Blogs like a girl

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Blog For ...

Yes, I have been MIA.

Yes, I have what I consider a pretty good excuse. 

Meet Miss Vivian McRae Engel, formerly known as The Bengel, or Little Ball of Mate as my sports editor Joe Garza likes to call her. She was born April 1, 2009, weighing in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces and 19.5 inches long.

So I am taking a little time off (me and The Stars, right?) to enjoy my little baby and learn how to deal with permanent sleep deprivation (any tips?). I may be checking in here from time to time to fire off a sports take that I feels absolutely needs to be voiced, or to post Vivi pics or updates, or just to try to keep The Star-Teleboys in line when they get absolutely ga-ga about a 3-0 Rangers start when cooler heads were obviously needed.

Talk soon,

Jengel

ps. I so appreciate all of the emails and congrats and kind words and advice.

pps. Giving credit where credit is due, the pic of Vivian is from good friend and uberly talented former S-T photog Sharon Ellman. Catch her work @ www.ellmanphotography.com.   

We now resume regularly scheduled programming.

QOTD: Who Is In Your Clutch 10?

I gave my list of clutch-est (or is it most clutch) athletes this morning.

Your turn: Who did I leave out? Who did I wrongly include? Who is in your clutch 10?

QOTD: Who Is Your National Champion?

And I feel comfortable using that phrase since college basketball, unlike football, actually has a playoff and crowns a National Champion.

Of course, this year's field of 64 was a BcS bracket with big, money schools taking a lot of spots. That is what happens when you put Mike Slive Slime in charge of anything. He is the baby daddy of the whole BcS debacle.

I digress.

My bracket remains a mess of crossed out names and scribbles and gibberish. Oh yeah, it is also due in less than an hour. I think I am going with Louisville, Mizzou, Duke and Syracuse. ETA: I've already changed. I now have Oklahoma and Nova. 

Mr. Hate, who is infinitely better at such things, says Louisville, UConn, Nova and Gonzaga.

As for the NC, he has Louisville and I'm cheating off his paper.

Of course, I have 45 minutes to change my mind. So please let me cheat off your paper as well.

Your turn: Who is your national champion?

QOTD (from reader Bruce): Romo For Cutler, Straight Up, Wouldya?

In my inbox this morning was this from loyal LBOHer Bruce Dauphin:

"How about a straight trade:

Jay Cutler from Denver for Tony Romo of the Cowboys

Romo looks lost to me and needs a new team.  Cutler is a crybaby and would fit it well with Jerry's team.

Bruce"

Me: Hell no.

Your turn: Romo for Cutler, straight up, wouldya?

QOTD: Are You A Bracket Geek?

... if so, feel free to leave me a few tips.

I am notoriously bad at NCAA Tournament brackets. Like eliminated by Sunday bad. My problem seems to be picking with my heart, not my brain. Like a year ago, I knew Kansas had a good-to-decent shot but who cares?

I went to Mizzou. I hate, hate, hate Rock Chalk Chickenhawk.

So I picked them to lose in the first round. And watched my bracket crash and burn, thanks to an improbable run and an improbably stupid collapse from Memphis. And I have biases like this all across my bracket this year.

Duke? ESPN loves them enough for all of us.

Memphis? Don't trust them after last season.

North Carolina? Just what we don't need, another bad Roy Williams crying.

So I will probably pick Mizzou to win The South, as well as a bunch of teams I am rooting for, and get smoked again. Which is a good reason to get into whatever pool I'm in.

Your turn: Are you a bracket geek?

QOTD: Do You Facebook?

So I used to be very anti-FB, MySpace, et al. I figured all were websites were college kids shared intimate tidbits about themselves and inappropriate photos that they'd later regret. And I am beyond that stage, not by a lot, but enough.

Until one of my besties started working for FB and bombarding me with invites to join.

I did. And now, well, I wonder how people have time to shower and be productive members of society with this little website that allows you to stay in touch with friends without having stop down for phone calls, reunite with old friends without Google stalking them and update everybody on you without sending out the dreaded mass e-mail. And you do not look narcissistic because everybody is doing likewise. As far as I can tell, the only problems are:

1. It is totally addictive.

2. It can be a time suck. And let's be realistic, diehard sports fans already have enough time sucks in a day and thereby can not afford another.

Your turn: Do you Facebook?

A Pledge To Be Nice To Jerry Jones? Oh Yeah.

I used to do campaigns a lot, way back in my Page2 days.

Free Devin Harris.

Save Gerald Laird.

Sign Roger Clemens.

And my personal favorite, an SOB pledge, where LBOHers like yourself and just plain baseball fans joined me in reading and signing a little request I had created, begging Bud Selig to Save Our Baseball. Almost 500 of y'all joined in and all were sent to Bud.

OK, so my pledges have largely been fail. Which just means I am due for a turnaround.

My campaign this morning, or really actually a pledge, is to Give Jerry A Break.

I know this sounds crazy. Especially coming from me ... but he deserves a lot of credit for not only cutting T.O. but how he explained to T.O. why he was cutting him.

As Stephen Jones tells it, Jerry drew a line on a table cloth then wrote his and T.O.'s down, telling him both sides gave 100 percent. Then, according to Mr. Hate's story in this morning's S-T, 

" ... Jones drew an arch over both names and wrote 'Dallas Cowboys'. 'Unfortunately we have this bigger thing up here,' Jones said. 'Unfortunately I’ve got to make the decision for what’s right for something a lot bigger than you, a lot bigger than me, and a lot bigger than our relationship. It’s time for us to part ways business wise.'

Owens’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, immediately stepped in and tried to find a different solution during the meeting last week in South Florida. 'I’ve agonized for two months over this decision,' Jones said. 'I’ve made up my mind. Let’s shake hands and move forward.'

So I ask you to join me this morning in Giving Jerry A Break.

I hereby pledge, for at least a month, to only write and say nice things about Jerry Jones. 

Will you join me? If so, sign up in the comments.

-- jengel

Why I Love Randy Galloway

Just about any time I meet anybody, they ask two questions:

a. What is it like being a girl and covering sports?

b. What is Randy Galloway like?

Fun. And a really good guy. 

Seriously, he's cranky and curmudgeon-y and wrong about many, many sports topics (T.O. being cut most recently) but he's also a really, really good guy. And he's willing to poke a little fun at himself, which brings us back to T.O. and Mr. Randy being wrong and me being RIGHT. Have I mentioned that lately?

We disagreed vehemently. The word idiot may have been used. We decided to have a blogcast bet. 

I said T.O. would be cut before June. He said T.O. would be on the roster for the 2009 season.

If T.O. was on the roster, I had to chomp on a cigar during a blogcast. If T.O. was cut, he had to wear my maternity shirt "It's A Girl" during an upcoming blogcast.

I won. He wore.

Or kind of did, mostly because we decided he might ruin my favorite maternity top with only a couple of weeks to go.

Video proof is here.  

QOTD: Is "Romo-Friendly" The Answer?

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones this so.

So do I.

He listed Romo-friendly as his big reason for his writing on the table cloth (which sealed T.O.'s fate as no-longer a Cowboy). Fascinating account of how this whole brouhaha went down from Stephen Jones. Full disclosure: Mr. Hate wrote said fascinating account.

Not everybody agrees with this desire to be Romo-friendly, most recently CowboyNPink in comments here. His point was, I think, Romo stinks noting: "You guys are all on Romo's jock strap and just refuse to accept that he is just not as good as you wish he would be. The cowboys hadnt won a playoff game years before T.O. got here so why is him leaving suppose to all of a sudden be the antidote?? Bake some cookies."

Your turn: Is "Romo-Friendly" the answer?

Bonus question: What kind of cookies should I bake?

QOTD: Is It Time To Give Up On Josh Howard?

So Mavericks forward Josh Howard is hurt. Again.

His balky ankle marks just another chapter in what has been a season-long saga of ups and downs and injury and recovery and good days and not-so-good ones. And I am starting to think that, maybe, probably, definitely Josh is not going to become what everybody expected.

I know what you are thinking, "duh, Jen". Welcome to about two years ago.

What I am saying, though, is the Mavs need to quit waiting until value comes for Josh. It is never going to be there, not to the point the Mavs valued him. It is time to move on this offseason in whatever way possible.

Your turn: Is it time to give up on Josh Howard?

Wait, Marion Barber Talks?

Many readers have brought my attention to pro-T.O. comments made by Cowboys running back Marion Barber in Saturday's DMN, namely:  

   "I don't cause controversy, I'm just straightforward. [Critics] are trying to make [Owens] into something he's not. I felt the same way like everybody else, but then I met the man. Once you know who he is, he's a great guy."

This comment by MBIII supposedly disproves my contention that most of T.O.'s teammates on offense were tickled to have his butt gone. My inbox was filled with such pearls of wisdom such as "doesn't Marion Barber play on offense?" and "the only people who don't like T.O. are y'all".

Wake up, people.

Isn't it odd to anybody else that Marion Barber who never talks about anything, 200-yard rushing games, his contract, his team, playoff games, anything at all suddenly decides to break his silence in defense of T.O.? Or might it be possibly be that Barber and T.O. both have the same she-devil agent, Drew Rosenhaus? And he might have felt like, to build interest in his client, he needed an offensive voice tout the company line and thus why said defense was mounted to what many consider pro-T.O. forces in the media?

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

-- jengel

QOTD: Finish This Sentence, My Advice To Buffalo Is ...

...

get ready to win jack squat.

Or tell Trent Edwards he may want to start dating a really hot chick like right now, immediately.

Or don't bother with the popcorn.

Yes, T.O. has become the property problem of the Buffalo Bills. Like they did have enough with the whole Buffalo thing. I already feel sorry for young QB Trent Edwards who is probably a fine young man and about to spend a year being blamed for anything and everything that does not go well with T.O. Oh well, kid, my advice to you is get your internal mute button ready.

Your turn: Finish this sentence, "my advice to Buffalo is ... "

QOTD: Whose Problem Does T.O. Become Now?

Many have suggested Oakland. I like Philly for sheer comedic value. 

What we have been seeing, though, is a lot of NFL teams coming out and saying "No Thank You", teams like Washington and NYGiants and really almost everybody contacted. Hmmmmm, so much for this idea that T.O. has plenty of skill in his 35-ish body and reports of his special brand of locker room crazy were overblown by media.

Dude is a head case, with declining skills.

Don't believe me. Believe NFL teams who seem to be ignoring him. He'll eventually sign somewhere, of course, probably, I think, but him and his idiot agent are about to learn that nobody likes TO quite like how he loves him some me.

Your turn: Whose problem does TO become now -- Redskins, Raiders or Hollywood?

Enough! Jerry Never Hinted At Bringing T.O. Back.

If I read another person who writes that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had been hinting at bringing T.O. back, I am going to throw something.

Like my computer.

Just kidding, IT.

Revo said as much in his column this morning. So did Mr. Hate. Which is just not true.

 What he did at that George Strait presser a couple of weeks ago was give himself just enough wiggle room in his comments about T.O. then: "If I gave you the answer you want to hear, then you would already have it. The fact you don't have it ought to tell you something."

 I wrote then, and I'll say again: What I know for sure about Jerry is, if he planned to bring T.O. back 100 percent-for sure, he’d say so. He did with Coach Cupcake.

 And by not saying so with T.O., he was saying he had not made up his mind. Which he reaffirmed when talking to Mr. Hate and DMN beat writer Todd Archer at the NFL Combine.

 “You caught my drift, and that’s all I want to say about that,” he told them when informed his comments had been taken as an almost groundhog-like indication of 16 more Cowboy games for T.O.

What stuck out to me that day and still now was his lack of definity. Anybody who has covered Jerry recognizes this is so not him. He’s not a hint dropper or a bush beater.

Remember his comments about Coach Cupcake's job status, including his angry "what the (poop) is going on here?" screed when asked again if plans remained to bring him back.

 No anger at T.O. questions.

Because Jerry always had been considering cutting T.O. He did not want to back himself in a corner. Or have to backtrack. And he didn't.

Again, good job, Jerry.

 -- jengel

Do I Really Think The Cowboys Will Be A Better Team Without T.O.?

EOTD, or Email of the Day for those hating my abbreviations, comes from Danny Gomez and not surprisingly is about T.O.

(We're at 10 a.m. and my inbox has been humming with T.O. activity).

He writes: "I read your article about T.O's release. Do you really think the Cowboys will be a better team without him?? None of the receivers we have on our roster are better than him. Do you know if they have someone else (besides Williams) that can come to Dallas and replace him?? He commands double and triple coverage and yet, it seems that the only other receiver that gets open is Witten. ... "

Let's break this up.

Do I really think the Cowboys will be better without him? Hell yes. And mostly because this OC Jason Garrett finally gets to build a game plan around what works rather than the "force feeding the ball to the whiner" plan, which has been marginally successful.

Do you know if they have someone else (besides William) that can come to Dallas and replace him? I think he is called TBD and will be acquired in the draft. He may not be as NFL ready as a lot of the names being thrown out, but he will be young and thereby improving instead of old and declining. It is this crazy things a lot of teams do, finding young talent in the draft and then helping their own become super stars.

He commands double and triple coverage ...  Just not true. This is an urban myth, just another reason why the Cowboys will be fine without him.

I hope this helps.

-- jengel

Why Randy Galloway Will Be Dressed Like A Pregnant Girl Next Tuesday

We had a little bet, Mr. Randy and I, on our little blogcast last Tuesday.

I had written in my column that your Dallas Cowboys were going to cut T.O. He said I was an idiot. We debated this round and round before and during blogcast taping until we finally decided a bet was needed. What we finally stumbled upon was, if the Cowboys cut T.O., he had to wear what has become a pregnancy staple in my wardrobe, my "It's A Girl" shirt in a future blogcast.

And oh my, my, I can not wait to see him looking all pretty next Tuesday proudly proclaiming his not pregnancy. I may make him wear my Burberry poncho as well, for authenticity. And for this, can I just scream ... ?

YOU MY BOY, JERRY.

I just had a feeling I was reading him right and there was a reason he refused to say T.O. was coming back and he'd come through before June 1. And so set your TiVos or tune in live next week to see Mr. Randy dressed like a pregnant girl.

-- jengel 

QOTD: TO Is Gone -- Season Saved? Or Season Screwed?

You know where I stand. Letting go of T.O. is the smartest, bestest thing Owner Jones has done in a long, long, long time. He has cleaned up his locker room mess while also dumping an aging WR with declining skills.

He also has brought a smile (probably private) to Romo and Witten and countless other Cowboy players faces. And he has finally gotten real about where this team is and what it needs to be better going forward by parting ways with T.O.

Of course, I called this shot a week ago so feel free to apologize in the comments. Or to vent if you feel this is a collosal screw up. I am dying to know what y'all think.

Me? Partying.

Your turn: Season saved? Or season screwed? 

Dear Jerry Jones ... I Apologize

Dear Jerry,

I am sorry. I was wrong.

I had a column for Thursday's paper which said, basically, pull your head out of your you know what and acknowledge your Cowboys have a locker room chemistry problem. I may have also noted that you were being obstinate. You will not read said column. It was spiked. Only my second killed column ever, the first being about Martha Stewart and pc-ness and hockey.

I was so mad about that first column and so happy about this because I was wrong.

Because late Wednesday (long after my column had been sent in) word leaked from ESPN's Michael Smith that you had cut T.O., a big portion of this locker room mess. And you deserve credit for this. You deserve a parade actually because it took a big set of coconuts to stand up and say "We are better of with you than without you".

So please accept my apology. I was (almost) wrong. You finally did right,

jengel

Who Was That? And What Did They Do With The Dallas Stars?

I stayed up way, way, way too late Tuesday watching Stars-Sharks. And so I am not sure if I fell asleep and only dreamt they dominated the best team going in hockey or if the they actually gutted up, came together and played with passion rather than excuses.

A quick check of internet activity confirms it is the latter, a 4-1 victory in San Jose.

What I especially liked was how, after that embarrassingly unteam-like debacle Saturday which I chronicled here, players responded by playing like a team. Young guys like Neal were good. Old guys like Mo were really good. And when one player started to scrum, players jumped to his defense.

Of course, goalie Marty Turco was exceptional as well.

I had bumped into him Sunday in a really good Italian restaurant on Greenville (that I can not for the life of me remember the name of but where I highly recommend the Italian Nachos). Anyway, I had gone to dinner in Dallas after writing my aforementioned scathing Star-Telecolumn and we were talking about how players might respond to be called out and about him.

Stars coach Dave Tippett had given Turco a rare day off Sunday, which did not end well for his backup or for his team. So I asked Turco if he wished he had played. 

"I'll always go if they ask," he said. "But I needed the day."

He has been a workhorse this season, even moreso than normal because of this team lacking a capable backup. And while he has been roller coaster-y at times, he is the Stars best chance for reaching the playoffs and doing anything once there. So he needs to be rested from time to time because, when he is, we get games like Tuesday. 

-- jengel

QOTD: What Is The Appropriate Cuban Response To This Mavericks Crisis?

I aske because Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was most obviously t.o.-ed Tuesday after that ugly in OKC, and he issued a warning about his intentions.

"Let's just say I wasn't happy with our preparation, execution or effort," Cuban said. "Not only did it look like we had no idea what we were doing, but we did it without effort. The effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, by each players will decide their future with the Mavericks. If each player can't take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don't see him being here next season."

"It it is not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won't be back. I don't care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night."

Can I hear an amen from The Maverick congregation?

Cuban said what every single fan, reporter and yes even owner was thinking after watching that sorry-butt lack of effort against OKC. It was frustrating because you felt they did not care and were merely going through the motions. It was even more frustrating because this was not the first or fifth or even 10th time a game has left everybody feeling this way. And everybody wants change.

But what? Blow it up? Stop building around Dirk?

Your turn: What is the appropriate Cuban reponse to this Mavericks crisis?