Special Teams Coach Bruce Read Let Go

Two to Forget Mark ‘08 Struggles

Ware Eyes Defensive Player of the Year Award

Mailbag: Cowboys Better Off Without Terrell Owens?

Week 18 - COWBOYS PRIDE RADIO - WILD CARD ROUND OF THE NFL PLAYOFFS - Jan 01, 2009

Wild Card Week

Come join Doyle (Bassman D), Larry (CP President Larry Bud) and the gang, including special guest, Mark (aka Vikadelic: SJ Radio Show host/CP member) as they review the regular season of your Dallas Cowboys, preview the upcoming NFL playoffs, and talk more college football than you can shake a stick at! Please spend part of your New Years night with us, won't you?

Call in and discuss the games with us live or join us for the live in-show chat session!

Date/Time: Thursday, 1/1/09 @ 10:30PM ET (9:30PM CT)

You can check it out at www.blogtalkradio.com/Cowboyspride to listen in or ask a question by hitting "Click to Talk". You can also call in to the show at (347) 826-7420.

Or, join us in the show chat link and ask your question there!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Cowboys...E-NFL-PLAYOFFS

Congrats to Our Fantasy Football Challenge Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the Cowboys Pride/ Football Jabber 2008 Fantasy Football Challenge!  Each week these warriors chose a different lineup, only using each player once on the season.  They also played the built in Survivor and Pick’em games for a chance to win a little extra change.  So here they are…

CP Sponsored Overall Points Winner of $50 NFL Shop Gift Card: Lee
FJ Sponsored Weekly High Score entry Drawing of $25 NFL Shop Gift Card: BNG Bleeder’s Week 13 Entry!
FJ Sponsored Survivor Pool Winner $10 NFL Shop Gift Card: Healthpellets
FJ Sponsored NFL Pick’em winner $10 NFL Shop Giftcard: DocJ

Did you miss out on the Challenge this season? There is a Playoff Fantasy Football Challenge starting this weekend over at Sports Jabber! FREE entry, chance at winning a $25 gift card to ESPN’s Store. All you need is to be a registered member at the SJ forums. More details HERE!

Cowboys Fire Special Teams Coach Bruce Read

From: Dallas Morning News

Cowboys special teams coach Bruce Read has been fired. Read’s two years with the Cowboys were met with inconsistent to poor special teams play from the coverage units to the return game. It’s believed he had a year left on his contract.

Garrett’s Star Not as Bright as it was Last Year

From: Dallas Morning News

Jason Garrett’s genius status has been revoked, as it should’ve been, after a wretched December. See, when T.O. complained about Garrett’s offense, we all ignored him. Now that Tony Romo has publicly criticized Garrett the last two weeks, the offensive coordinator deserves the same scrutiny Wade Phillips, Romo and T.O. have received. When the quarterback says Philadelphia exposed a fundamental flaw in the Cowboys’ offensive scheme during their 44-6 loss to the Eagles, he’s ripping Garrett. Combine those comments with the knowledge that Tony Sparano handled the running game and pass-blocking schemes last year, and Romo’s statements have credence.

ESPN Making Stuff Up, As Usual

Sorry for the photo.  First one not of NASCAR in the ESPN search.

I no longer consider ESPN a valid news source.  Neither should anyone getting AP.

The media often plays "according to another outlet" or "another outlet reports that."  If they name the source as ESPN, fine, but sometimes they don't because it gets filtered through AP or something.

I use the common sense rule.  Let's use their contradicted report about Brady being set back again as an example.

1) You can believe that somebody scooped Earth getting the Patriots to tell about injuries through an "undisclosed source."

2) You can believe Brady (or his family, agent, Gisele, etc.) gave somebody the story as an "unnamed source."

3) The Doctor's office ignored potential lawsuits about patient confidentiality to be an "unnamed source" for somebody.

4) You can believe the "unnamed source" is my cousin's brother-in-law's roommate's uncle, who does gardening for Gisele and overheard her on the phone when she thought she was alone.

5) You can believe they make stuff up to grab attention from SI and Fox Sports.  (You know, reputable media.)

Then if it gets to, say, USA Today via AP and it fails the sniff test, you can figure out ESPN was the source.

If there is a grain of truth, ESPN hypes it until it is absurd.  Take the recent TO bit as an example.

What we know, because it was confirmed by the parties involved, is that the wide receivers coach called in his wide receivers one by one to ask what could be done better.

Big surprise, they all said they could be passed the ball more often than the checkdown receiver, the tight end.

From that, ESPN gets TO claiming Romo and Witten stay up late at night drawing up secret plays.  Huh?

OK, here are two tests for "story according to ESPN."

1) If it is about the Patriots, they made it up.  (Otherwise, you believe Belichick tolerates the guys he purposefully dropped an F-bomb on, or believe there is a loose cannon in Foxboro.)

2) If the story is juicy, maybe it was "exaggerated" a wee bit for broadcast on SportsCenter.

Cowboys’ Romo Has Support of Jerry Jones, Phillips

From: Dallas Morning News

The support for quarterback Tony Romo is everywhere, but is it justified for a quarterback who enters the off-season with a 27-12 mark as a full-time starter with no playoff wins? Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips think so. During the last four weeks of the season, Romo had more turnovers - nine - than touchdown passes - five. Even so, Phillips said he believes Romo is an elite quarterback despite his 5-8 record in December. “Certainly some things happen with him that don’t happen with other quarterbacks,” Phillips said. “But we’ve got to rein it in in some areas.

I see too many good things, too many great things that he does that other people can’t do. “I think he can be an elite quarterback and a Pro Bowl quarterback and a top player.” Jones said he can’t finger why the team, especially Romo, struggles down the stretch. But other top quarterbacks have endured similar problems. New Orleans’ Drew Brees didn’t have a winning record in the last month of the season until 2004 - his fourth year in the league, when he was still with San Diego. Eli Manning of the New York Giants went 1-4 in his rookie year of 2004.