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

Christmas Wish List # 3

hmm, these lists aren't working out like I planned. Sure THE BOYS won and that was
one wild finish ( it is over isn't it ?? I passed out from holding my breath ,
fell over into the tree, hit my head on the new football display case I got for Christmas and haven't woke up yet). I dreamed that a missed field goal turned into
a game winning touchdown pass. I know better than to over-do it on all that Christmas
food and sweet stuff. Truth is definitely better than fiction.

anyway, I guess since Christmas 2005 has come and gone my next list will have to
be credited against next years wishes. That makes sense because the game actually
won't be played until next year.
there are 16 possible scenarios where our beloved Boys can get into the playoffs.
there are 267,587 websites, newspapers, or tv stations where you can see, print,hear watch and be confused or you can just take my word for it and ROOT FOR THESE TEAMS.
GO Atlanta, philly, Oakland and New Orleans.....and the Cowboys.
I was going to explain all that but then this site would join the other thousands and
just create more visual pollution so I will stop.
oh by the way, if you are watching the game and the Rams break loose deep for a game
winning touchdown and you see an old, overweight, only slightly balding, slow,
limping guy dressed in what looks like brand new stuff he got for Christmas rush
down from about 42 rows up and make a game winning tackle...Please contribute
to the GET-POKE-OUTTA-JAIL fund, and if that works out okay then I will ask
for contributions for my then needed medical funds cuz I am pretty sure I will
hurt something doing that. HAPPY NEW YEAR.....later poke