and to create an open minded debate. It didn't last that long though.
my son immediately piped in with ..................
"its better to watch an old dude, than an old boob.." !!!!!
end of debate..he won..by a landslide. Way to go son. I feel the torch of glib,
cutting, on-the-edge smart aleck remarks passing from my hands to yours.

so the game wasn't a classic, but watching it with 18 or so friends and family was.
I had a great time, lots of good food..Everything from the nachos and the hot sauce
to the wonderful and delicious chocolate covered strawberries and bananas and marshmallows and anything else we could dip under the " chocolate fountain "
many thanks to ChefHale for bringing that over !!!!!!
http://www.diningbydesign.biz/Starter.html
I just had to put that link to the Chefs website on here...I was very impressed with
that fountain.

oh yeah..The commercials. I thought the Ameriquest ones...Don't judge too quickly..
were funny. The cavemen fedex, the Budweiser one using the beer to keep the bear off of you then your friend racing in to grab it...crime deterrent cellphones
all were good enough to back up the DVR and watch again. The "awwww" from all the ladies when the little Clydesdale pulled the BUD-wagon was cool to hear.
all in all a SUPER SUNDAY ........in spite of the actual football game.
oh yeah..like I told everybody at church...I guaranteed the Cowboys would not
lose today..and I was right.
now its official, this season is over...time to get the Boys back to the Bowl
cause its just not the same without them. Just wait till next year !!!!!!
later poke

SUPER BOWL PART 3

okay so this really isnt about the super bowl at all.
i just liked the "part" deal in the title and wanted to stick with it.
after sunday i promise to come up with something new and creative.

BREAKING NEWS.......AIKMAN AND WRIGHT IN HALL OF FAME !!!!!!!!!!!!!

thats just good news for any Cowboys fan. its nice to see players
from your team get recognized as being the best.

i felt like Aikman was a definite but you never know. i am glad for him
and his family.
that said.......i am really glad for rayfield wright. what a player.
for those of you who didnt see him play, he was as steady as they come.
not flashy, just the guy you knew was going to be there, do what he was
supposed to do and line up to do it again on the next play.
you also have to know he was drafted as a tight end. Father Landry
decided he would fit better as a tackle and the rest is now history.
he is the first offensive lineman from the Cowboys to make the HOF.
lets hope he is not the last.

Super Bowl News..there isnt any, its the seahawks and the steelers...what did
you expect ?? yeah a little trash talk here and there, a sprained ankle for Troy P.
(the guy with all the hair). but all in all a pretty un-exciting week.
i kind of like it...just play the game. now if i can just figure out a way to turn
this blog effort into a press pass for next years game i will be looking for
big news stories, but until then i'm happy with the "no news is good news approach."

anyway the whole purpose of todays blog is to congratulate Troy and Rayfield.
and point out that i didnt even once bring up the fact that the "playmaker"
once again was not voted into the HOF. i want Irvin in there. but i gotta tell
you...his off field antics (during and after his career) have hurt his chances.
its not right. but it is the way things are. peoples perceptions of you do matter
for some things and being voted into something is one of those things. ya know
when our parents told us that our reputations were important they were right.
now Irvin has to wait and stay out of trouble and hope he can change the minds
of those that vote. i hope he does.
now we gotta figure out a way to get cliff harris in the HOF. a blog writers work
is never done.
later..........poke

SUPER BOWL PART 2

Okay..its getting closer. The last big day of this years season.
Seahawks versus Steelers.
Time to get serious.
I am really looking forward to seeing the new SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS !!!!!!!
I can't wait to see what Budweiser comes up with this year and I dont
even drink beer.
As a matter of fact i hate Pepsi stuff but I also look forward to their
commercials every year.
And there is always the unheard of company who springs a hilarious 30-second
spot on Super Bowl Sunday. Are You Ready for some Commercials ?????
Oh yeah..thru diligent research ( a pop-up came up on my screen ) I found out
that Jessica Simpson is going to be doing her Daisy Duke deal for some pizza place.
For some reason i missed seeing exactly which place it is.
Anyway...it just shows you that its been entirely too long since the Boys have been
in the Bowl if all I can look forward to are the commercials.
Who knows though, maybe this year one of the Cowboys nominees will make it
into the Hall of Fame. At least we could brag about that. later poke

SUPER BOWL PART 1

Okay I don't really feel like writing about the Super Bowl but I will.
to be honest if the Cowboys aren't in it I don't even feel like watching it.
I will watch it of course, but only because its the last game of the year
that actually counts for something.
I am already dreading watching the stealers play in it this year.
I may not be able to remember where I put my cellphone last night or
where my wallet is but for some reason I cant forget Pittsburgh beating
the beloved Boys in those super bowls of the 70's.
even beating them in super bowl xxx will never erase the memories of the stealers
getting all the breaks when the two teams played back then.
and to be honest I am already dreading watching and listening to all the mediots
tell us who is going to win , who is going to lose, who is going home to play
his last game as a steeler , and why it should matter to me.
I am really dreading having to see bill cowher and his jaw all afternoon.
and troy paluwhatever's hair bouncing around. And hearing the name "big ben ".
so what does a person do who is dreading the long drawn out affair known
as super bowl sunday ?? That's easy.....lets have a Super Bowl Party.
hey misery loves company right ? And if the Boys aren't playing in it....I am miserable . later....poke

i dont need no stinking title

where to start ? so many things to think/write about .
first things first. 2 coaches are gone. Sean Payton the Boys
former assistant head coach/ passing game coordinator
is now the Head Coach at New Orleans and Gary Gibbs , formerly
the linebacker coach went with him to be defensive coordinator.
i'm good with that. i won't miss either of them. i never thought
much about gibbs but i wasnt overly impressed with our linebackers
play lately so a change there may be just what we need. its possible
that he will be replaced with Paul Pasqualoni the former Syracuse Head Coach
who has been coaching the tight ends at Dallas. He was a LB coach before
being named head coach at Syracuse.
As for Payton leaving...all i can say is dont let the door hit you in the butt
on the way out. i never did like his offensive style, mainly because i never
could see that he had one ! i had serious doubts about him when he came to
Dallas. remember he is the guy who had the playcalling taken away from him
by the NY Giants when he was there. there is no telling who parcells will get
to replace him but i dont see it being a big deal. everybody knows who really
runs the show in big D anyway. and i am okay with that, as a matter of fact
i think it might help the Boys create the identity they lack if parcells will
just tell everybody he is calling the plays . you may not be a fan of parcells style
football but at least he has one and it has been sucessful for him in the past.
Drew Henson is going to NFL Europe and i say its about time. Let him play some football. It may not be the real deal but at least he will get some game time.
Besides nobody likes to just practice all the time, you want to "play" the game.
I still think he will be the quarterback of the future for us.
Free Agent signings will start happening soon and i am hoping the Cowboys
are players in this years market. Offensive lineman would be what i would be
shopping for. and a linebacker, and a free safety, maybe a kicker.
oh wait...thats the list from last year. well they are all still needs so
just smooth out the wrinkles from where i wadded it up and use it again.
thats what aggrivated me so much about this years team. me and 789 other people
who dont know anything about football knew where our weaknesses were but nothing
was done to change any of them. i have read that one of the defintions of insanity
is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Well i say its time to STOP THE INSANITY !
I dont care if it wrong.......just do something !!!!
anyway dont worry about the coaches leaving or drew going to europe or who we sign
or draft, thats Bills job. focus all your energy on rooting for the seahawks to
beat the stealers in the super bowl. after that we can worry about next year.
later.....poke

you are what you are.......it is what it is

the title of course is stolen from mr. parcells himself.
the Boys are/were a 9-7 team this year. and a disappoining 9-7 at that.
how is what i want to know.
this team was 7-3 at one point.
that means this team went 2-4 over the last 6 weeks.
to me this years team just never seemed to have an identity. none. at all.
we weren't a "high octane " offense ( think Indy ), we weren't a "smothering "
defense ( think Chicago..in the regular season). we weren't a "ball control",
"vertical", "west-coast", "east-coast", or any other type offense. we just never
seemed to develop a consistent style of play. on either side of the ball.
i never felt comfortable with the defense either. how could you ? after watching
the redskins sneak back into it and beat us with 2 late touchdowns early in the year
i never felt like we had the game in hand except against Philly in the game at Texas Stadium.
so i decided to look at the stats on nfl.com
i was going to make sense of this one way or the other.
i looked at the league provided stats so if i am wrong ...its not my fault.
i looked at total team offense..we ranked 13th.
i looked at total team defense..we ranked 10th.
not the greatest but by far not the worst.
then i looked at individual stats. passing yards, rushing yards, interceptions,
tackles, scoring, total td's, field goals ( oh how that hurt), passer ratings,
touchdown passes, receiving yards, sacks, kick-0ff returns, punt returns, punting,
fumbles recovered, receptions, receiving td's, and rushing td's. i looked at all
of them.
the only catagories where there was a Cowboy in the top 10 were:
total yards passing.......# 8 drew bledsoe
passing td's..............# 8 drew bledsoe
kick-off return average...# 10 tyson thompson
how depressing is that ?? where are all our playmakers ?
jason witten was ranked 6th at the tight end position for receptions with 66 catches.
so we didnt have an identity as team, and we didnt have any stand-out superstars.
we did have 3 different kickers. a couple of different long snappers.
we had some injuries but so did every other team.
basically we had us a 9-7 team. ........later Poke
thank goodness spring training is coming, and the olympics, and maybe even some
NFL Europe and arena football. i refuse to let the wasted month of february get me down.

just wait till next year !!!!!!!!!

i am starting to feel like a cubs fan. it seems like that has been our
battle cry in CowboysLand forever. i have a new appreciation for the faithful
at Wrigley Field for staying with their beloved cubbies all these years.
long gone are the days of consectutive winning seasons and playoff appearances,
with trips to the Super Bowl sprinkled in .
okay i'm through. had to get that out of my system. i have been feeling down
since last sundays loss and the end of our season. but enough is enough.
time to move on, look forward, pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps...yadda yadda
yadda.
next year is gonna be the one. Cowboys football will rise again !!
a few good moves this offseason and the skys the limit. the question is what moves need to be made ?? who stays, who goes...??
Ol Bill made his decision, he stays. Now we wait and see if Zimmer and Payton
get hired to be somebodys head coach. After watching our offense this year I kind
of hope Payton gets hired to coach a team we play against next year. (subtle dig
at our predictability this year.)
And while i have always liked Zimmers, I wouldn't be too upset if he gets a job
coaching with somebody that is ahead of us by 2 touchdowns or less with just a few
minutes to play. (non-subtle dig at our inability to finish off the redskins at home
on a monday night ). it would be nice to win a game like that .
Then its time to work on free-agency. We need some players. big mean offensive linemen would be a good place to start . I have no inside info, no secret contacts,
no "unnamed sources " like that Mortenson fellow at ESPN who said Parcells was going to retire. Just a gut feeling. I don't think Larry Allen plays for us next year.
WHOAAAAA........yep i said it. I just have this sneaky feeling he is through.
And if he is then thats another hole on our already leaking OLine. We need to
fix that first and foremost. I actually think the young guys we have and played
this year will improve next year. But we need more of them.
Then after free agency there is of course the draft. I dont have a clue what the
Boys will do . Neither does anybody else whose name isn't Parcells or Jones.
What we do in free-agency will determine what happens when the Boys pick 18th.
(or maybe not if we trade around for more picks) See...way too much uncertainty
for me to go out on that limb.
Oh yeah, a decision about who goes to NFL Europe also needs to made. Do you send
Henson, Romo or who to play over there??
Also does Dat retire ?? what about Al Singleton ? Whats gonna happen with Glover
and Ellis ??
So yep i am ready now. no wonder Ol Bill wanted to wait a few days to decide if he was coming back. there are more questions about this team now than there were last year. and some of the questions that were answered weren't good answers.
so i am through moping. lets get it started . training camp opens in about 6 months.
later..........Poke

ps. man wasn't that Vince Young something to watch in the Rose Bowl !! how bout them
LONGHORNS !!

My Daddy Said..............

My old daddy said there would be days like this. What could have been one of the
best, most exciting, plain old fun days Sunday turned into a disappointing,
aggravating heart breaker of a day.
it started out good, our church declared Sunday "wear your team colors" day.
looked like a pep rally as all the college teams were well represented.
I of course had on the Blue....I don't pick just one college team cause
I like to think they are all just farm teams developing players for the Boys.
Then it was time to head for Texas Stadium, had the cooler packed, the grill
gassed up, flags flying. Got there really early, even had to wait till they
unlocked the gates to the parking lot. Perfect.
And that's when I should have known something was up.....
North Texas is in a drought ( not just a Super Bowl drought either..A real one),
everything is dry. The wind was blowing about 20 mph.
The county issued a burn ban and I don't blame them. No fireworks, no open flames,no
outdoor cooking......WHAT ??? At the gate they were handing out notices,
500$ fine for any open fire sources. What were we going to do with those 30
Zummo sausages now ? How were we going to cook those sliced jalapenos filled with
cream cheese and wrapped with bacon ? We weren't and we didn't. A tailgate party
with no food except some cookies and M & M's loses a lot of its magic.
That was Sign # 1.
Of course listening to Atlanta lay down against the Panthers was a killer.
I thought Vick and company would want to prove something. Wrong. Sign # 2.
Oh well , it was still a good day. We were at the stadium, good things were
going to happen, I even had coupons for free hot dog and cokes.
Philly came out smoking against the Skins. Occasional cheers in the parking lot
kept my hopes up whenever the Eagles scored or did something good in their game.
Yep I thought, this was going to be the game of the year and I was there with my
wife, son , brother and the Boys were gonna whip the Rams and get into the playoffs.
So then we go in the stadium early, finish watching the Eagles on the big Jumbotron
screens, scream with all the other crazies when the redskins lost. Wrong..again.
The eagles let the skins get back in the game and then lost it all. Sign # 3.
Still I kept my thoughts on the high road, no dejection for me. The Boys would
come out and PLAY. No quitters here. Pride. It would be fun just watching as
our Team played just to show they were pros. Put on a good show.
It didn't happen that way though. Un-inspired, sloppy, mistake ridden ..pick your cliche. The Boys just couldn't get it done. I screamed, I hollered. It didn't
help. And when the score was tied and our crowd started doing the Wave..while
we were on Offense ...it hit me. Like a ton of bricks it hit me.Sign # 4
and this time I payed attention, I realized this was gonna be one of those days.
like a Monday at work where a 5 minute job takes half a day, like when you go
to cut your grass and end up spending the whole afternoon just trying to get the
stupid mower to start, like when all your doing is tightening up the hose
on the faucet and you bust the pipe and water gushes everywhere until you find the
shut off valve under a foot of dirt...yep one of THOSE days. you know the kind
your old daddy warned you about. later Poke