Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. We have rounded the corner of summer and are now wading into the leaf raking season. Labor Day is a nice three day weekend, but is always a bittersweet holiday for me. Labor Day means the days will soon begin to grow short and cooler weather is ahead. I know that many of you look forward to this, but in reality, it means significant change is ahead for me. The last summer filled with baseball, the last summer preparing for high school football. Each day ahead is the last of something. It has been said that time waits for no man and it really is true. But the memories we have are the payoff for our time invested...

This year, I accepted the challenge of being our high school football booster club president. I knew that the job would be demanding, but I decided I wanted to try to make a difference. The job has been a big time investment, but I have to say that I am having a great time. We won our first game Friday night and Blake played well. Besides his 8 unassisted tackles, he had an interception and a fumble recovery. First games can be a bit frustrating. Our “high octane” passing attack sort of fizzled. Our center snapped the third snap of the game over our new QB’s head and the defense snatched up the lose ball for an easy TD. So much for the shut out…Our offense eventually got untracked…thanks to 6 turnovers the defense provided. Final score was 46 to 21, but it really wasn’t that close.

I got an invite to go to the Longhorn’s game Saturday night against Wyoming. Even though it meant missing the Gab draft, I decided to go…sorry guys. Texas suffered some of the same issues that Westwood had. Although this game was really never in question, the Longhorns were sloppy. David Ash played the part of game manager and let the Horn running backs do the heavy lifting. I heard many Horn fans grumbling about the short passes, but that is the SEC blueprint that Mack Brown is following. After seeing the beat down that Alabama put on Michigan, it is apparent that Texas needs a bit more work on the SEC defensive blueprint. But, getting a win that first game is big. When you think about it, until you have a few games under the belt, each team is living off the laurels from last year. I do have one observation…winning the SEC way is not always exciting football. Playing lock down defense and a ground and pound offense is rather boring. Effective yes, but boring nonetheless…I heard a few fans grumbling about the dink and dunk passing attack. Oh well, if Mack keeps the wins coming, the fans will get over it…but the days of 400 yard passing days may be gone in Austin.

Tonight is the beginning of the NFL season. Why do we start the NFL season on Wednesday? I don’t know about you, but the more the NFL tinkers with their schedule, the further they get away from the masses. For me, Sunday is the day for NFL football, not Wednesday. I know that the Giants have had great success in the past few years; will Eli Manning finally get a bit of respect this year? Since the Giants won the Super Bowl last year, we forget that they were a first down by the Cowboys from being eliminated from the playoffs. There were many in New York that were calling for Coughlin’s job…winning a Super Bowl quiets those voices, but for how long? Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning get little respect…at some point we have to acknowledge that they have won two SB’s in the past few years. This is quite an achievement, but nobody ever talks about this…why? The talking heads will be talking about the Cowboys tonight and the Jets on Sunday. The only real discussion in Dallas should be how to win football games that matter. For me, there is no hotter seat than the coaching and QB chairs in Dallas. Apparently Romo feels this pressure as he stormed out of a press conference yesterday. Jerry Jones recently made a comment about the Cowboys window of opportunity closing and Tony Romo took offense. A reporter began to ask Romo about this closing window and Tony simply said, “that’s it” and walked off. In truth, this year is it for this group of Cowboys. Each season, the Cowboys are touted as a contender and annually end up as a pretender. This really may be Romo’s last chance to win before Jerry decides to begin to remake this team. There is no question that Tony Romo is a talented QB, but unless he wins this year…he will always wear the label of choker.

There has been much hype regarding the incoming class of rookie QB’s. Take a look at the five rookies starting at QB this year:

Andrew Luck

Robert Griffin III

Russell Wilson

Ryan Tannehill

Brandon Weeden

Which one of these guys do you think will have the best year? With the splash that Cam Newton made last year, many have begun to realize that a rookie does not have to struggle or sit their first year in the NFL. Many “experts” see Luck as the most prepared young QB since Peyton Manning. RG3 may have the most overall talent, but I think Russell Wilson is perhaps in the best situation to have a great season. Don’t sleep on this Seattle team as they could easily make some noise this year. Of the 5, I think Weeden will struggle the most. For his sake and all Browns fans, Trent Richardson better have a great year. I just don’t think that the OL in Cleveland allows him to remain upright all season. The Dolphins must feel very secure in Tannehill as they released David Garrard yesterday. Tannehill has looked pretty good in preseason, but will soon see the regular season is a completely different speed. Who is Tannehill throwing to again?

Turns out that Drew Rosenhaus is not a good guy…What a shock!!! Apparently, Rosenhaus has been referring his players to a crooked investment guy that was involved with an Alabama bingo casino that went belly up? Drew claims innocence, but TO and many other clients say otherwise. Owens had this to say: "For someone to work as hard for their money as we do, to have it taken away by people we trust, who we find out later had other motives, it's a sick feeling.”

Please join me in wishing Drew a long vacation from the NFL.  

As I watch the NFL pre-game, can anyone explain to me why they have a concert before this game?? Totally lame...lets see some football!

I have been burning the candle on both ends the past few weeks and while writing my blog last night I crashed. My apologies to Sully and all of you for not having deep thoughts posted as planned.

That is all I have for this week, but will leave you with a bit of Jack Handey:

“I think someone should have had the decency to tell me the luncheon was free. To make someone run out with potato salad in his hand, pretending he's throwing up, is not what I call hospitality.”

“Most people don't realize that large pieces of coral, which have been painted brown and attached to the skull by common wood screws, can make a child look like a deer.”

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own….

Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. Damn, I hate getting old. After doing some yard work last weekend, I went to bed Sunday night thinking my back felt a bit tight. When I got up on Monday, it was not any better…but it wasn’t too bad, so I went about business as usual. Tuesday morning, I woke up with a full spasm in the lower back. I don’t know if you have ever experienced this, but it sucks…pure and simple. There is really nothing to do, but rest, ice and drugs… Of course, if my blog sucks today, at least I have an excuse.

With my back out, I spent most of Tuesday sitting in my recliner watching baseball. There were a few things that caught my attention and I think deserve a bit of discussion. Did you see Brett Lawrie get ejected? As this video is on MLB network, the best I can offer is the link: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120515&content_id=31385244&vkey=news_tor&c_id=tor

I truly believe that most umpires do a great job of getting the calls right, but this ump’s zone was terrible.  Some umps call a wide zone, but what he called strike three was clearly up. You can't call em wide and tall, it is just not right. Now, Lawrie should not have thrown his helmet, but did it look like the ump was doing a bit of acting when the helmet grazed him? He acted like Brett threw hot water on him or something. I am not sure what happened in this game, but it sure seemed like he had it in for Lawrie. There is no doubt that a suspension is coming. How many games do you think that Lawrie will be out?  My guess is 7 games….and that is too bad. This umpire needs to remember that he is best when he is invisible. 

Tuesday was the first time that Bryce Harper and Mike Trout hit HR’s on the same day, but I know there will be many more. After watching these two rookies play for the past week, I think I was wrong in my initial assessment. Both of these guys are ready to play now. Of course they will have rough days, but their talent is obvious. I would not be surprised if Harper hit 20 HRs this year. As I am currently re-reading a book about Willie Mays, I could not help but think that Mays also started professional baseball as a 19 year old. I also have to admit that I have changed my view of Harper. I like the way this kid plays. He plays with a bit of old school intensity. Willie Mays was thrown at frequently. As a high schooler playing in an industrial league, he was drilled in one of his first at bats. As he lay in the dirt crying, his manager barked at him to get up. The advice he gave Mays was to steal 2^nd and 3^rd as quickly as you can…this is the best way to get back at a pitcher. I could not help but think of Mays when Harper stole home on Hamels. Of course it was nice to see Harper’s pitcher hit Hamels, but stealing home was the perfect message to send Hamels. Both of these guys are following the 5 tool path that Mays blazed more than 50 years ago, but of course they have a very long way to go to achieve what Mays did.

I have to give a bit of love to the Orioles. While most think that the AL East will eventually catch and pass the Baltimore, I am beginning to sense that Buck has enough talent to hang tough much of the year. The Orioles were once remembered for hitting the three run home run, pitching and defense. While I have not seen Jim Palmer or Mike Cuellar on the mound for the birds, I do see a power resurgence in Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy and Chris Davis. Did you know that the Baltimore’s bullpen has an ERA of .228 and possibly baseball’s best closer in Jim Johnson? It is funny, but Showalter is winning with three Ranger castoffs. Chris Davis, Darren O’Day and Pedro Strop are all ex-Rangers. I am not sure that the starting pitching is good enough to stay atop the AL East, but with the Yankees struggling health and the Red Sox troubles, this might be the year that Baltimore stays north of .500. There is plenty of time for them to fade, but this group of birds seems very determined to hang around. Buck Showalter is one great manager…

Most have commented that the NBA is not what it once was. I do have to admit that I thoroughly enjoy the hijinks on TNT. Frequently, I will not watch the game, but tune in to see what Charles, Kenny and Ernie are up to on the game recap. In case you missed the great shirt off on Tuesday evening, here is a video recap of the event. In short, Shaq challenged Barkley to take his shirt off and compare their abs. I think that Shaq had a bit of artistic help with his “six pack”. Funny stuff…

As usual, BOB has inspired me with a topic in his blog that I had to carry over to Wednesday. There have been rumors about Florida State moving to the Big 12. I have always wondered why Florida State was not in the SEC. Their proximity to the SEC would be a natural fit for the Seminoles and Miami for that matter. As I started to read about the situation in the ACC, it was quickly clear that money was at the heart of the discussion to leave the ACC. Apparently the new TV deal that was signed only ads about a million dollars to the current agreement. Although the announced deal sounded much better, the TV dollars are apparently back loaded, which may leave the conference under market by the time the bigger dollars are realized. Florida State is in a pickle. They have admitted to running an operating deficit and may have to trim almost 2.5 million in expenses. The rub for the Seminoles is the quality of competition in the ACC and the difficulty of selling out their 80,000 seat stadium. Here is a look at the Noles 2012 schedule:

9-1      vs   Murray State

9-8      vs   Savannah State

9-15    vs   Wake Forest

9-22    vs   Clemson

9-29    at   USF

10-6    at   NC State

10-13  vs   BC

10-20  at   Miami

10-27  vs  Duke

11-03       OPEN

11-8    at  VT

11-17  at  Maryland

11-24  vs  Florida

12-1         ACC championship game

Obviously, the Big 12 would need to add two teams if they decided to add Florida State. Louisville has been rumored as an option, but perhaps Miami would be a better option? This new conference could be split into an East and West division:

East:  Florida State, West Virginia, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Miami

West: Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

With a 9 game schedule, each team would play all of their division and four teams from the other division. This would be a very strong conference and would add back a conference championship game for the Big 12. Is this possible? There are some big advantages for the Big 12 to add two teams of the stature of Florida State and Miami. While the Florida teams are not what they once were, it does not take much imagination to see them back to full strength in a few years. Recruiting would be beneficial for all involved. Texas and Florida are both full of high school talent. I am sure that all of the conference schools would be happy to add visits to both states to their travel. Speaking of travel…how will the alumni embrace the added expense of traveling to out of state games? I know that taking a trip to Florida would be much more fun than visiting Morgantown, or at least would offer an easier trip.

There has been a great reshuffling of college football, but my guess is that we have only scratched the surface of changes. Now that a playoff is being discussed, it is only a matter of time before the NCAA realizes just how much money they are leaving on the table. Then, an expanded tournament will surely be next. This will lead to a push for bigger and better conferences. How long before we have “super” conferences? I don’t think anyone could argue that the SEC is the best football conference. I suspect that this is one reason that the Big 12 might consider adding two quality football schools. And of course, there is added TV revenue. But, there is the small problem for the Seminoles of how to leave the ACC. Leaving the ACC will not be free. It will cost Florida State an estimated 20 million or so to head west. How does a school that is operating in the red come up with this kind of money? Also, many Florida State fans despise the power of the Carolinas and think that the ACC is all about Duke and NC basketball. There are many in the Big 12 that complain of the power of Texas. Will Florida State find the same issue? This is a fair concern, but for my eyes, Florida State fits much better in the Big 12 than they do in the ACC. In the current environment, who can rule out anything?

We all have our favorite sports and for different reasons. One of the cool things that I have noticed about baseball is the uniqueness of the umpires. There is no set manner to signal an out. A safe call is pretty universal, but have you ever really watched how different one umpire is from another? Here is a variety of umpires that offer a bit of flair to the job:

As you can see, a good umpire is unique in the way they call a game. I suppose eventually every umpire will need an aspirin to deal with all of the knuckelheads...

That is all I have today, but I will leave you with a bit of Jack Handey:

“Somebody told me it was frightening how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told the story around the campfire and nobody got scared.”

 “I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.”

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own.

Since I had a free Friday evening last week, I decided to head to catch some playoff high school football. The son of a friend plays for AA Blanco and their game was in Bastrop. You may remember that Bastrop is the town that had such a terrible fire earlier this fall. Because of the lack of rain, there has been a burn ban in most of Texas. With the recent rains, I guess the burn ban has been lifted. in the Bastrop area. The Bastrop school district has recently built a very nice stadium that is what you would call a "rural" area. I guess the local farmer had all of his trash that he has not been able to burn, so he decided to burn the trash on Friday night. I was amazed that as we sat in the stands watching a playoff game, plumes of smoke billowed across the stadium. As bad as it was for the spectators, I can't imagine how it was to play and breathe the smoke. I still cannot get over how stupid this was. For the record, Blanco was completely outclassed by a very talented Hempstead team. 

I admit that I am an old guy and I absolutely hate what professional athletes have created. We have gradually seen TD celebrations evolve from an innocuous spike of the football to an all out look at me attitude. I really don't have too much issue with a professional player making a fool of himself, but what I dislike is how these actions have affected the college and high school game. The rule makers in the NCAA are pushing back and their rules are also being adopted by high school associations across the country. Here are two instances of these rules that I find totally offensive and troubling.

Here is Boston Cathedral High QB Matt Owens breaking away for what probably would have been the clinching TD in the state championship game. With his team trailing 18 to 16 and only minutes left in the 4th quarter Matt raised his fist in triumph. The referees correctly ruled that this was an unsportsmanlike penalty and disallowed the TD. The next play, Owens threw an interception and the game ended in an 18 to 16 loss. This was not a taunting action, but a celebration. But the rules state: "any attempt to draw attention to yourself, whether it is pointing the finger, raising a fist or anything like that, is a penalty. We've been instructed to call it when it happens, it's zero tolerance now." I understand zero tolerance and I appreciate the attempt to regulate the game. However, these are high school kids and not professionals.

Jonathan Gray is a blue chip recruit headed to the University of Texas. He appeared headed for several Texas high school records until his ejection last week against Stephenville. From everything I have heard, Gray is a good kid. It is a bit disturbing that the first unsportsmanlike penalty was because he reportedly made a throat slashing gesture. I did not see this, but of course this has to be penalized, even if it was not directed at someone. The penalty that got Gray booted from the game was the high stepping into the end zone. This is a game and is supposed to be fun. I see nothing wrong with this. If you try to mandate all of the fun out of the game, I am afraid that you lose much of the spontaneous emotion that makes football such a popular game.

I think most football fans were happy to see the Lions moving quickly toward relevance again. It was obvious last year that the Lions had accumulated a talented group of players and that the future was bright. This year started off well for Detroit, but suddenly...things are not so good. Talent is necessary to compete in the NFL. But, so is discipline. We have talked about Suh's stomp of a Packer, but the problem appears to run deeper. The Lions were competing with the Packers until Suh took them out of the game. Against the Saints, penalty after penalty cost the Lions more than 100 yards in yardage. What is lost in this equation is how many yards the yellow flags prevented the Lions from gaining. I watched a Lion flip the ball into a defenders face. Another Lion player takes a shot at a Saint right in front of an official. But the most telling penalty was Pettigrew giving a ref a shove. The Lions can compete with the best teams. Now it is time for Detroit to learn learn how to win. As we have all been told; you play to win the game...Lions, take that giant chip off your shoulder and play smarter football.

Tony Romo has taken much heat for choking in December. The loss to Arizona can not be put on Romo. This loss goes entirely on the Cowboy coaching staff. I thought the play calling in the second half was terrible. With two great running backs, Dallas never ran a screen pass to either. As bad as the second half was for Dallas,  Romo's great pass  to Dez Bryant put the Cowboys in field goal range with 26 seconds left and two time outs. You have to call a time out there Jason. There is no other way to do this. You call a freaking time out and then throw a 6 yard pass in the middle of the field, call another time out and then kick the game winning field goal. What bothers me more than Garrett icing his own damn kicker is that he does not even seem to understand what he did wrong. Admit your mistake and move on. Garrett had no explanation after the game and his lame excuse only made him look the fool. Congrats to the Cardinals for taking the ball in OT and ramming up the Cowboys tail. 

I think that the Cowboys still have a decent chance to win the division. But, the Giants game against the Packers last week reminded me of a game against an undefeated Patriots team a few years ago. The Giants had already clinched a playoff spot and all of the experts suggested that the Giants should rest their players. The Giants suited all of the players and almost beat the Patriots. A slightly different circumstance, but the Giants have the ability to take two games from Dallas. I will say, Dallas really needs a victory against New York on Sunday or Jason Garrett will probably be looking for a new job at the end of the year. Isn't Garrett a Princeton graduate? I really thought those Ivy leagues guys were smart enough to know when to call a time out...or at least smart enough to admit when they should not.

It is a bit difficult perhaps to think about baseball with winter upon us. But the MLB winter meetings are in full bloom in Dallas this week. Jose Reyes is a Marlin as well as Heath Bell. If the Marlins have their way, one Albert Pujols will be also be playing in Miami for the next 10 years. The Marlins have offered Pujols a 10 year deal, but because some of the money is deferred, the deal still does not make Albert the highest paid 1B. The Marlins are leaning heavily on Albert and apparently this deal has a deadline. The Marlins are anxious to add a few pitchers to the roster as well. I wonder if the name change also changed the habit of blowing up the team after they win?

Oh and the Astros will suck again this year...

It may be winter, but spring is just around the corner...I can't wait! What a nice red snapper she has...

That's all I have today, but I will leave you with a bit of Jack Handey:

If they ever come up with a swashbuckling School, I think one of the courses should be Laughing, Then Jumping Off Something.

I bet when the neanderthal kids would make a snowman, someone would always end up saying, "Don't forget the thick, heavy brows." Then they would all get embarrassed because they remembered they had the big hunky brows too, and they'd get mad and eat the snowman.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own...

I never imagined that when I was starting Tool of the Week back up that so many tools would be overtaken by the Tool Box that is Penn State. It’s like where do we even begin? We could start with the main culprit Jerry Sandusky. This guy starts a charity for his own personal harem of young boys to pick and choose from. Then some of these kids had “sleepovers” at his house in a bedroom in the basement. I’ve asked myself numerous times how it is that his wife or kids never thought that something might be a little suspicious about his desire to “choose” a special boy to garner this extra privilege while others went back to their fatherless homes. Most of whom I discussed this with came up with the same scenario, that the wife was probably in denial, enjoying the life he had built for her as a Penn State coach and how until the word broke that he was a pedophile (alleged pedophile, until you heard his call-in with Bob Costas) they were treated like royalty in college Park.

Another Tool we could talk about is Joe Paterno, we all know how he came to be fired and the school was tipped upside down over his dismissal by a large group of students who obviously have their priorities a bit fucked up when they’re more concerned with their football coach than the victims. Paterno even claimed he should have done more when it was clear the university was turning a blind eye but how long does anyone have to wait to see that nothing has been done, a week, a month or a year? No, something along a cover-up within the “ole Boy network” was at play here. Even the university police don’t’ have any files going back to ’99 when Sandusky reportedly was caught by a mother when her son returned home with wet hair and told her that he had to shower in the locker room with Sandusky. To hear Sandusky tell it he never said to her he wish he were dead even though the phone call was listened in on by authorities yet he managed to walk away without a charge.

The list of Tools is merely touched on here, the list is endless with more undoubtedly to be named as well as victims we’ve yet to hear about. It’s going to get a lot nastier, the civil suits will follow but what Felber and I had discussed was the timeframe we’re looking at before the headlines read “Sandusky Wraps Lips Around the Business End of a Shotgun”! Our over/under is 6 weeks!

Hello again and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. Well, it is mid September and it is still 100 here in Texas. We have been sweating through this hot fall with no AC for the past week. Hopefully, we will have things back in order in the next few days. The fire that has destroyed so much of the area east of Austin is 70% contained now. It is crazy how much damage this fire has done. 1500 homes have been destroyed and the death toll is really not known as several folks are missing. We are hoping that things begin to cool a bit and some rain would not hurt.

I have been so pumped up about football that I suddenly realized that there is one helluva finish brewing in the AL East. The Yankees and Red Sox were cruising along when the Rays decided to make this a 3 team race. I know that Red Sox fans were happy to see the offense get back to form tonight. They scored 18 against the Blue Jays, too bad they can't carry a few of those runs over to tomorrow. The Cardinals are also trying to make things interesting closing the Wild Card distance with the Braves. I have watched the DBacks and TIgers this year thinking that they just did not have enough pitching to win in the post season. While you can never have enough starting pitching, I may have underestimated the Tigers. I don't see anyone in the NL being able to stay with the Philles, but you never now. The Phillies have lost two in a row to my Astros (I certainly did not see that coming). Of course with Halladay going tomorrow, they stand a very good chance to clinch their postseason spot. The Phillies look almost bulletproof, but I remember a Seattle team that I thought would blow through the post season too. The next two weeks will be a nail biter for several groups of fans. Good luck to your teams and I will have a great time watching. As we all know, this is the time of year that pitching really matters.

I feel compelled to say congrats to Mariano Rivera for saving his 600th game tonight. Even if you are not a Yankee fan, you still have to tip your hat for the professional consistency of Mo. He still looks 30 and has been pitching for 15 years. Amazing...a sure fire first ballot HOFer. Also, congrats to Justin Verlander on winning his 23rd game. He has pitched lights out this year and should be the unanimous AL Cy Young winner this year.

I am adding this late as I was just now able to locate the video. Here is something that I have never seen in a baseball game before. A foul tip that sparks when colliding with Avila's mask...strange:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Video-Foul-tip-causes-sparks-to-literally-fly-f;_ylt=AisZYz4tvP3LRWNyMdvKkc45nYcB?urn=mlb-wp19467 

Now that I have given a brief discussion to baseball, it is time to dig into some football. The experts told us that the lockout would gravely affect the offensive performances early this season. Yeah...not so much! It seemed like every game I tuned in had a QB throwing for 300 plus and several TD's. Cam Newton does B-Dub proud and throws for 422. Brady could not let a rookie get all of the press, so he tops 500. DAMN! Oh, by the way Brady and Welker are pretty good players. I am sure that even Johnny Monkey was impressed by that performance. Of course from what I heard, JM was too busy to watch the game. I think I have something that will ensure that we don't have to worry about any more damn monkeys.

If he is the stud he says he is, I am sure he can figure out how to use them...

Frag wrote a great blog last Friday about Peyton's Place closing. While I agree that it is conceivable that he might not ever play again, I had to comment on Peyton's place among great QB's. Tom Brady is a terrific QB, perhaps in the top 5 all time, but when Brady went down with the blown knee, the Pats plugged in Matt Cassell and kept on winning. If you saw any of the Colts game last weekend, is there any wonder about how important Manning is to the Colts. It blows my mind that the Colts did not have a plan B since they knew Manning was having spring neck surgery. Perhaps without the lockout, they would have had taken a different approach? I do know that with Kerry Collins as QB, winning 5 games will be difficult.

I was especially interested in seeing how Dallas played against the Jets on Sunday night. This game looked to be a tough first game for the Cowboys and as a Cowboy fan, I was nervous. If you saw the game, you saw an aggressive Dallas team take it to the Jets. Witten breaks free for a long run and appears to score. This was the nail in the coffin for the Jets, but replay showed Witten down before scoring. Now, I know you know what happened, so I won't recap the complete collapse of Romo. As a Cowboy fan, I have been much more a fan of Romo than the majority of folks. I see a mobile QB with a quick accurate release. But finally, I am done defending Romo. I am not sure how to explain it, but the guy just does not have the moxie to succeed in pressure situations. I somewhat blame the play calling for not running the ball from the 2 yard line with time running down, but the interception he threw to end the game was unexplainable. Tony Romo shines brightest when it does not matter. He somewhat reminds me of ARod a few years back. If the Yankee's got a good lead, then ARod could blast away. If they needed a long ball, he folded. ARod was able to more or less overcome that choker label, but I am not so sure about Romo. I know many of you do not think that Dallas will do well this season, but I continue to see more good ahead than bad. The defense played very well and the offensive line played surprisingly well. I think that what Dallas needs to do is have Romo play for three quarters then bring in Kitna. If Kitna was playing QB in the 4th quarter, Dallas beats the Jets. What a strange deal...but I know that many of you loved the ending.

Last year, the Texas Longhorns began life after McCoy and Shipley. The result was a disastrous year that caused a complete overhaul of the Longhorn coaching staff. With Greg Davis finally gone, Longhorn fans eagerly awaited the infusion of new offensive ideas from Boise State's Bryan Harsin. The early results against BYU looked sadly familiar to last year's team. After Garrett Gilbert started the game against BYU with two interceptions, he found himself on the sideline watching the game. Case McCoy and David Ash spent time alternating at QB and played well enough for Texas to win. It was obvious that McCoy already has a favorite receiver...some kid named Shipley. Jaxson Shipley is Jordan Shipley's brother and looks to be just as talented as his older brother. I have never seen a dual QB system work too well, but it is sure better than what Gilbert was delivering. I really do feel bad about Garrett Gilbert, but Mack Brown has to put the best player on the field. Gilbert sort of reminds me of Chris Simms a few years back. An All everything in high school, but he was never able to achieve the potential that he brought to Austin. I keep talking about Westwood's Ben Johnson. This kid is a better runner than any of these guys and has an excellent arm to boot. He has committed to play baseball for Texas, why not let him do something else in the fall?

 This is the capital just over the trees. Austin High plays at House Park. It has seen football since the 40's and maybe earlier. My father in law used to play on this field.

Speaking of Westwood and Ben Johnson...Westwood had a big game against Austin High School last Thursday evening. Going into the game, I figure we were probably a 3 TD favorite. The game began pretty much as I expected. We got up 21 to 3 when disaster hit. Rolling to his right, Ben Johnson was tackled low as he threw down field. As the seconds ticked by and he did not get up, the crowd grew very quiet. He managed to hobble off the field and even came back to throw a nice completion on the way to 28 first half points, but his night was through. The score at halftime was 28 to 9 and the game was almost safely in the bag, but as we know, it is not over until it is over. Austin High has a star of their own. Caleb Jones...remember the name. His dad is Robert Jones, formerly of the Cowboys. This kid is big and very athletic, sort of reminds me of a Plaxico type. Great hands and a terrific leaper. On the second video, watch him illegally lateral to his brother. Ref called it a TD...it was a great play.

The second half was frustrating. we moved the ball very well, but two interceptions prevented us from scoring. Our sophomore QB, Bear (yes that is his real name) ran the ball well. He had 140 yards rushing, but also had a fumble. Jones had several big catches and suddenly it was late in the fourth quarter and we were down 30 to 28. A fine defensive stand allowed one last drive. On 4th and 7, Bear found a receiver across the middle for a nice 20 yard gain. A QB keeper took the ball down to the one, and the field goal unit went out to win the game. The ball sailed through the uprights with 6 seconds left in the game. Final score Westwood 31 Austin High 30. Way more exciting than it should have been, but as they say...a win is a win. Last week, we lost our starting running back to a broken hand. Blake's friend Tanner stepped up. He ran well, but missed a few blocks. Ben has a slightly hyperextended knee that was badly bruised. He should be able to play this week, but we probably won't need him until next week.
 

Tanner's first varsity TD.

Caleb Jones laterals for a TD (yes ref, it was forward).

Ben goes down...oh no!

More Caleb Jones...

Rambling Bear...

And it is good...go crazy!

That is all that I have for today, but here is a bit of Jack Handey for the rest of your week...

If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas, because that's what he's getting.  

One day I decided to go see the mean guy on our street that everyone was talking about. But when I got to his house he said that he wasn't the mean guy and that the mean guy lived over there. "No, you idiot! Thats MY house!"  

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own...