5 (Not So) Easy Steps to the Cowboys Beating the Texans

While we ignore crapola like this from north of the big border bloggers – Jimmy Johnson to return to coach the Cowboys? Really?! – let’s construct a blueprint toward something much more realistic: Making the Dallas Cowboys a better football team. We know they are talented. But in their first two…

2010 NFL Quarterback Rankings: Week 2

Like the BCS, style points count. So do geeky, black-and-white stats such as touchdowns and quarterback ratings. Wins and losses? Definitely. Leadership? Uh-huh. When it comes to my weekly NFL Quarterback Rankings – if I had one of those little encircled R’s to signify a trademarked idea, it’d go here – the…

Without Hamilton the Texas Rangers are Just Joshin’

Rangers lose. A’s win. Rangers win. A’s lose. Magic number this and first-round playoff match-up that. It’s all about as meaningless as David Buehler’s too-little-too-late 47-yard field goal if the Texas Rangers have to play October baseball without Josh Hamilton. Right? Hamilton is the Rangers’ best player. He’s having a Mickey…

Not the Cowboys. The Real Dallas Lightweights.

Heritage Auction Galleries​From time to time I kill some time perusing the Heritage Auction Galleries website — maybe we’ll find more gems like these photos. And, sure enough, this morning I stumbled across this soon-to-go-on-the-block keeper: a photo of the Dallas Lightweights taken by one G. Bannon in 1901.This much…

Whom to Blame for Oh and Two?

Call me crazier than bat guano, but I actually think the Dallas Cowboys will be fine … fine … fine … fine … fine … fine. Damn, all the sudden it’s lonely in here. At 0-2 and an underdog on the road this week in Houston against the undefeated Texans, things…

Can the Texas Rangers Catch Fire? Or, for That Matter, Anything?

We’re at a rare, almost unprecedented and admittedly awkward spot in Texas Rangers’ history. The Rangers will win the American League West, but they’re still so far away with so much time left in the season that it makes for – honestly – some uninteresting and practically meaningless baseball here in mid-September…

Bad Day at Blackstone For Tom Hicks

​In the past few hours, stories from the U.K. began surfacing: Tom Hicks isn’t leaving Liverpool after all, but has instead asked a Blackstone Group subsidiary to help him refinance his debt. Which suggested to some that Hicks’s has no intention of getting Yanks-out after — hence this weekend’s planned…

Bears 27, Cowboys 20: My Top 10 Observations

10. If I told you that Team A had edges over Team B in yards (410-308), plays (71-49) and time of possession (33:40-26:20) while holding its opponent to 1 of 11 on third downs and producing a special teams touchdown, you’d probably say that Team A had a 90-percent chance of winning that…

Cowboys’ Defense: Tough, But No Turnovers

Hard to be persnickety about a defense that didn’t allow a touchdown in the season opener, but at some point the Dallas Cowboys’ pressure has to translate into points. Right? Continuing a troubling trend from 2009, the Cowboys harassed Washington quarterback Donovan McNabb and generally suffocated the the Redskins last…

He Isn’t MVP, but Ian Kinsler is a Critical Ranger

It’s common sense that Ian Kinsler should not have been suspended. It’s also becoming pretty clear that he’s vital to the Texas Rangers’ post-season success. Loved me some Andres Blanco. He filled in with OK defense, scrappy base-running and even some pop in his bat. But in Wednesday night’s 11-7 win over the…

Survivor: Nicaragua. The Coach as Champion. Week 1

Once upon a time at a Valley Ranch far, far away, Jimmy Johnson drove his black Nissan 300Z into the parking lot and hurried into the building. He’d summoned a snotty-nosed, smart-ass reporter to his office, and I sat nervously in the foyer. After reading aloud my story in that day’s Fort…

How – and When – the West Was Won

“It’s Time”, meet “It’s Over.” With an 11-4 thumping of the Detroit Tigers last night – combined with the Oakland A’s loss in Kansas City – the Texas Rangers won their first American League West division championship since 1999. I know the magic number is 10 and there are still…

Cowboys vs. Bears is … Affordable?

If you want to go to Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys’  home opener against the Chicago Bears, good news: Over at StubHub there are more than 2,000 tickets available. And, get this, they are cheaper than 2009. The current average ticket price is $209, actually down from last year’s $222. Party passes are…

2010 NFL Quarterback Rankings: Week 1

Like the BCS, style points count. So do geeky, black-and-white stats such as touchdowns and quarterback rating. Wins and losses? Definitely. Leadership? Uh-huh. When it comes to my weekly NFL Quarterback Rankings – if I had one of those little encircled R’s to signify a trademarked idea, it’d go here – the…