Fourth and Long: Vitriol and the Dallas Cowboys

Back in 2007 and 2008, I wrote a weekly online pro football column dubbed “Fourth and Long” for the late Football for Breakfast website. One hopes the gentle reader will enjoy this blast from 10/17/07…

Yahoo! Sports columnist Michael Silver posed an interesting question last week.

Are the Cowboys better off without Bill Parcells?

An interesting question. And a legitimate one, too.

But as I read the column, I was surprised at the level of vitriol in his answer. Vitriol reserved for Bill Parcells.

Silver laced his angry diatribe with poisoned phrases like,’…the whimsical, self-deprecating Phillips replaced the uptight, egomaniacal Parcells..’ and ‘…were Buzzkill Bill still around, he’d constantly be reminding Romo of his flaws…’

Not hard to see where Michael Silver ended up with his answer.

But the person he was taking gratuitous shots at is not some ineffective schoolyard bully. This is a guy who has won two world championships. Taken two different teams to the Super Bowl. Three different teams to championship games. Four different teams to the playoffs. Like him or not, Parcells has been successful. Very successful.

And while we will never know what the Cowboys would have achieved this year with Parcells as coach, for that is the magical world of what-if’s inhabited only by rabid fans and sports writers, we do know that it was Parcells who rolled the dice and started Tony Romo over Jerry Jones’ objection, no matter how ‘reluctantly’ Michael Silver believes Parcells made that decision.

And if that same quarterback hadn’t bobbled the snap against the Seahawks, who knows how far they would have gone in the playoffs last year.

Silver, perhaps sensing the potency of his venom, notes, “You can bet that somewhere in New Jersey, as he reads this column, Bill Parcells has his panties in a bunch.” Carefully chosen words intended to emasculate the tough-guy Bill Parcells.

But are these petty attacks really necessary?

Why go to such lengths? Is Michael Silver trying to make a name for himself? Is he trying to differentiate himself from the thousands of other sports columnists out there? Or is he trying to catch up to Peter King who outshined him while they both worked at Sports Illustrated?

Perhaps it’s more personal. Maybe Parcells publicly insult him at a press conference. Whatever the reason, Silver’s tone is, in my opinion, unnecessary.

In today’s media, not only have we have resorted to taking delight at other’s failure, but now we have seemingly descended into sadistically belittling others from a safe cyber-distance.

And what might be the irony of it all is that I do agree with Michael Silver’s contention that the Cowboys are a better team with Wade Phillips as head coach.

Right now.

For when you have a disciplinarian like Parcells who whips a team into shape, changes the losing culture of the past decade and builds the foundation of a winning program, sometimes the likeable guy, the friendly guy is the right person to take over. For a year or two.

Then you need to come back to the guy who is known for building programs.

A guy like Bill Parcells.

Click here for Michael Silver’s column, ‘Lovefest in Big D’

‘Larry King’ Ramblings

I’ve started to notice a trend in the top teams… they win games even with major injuries. The Patriots without a starting running back. The Steelers without receivers. The Colts without Addai and Harrison. That is a mark of a good team. Can’t wait for the AFC playoffs this year.

And the Patriots. They simply dismantled the Cowboys in Dallas and didn’t even look sharp doing it. Patriots-Colts in week 9 is shaping up to be a great game.

After the lovefest from Michael Silver to Wade Phillips (above), I was amused to find Mike Florio, writing for Sporting News (see item #4 in ’10-Pack’), already calling for Wade Phillips to be fired at the end of the season and replaced by offensive coordinator Jason Garrett. Why? Because the Cowboys lost by 21 to the Patriots. Let’s see. The Cowboys are 5-1, the NFC favorite to go to the Super Bowl, and their only loss is to the best team in the NFL possibly since the 49ers of the ’80s. Tough crowd.

Speaking of Wade Phillips, I will never forget that this is the same guy who benched Doug Flutie for the Bills’ playoff run in favor of Rob Johnson back in 1999. Rob Johnson! You may remember the result. A little thing called the Music City Miracle. Talk about karma.

Devin Hester returned another kick for a touchdown passing Bears great Gale Sayers on the all-time list. How can anyone kick to this guy? And I won’t even mention his 81-year touchdown catch (oops).

On the other side of the field was an even more impressive performance by Vikings rookie Adrian Peterson. Touchdown runs of 67, 73 and 35! 224 rushing yards. And then, with under two minutes to go with the game tied, Peterson returns a kickoff 53 yards to the Bears 38 to set up the game-winning field goal. This kid is unreal. And a very impressive win by the Viking considering this was a game the Bears had to win.

Vinny Testaverde at age 43 might be the answer for the Panthers because David Carr certainly isn’t. Not if you want to win. Carr is a really nice guy and very tough. But he doesn’t seem to have those intangibles that win games.

I’m still not sold on the Chargers. I’m getting the sense that LT is covering up huge problems with this offense. 1) Phillip Rivers is not a Pro Bowl quarterback this year, throwing Rex Grossman-style interceptions and 2) The Chargers don’t have any quality receivers other than Antonio Gates. It remains to be seen if losing WR Eric Parker to IR and signing Chris Chambers from the Dolphins will have any effect.

It was nice to see Reggie Bush have a strong game as the starting running back for the Saints. He’s been taking a lot of flack for not being a bruising running back. I was thrilled when he got his 100 yard game. Of course, he lost it a few plays later, ending up with 97 yards on the day. Oh well.

‘Heidi’ Chronicles

Another blacked-out game for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The 3-1 Jacksonville Jaguars. This franchise is in serious trouble in that market. If they don’t do something big this season or acquire some star power over the off-season, I can’t see this franchise staying there for long.

The epic Patriots-Cowboys game ended at 7:47 PM on CBS. So by the time I switched over to NBC, I only got to see three highlights and more fake laughter from Bob Costas. NBC really needs to do something about highlights during the Sunday night game. Maybe intersperse them during the game? Turn halftime into a legitimate highlights show? Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

And to make matters worse for NBC, the Saints-Seahawks game was delayed by 10 minutes due to an NBC Cable-Cam malfunction. A malfunction that nearly resulted in Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck being hit in the head as the camera fell to the ground. D’oh!

Did you see Jimmy Kimmel in the booth on ‘Monday Night Football’? Funniest moment of the night was when Kimmel asked where Joe Theismann was. Most painful moment was having to endure Kimmel for the ensuing 10 minutes. His ‘comedy’ was so awkward and so mean-spirited that ESPN banned him from future telecasts.

Playoffs?!? Don’t Talk About Playoffs?!?

With apologies to Jim Mora, it’s never too early to talk playoffs…

AFC Playoff Seeds
1) Indianapolis Colts (5-0): Sorry Patriots’ fans, undefeated defending champions don’t drop in my rankings.
2) New England Patriots (6-0): Might be the best team I’ve seen since the 49ers of the late 1980s.
3) Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1): Bye week. Still the third best team in the AFC, if not the NFL.
4) Kansas City Chiefs (3-3): Win over the Chargers a few weeks back gives the Chiefs the tiebreaker.
5) Jacksonville Jaguars (4-1): Big game against the Colts will show how good the Jaguars really are.
6) Baltimore Ravens (4-2): Beating the Rams doesn’t prove much, but 4-2 is 4-2.

NFC Playoff Seeds
1) Dallas Cowboys (5-1): First team to hold a lead over the Patriots in the second half, but the Cowboys aren’t quite ready to match the best of the AFC yet.
2) Green Bay Packers (5-1): Nice, if sloppy, win over Redskins.
3) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2): The Buccaneers might be the real deal. Impressive win over Titans.
4) Seattle Seahawks (3-3): While the Seahawks have lost two straight, the Cardinals need to sort out their injuries before they can challenge for the division title.
5) New York Giants (4-2): Four straight wins after an 0-2 start.
6) Carolina Panthers (4-2): Vinny Testaverde is an ageless wonder. He may be a better option for the Panthers than David Carr.

‘John Madden’ Wayback Machine

Brett Favre threw two more interceptions this weekend, taking over the career interception record from George Blanda. Then Vinny Testaverde returned to the NFL, stirring comparisons to, well, George Blanda.

So it seems only apropos to take a look back on one of the great players in NFL history.

Hall-of-Famer George Blanda played professional football for a record 26 seasons, signing with the Chicago Bears and George Halas in 1949. Primarily a quarterback and placekicker, Blanda also played linebacker. Finally after several years as starting QB (he replaced Sid Luckman), Blanda was relegated to placekicker, resulting in Blanda’s retirement from the Bears after the 1958 season.

But with the start of the AFL in 1960, Blanda returned to quarterbacking and signed with the Houston Oilers, leading them to the first two AFL championships and throwing 36 touchdowns in 1961! But by 1967, the 40-year old Blanda was released and signed with the Oakland Raiders as placekicker and backup quarterback.

But it was in 1970 that the legend of George Blanda truly began.

At age 43, Blanda pulled off a magical five-game run:

-10/25/70: Threw for three touchdowns in relief of Daryl Lamonica and kicked a field goal to beat the Steelers.
-11/01/70: Kicked a 48-yard field goal to tie the Chiefs with three seconds left in the game.
-11/08/70: Came off the bench to tie the Browns with a touchdown pass, then kicked the winning 52-yard field goal.
-11/15/70: Threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff to beat the Broncos.
-11/22/70: Kicked the game-winning field goal in the closing seconds to beat the Chargers.

In the AFC Championship game later that season, Blanda again came off the bench to throw two touchdowns and kick a 48-yard field goal. Though the Raiders lost 27-17, Blanda accounted for all of the Raiders points in the game.

Following the 1975 season where he kicked a 41-yard field goal in the AFC Championship game, George Blanda retired one month shy of his 49th birthday. He ended his amazing career with 2,002 points more than anyone in NFL history up to that point.

Battle for Brian Brohm (or Darren McFadden or Whoever the #1 Pick Will Be)

Having completed six weeks of the season, the worst teams in the NFL are starting to fall into place.

#1 – St. Louis Rams (0-6): Horrible, horrible team, especially since they came into the season with such high expectations.
#2 – Miami Dolphins (0-6): Cleo Lemon looked good, but they play the Patriots next. Chalk up 0-7.
#3 – Atlanta Falcons (1-4): This team looked really dreadful Monday night against the Giants.
#4 – Cincinnati Bengals (1-4): Really bad loss to the Chiefs.
#5 – New York Jets (1-5): Another tough loss, but 1-5 is still 1-5.
#6 – Buffalo Bills (1-4): Can’t lose another game during bye week, but I’m sure they tried.
#7 – New Orleans Saints (1-4): The Saints may have turned it around. Falcons next.