Cowboys Should Break Bank for Vinatieri

Todd Archer agues, persuasively, that the Cowboys should pay whatever they have to to get Adam Vinatieri. He begins with the facts and a little supposition: “If the Cowboys had a decent kicker last season, they most likely would have finished 11-5 and won the NFC East. Without a kicker, they finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs.”

I think that’s right. Indeed, not only did lack of a decent kicker cost two or three games but it rendered the Week 17 game against the hapless Rams meaningless; presumably, the Cowboys would have been up for that game had they not just had their playoff hopes dashed minutes before kickoff.

Archer argues that the Cowboys should have learned their lesson by now.

Two years ago, the Cowboys got caught in free agency at cornerback. They did not want to shell out $10 million a year to corners they didn’t think were worth the money. Well, that was the price they were going for, and they paid dearly for it, running Pete Hunter, Tyrone Williams, Lance Frazier and Jacques Reeves out there. They wised up last year by signing Anthony Henry and giving him a mega-bonus. He cemented the right corner spot.

[...]

When the Cowboys were hampered a few years ago by poor long snapping, Jones went out and paid Jeff Robinson an average of $1 million a year, a whopping figure for a long snapper, but their problems were gone.

Quite right. $3 million a year for a kicker would be well worth it if it buys reliability.

JJ on TO

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram asks: What Would Jimmy Do?

“I don’t mind a little tension on a good team,” Johnson said. “But on a struggling team, it will destroy you. And in the long run on any kind of team, it’s not good.

“With Terrell, he’s going to be disruptive. He’s going to be yelling at Drew [Bledsoe], he’s going to divide your locker room. It may be sooner, it may be later, but it will be a negative for your team.

“If you want his talent, you’ve also got to be willing to accept that.”

Concludes columnist Randy Galloway:

Only the desperate would dare do this.

ESPN Radio makes it sound like Dallas is about to take the plunge on Owens.

Patriots Sticking to the Plan

Don Banks believes Pats fans should relax a little as they watch their team release half a dozen big name veterans and yet do nothing in free agency to replace those losses.

Willie McGinest, gone. David Givens, gone. Christian Fauria, Matt Chatham and Andre Davis, gone, gone, gone. Adam Vinatieri? Going, going, almost gone. What in the name of Tully Banta-Cain are the New England Patriots doing in free agency?

Pretty much what they always do, to no great surprise. Sticking to their plan amidst all the hand-wringing by fans and the media. Refusing to break their carefully crafted business model and overpay. Keeping emotion and nostalgia for past successes in check and out of the decision-making process.

[...]

McGinest was the first player ever drafted by the Patriots (No. 4 overall in 1994) after Bob Kraft bought the team and started the process of turning around the franchise’s sagging fortunes. McGinest was beloved by the fans, an ideal teammate and locker-room leader, and his signing with Cleveland on Wednesday marks the end of an era in New England. But all of that history didn’t make the Patriots go wobbly in the knees when the building-an-identity Browns — led by head coach Romeo Crennel, the former New England defensive coordinator — offered the 12-year veteran a three-year deal worth $12 million, which includes $6 million of guaranteed money and $8 million in the first two years.

McGinest will turn 35 in December. Paying him as if he were 29 and still in his prime would have been a risk in New England’s estimation. And the Patriots simply don’t take those kind of risks. Never have. Probably never will. So, with regret, they bid the highly respected McGinest adieu, believing they’ve made the right choice, if not the convenient one.

Quite right. Granted, the expanded salary cap took a lot of dumb teams off the hook for past bad decisions. But, in the long run, it makes sense to stick to a budget, stay young, and only pay big money for a select few high impact positions.

Cowboys Reportedly Close to Signing T.O.

According to numerous published and broadcast reports, the Dallas Cowboys have a deal in place for controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens. It should be noted, though, that both sides deny it:

The Cowboys denied a report late Thursday night from KLBK/Ch. 13 in Lubbock that the team had reached an agreement with free-agent receiver Terrell Owens. The report, citing a source with the Cowboys, also said the team would have a news conference Monday to introduce Owens. Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said, “We’ve got nothing planned.” ESPN also reported that a source close to Owens said the KLBK report is incorrect.

Tim Cowlishaw predicts bad things in a piece entitled, “It appears the ego has landed.”

The bottom line: T.O. is bad news for the Cowboys, bad news for local beat writers who must chronicle his antics on a daily basis and great news for columnists, who thrive on easy topics, i.e. targets. And since you can’t spell Tim without a big “I” in the middle, I just got to admit that I agree with one famous T.O. utterance: “I love me some me.”

So bring him on down, Jerry, and let’s watch the Cowboys unravel. Not to mention the fact that your relationship with Bill Parcells, one that has been far less volatile than many imagined, will go right down the toilet.

Randy Galloway contacted former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson. He, too, thinks this won’t end well.

“Everything with Terrell is about compensation, and what amount of money he can be happy with. Almost every player feels he’s underpaid. That’s part of the business. But as we saw in Philadelphia, the money issue with him can tear apart a locker room. It’s always going to be an issue. It will be this time, too.”

Even so, he might consider taking the gamble under the right circumstances.

“To me, it depends on how secure the coach is,” he said. “If he’s got a five-year deal, then I wouldn’t mess with a Terrell Owens. But if I’m in a situation where I needed to win this year, then, yeah, I’d do it. Go ahead, give it a try. What is there to lose for a coach?”

[...]

“I don’t mind a little tension on a good team,” Johnson said. “But on a struggling team, it will destroy you. And in the long run on any kind of team, it’s not good. With Terrell, he’s going to be disruptive. He’s going to be yelling at Drew [Bledsoe], he’s going to divide your locker room. It may be sooner, it may be later, but it will be a negative for your team. If you want his talent, you’ve also got to be willing to accept that.”

Are the Cowboys a great wide receiver away from a Super Bowl? Probably not. They need at least one more starting caliber offensive lineman, an upgrade at safety, some depth at linebacker and, perhaps most of all, a decent kicker. That’s all doable, though, between the draft and free agency.

Update: SI’s Jeff Chadiha takes a more positive angle, arguing, “Signing T.O. fits in well with Jerry Jones’ philosophy.”

If Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones really is going after Terrell Owens — and there’s little reason to think he isn’t — he couldn’t have lucked into better timing. It’s a move that surely carries plenty of risk, but Jones has never backed away from a gamble that can pay huge dividends. That’s exactly what he’s looking at with Owens now, the chance to land a big-time playmaker who can likely be had for a bargain basement price.

[...]

What the owner also realizes is that there may be little competition for Owens. The Kansas City Chiefs are willing to offer only a one-year deal with no guarantees and a ton of incentives. Denver has said its interest in Owens is “overblown,” even though it’s the only team that has met with him.

I’d be surprised if the Cowboys were able to get him for “a bargain basement price.” I would think 31 teams would sign him if they could do if with little risk.

George Washington Wins Overtime Thriller

George Washington Wins Overtime Thriller (AP)

The shots kept falling, from contested 3-pointers to tough baskets in the lane. And each one appeared destined to send George Washington home in an abrupt end to the winningest season in school history. Instead of panicking, the Colonials steadied themselves and found a wild way to stay in the NCAA tournament.

Maureece Rice scored 20 points and had a key defensive play in overtime to help the Colonials erase an 18-point deficit and beat North Carolina-Wilmington 88-85 Thursday night in the first round of the Atlanta Regional, giving GW its first NCAA win in a dozen years. “The resiliency and will to win is just incredible,” George Washington coach Karl Hobbs said. “This team is very focused and very hungry, and they’re trying to fulfill their dreams.”

Omar Williams had 16 points and hit the go-ahead basket for the eighth-seeded Colonials (27-2), who will meet Duke in Saturday’s second round. Carl Elliott added 15 points and hit two free throws with 11.6 seconds left to send it to OT, while Danilo Pinnock had all 11 of his points after halftime. GW’s Pops Mensah-Bonsu had 10 points in his return after missing four games due to a knee injury.

This was March basketball at its maddest, with 18 lead changes and 10 ties. And the last wild momentum swing in a game full of them went to the Colonials, who scored the game’s final seven points to earn their first NCAA win since beating UAB in the first round in 1994.

Impressive. I suspect this will be the end of GW’s run, though.

Barry vs. Babe: No Contest

USA Today columnist Sandy Grady argues that the “Barry vs. Babe” argument is “No contest.”

Some evening in late spring or early summer, Major League Baseball will come face to face with its ultimate nightmare, the shame of its lies and evasions on gaudy full-screen display. That’s the moment a gimpy, sulky, bulky 41-year-old named Barry Bonds struts around the bases after hitting his seventh home run of 2006 and the 715th of his career. He will have passed the game’s iconic Babe Ruth for No. 2 in lifetime homers.

Ignite the fireworks! Roll the videotape! Let the bugles blare! But while the rockets explode, I suggest the scoreboard light up with the following message: “Mr. Bonds and baseball’s executives would like to thank the makers of Winstrol … Deca-Durabolin … human growth hormone … trenbolone … insulin … testosterone decanoate, Clomid and Modafinil for this historic moment. Thank you, chemists of the world!”

And before Bonds disappears into the dugout, I would hope several people would share in the adulation for Bonds. They would include MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, leaders of the baseball players union, executives of the San Francisco Giants, Bonds’ former manager Dusty Baker, owners of all other big-league teams present, the drug experts of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, and assorted TV and print journalists. They were co-conspirators in Bonds’ inglorious achievement. By turning away with sly winks, they were enablers who created the Great Home-Run Drug Fraud.

The problem with this is that we will never know how many of Bonds’ homers are a direct result of these substances. After all, he was hitting them at a prodigious pace before he is alleged to have started the Juice.

In between steroids rants, though, Grady makes a more cogent argument:

Even if he hit 1,000 homers, the chance of Bonds eclipsing Babe Ruth as the most famous player in history would be as slim as – well, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush knocking Abraham Lincoln off his presidential shrine.

Look, it’s futile entertainment to compare athletes of different eras. Who was greater: Jack Johnson or Muhammad Ali, Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods? So I’ll let baseball’s legion of addicts bicker over the hitting numbers, Bonds vs. Babe.

I’d submit that Ruth had one edge as a complete player. Before he became the Yankee home-run attraction, he was a superb Red Sox pitcher who won 18, 23 and 24 games in 1915-17. Unless Bonds develops a fast ball, he can’t match Ruth as a World Series winner as hurler and slugger. I agree, though, that Ruth played in an all-white game while Barry’s modern era of black, Latino and Asian players is faster, more athletic.

Quite right. Both men were phenomenal athletes in their time. Even without the drugs, though, one has to admit that Bonds stayed in better shape. And, let’s not forget, Bonds had hundreds of potential at bats in his prime wiped away because of labor disputes, something unthinkable in Ruth’s era.

Barry Bonds, Steroids, Pittsburgh, and Pirates Memories

Barry Bonds will always hold a special place in my memory. As a 9 or 10 year old, he was a member of the first sports team I paid attention to and loved – the Pittsburgh Pirates. The four names I remember from that era were Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke (my favorite), Bobby Bonilla, and Jim Leyland. I can’t say I appreciated how good Bonds was. Even at that age, I disliked Bonds, though I can’t remember having a reason why. It may have been that everyone around me disliked the man, and I picked up on it. Van Slyke was cool, and I liked Bonilla as well. Leyland was a great manager. Bonds, however, was someone I was not fond of. He made it worse by leaving the team for the Giants. As a kid, I didn’t understand why the Pirates couldn’t hold on to their team and try to get to the World Series again. I also thought players were a bit more attached to the concept of “team”. Naive? Yes, but I still disliked Bonds all the more for leaving, and Bonilla and Van Slyke also suffered in my perception as the Pirates began their plunge into their current cellar dwelling ways.

As far as I can tell, Bonds wasn’t on steroids in Pittsburgh (this is confirmed by just about every reputable source out there). After he left, and the strike happened, I lost track of Barry Bonds. When Bonilla retired, I assumed Bonds must have retired while I wasn’t looking.

Then the home run race happened. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire tried to hit a lot of baseballs out of a lot of ballparks. I was rooting for Sosa, but remember hearing that Bonds was still around. I was surprised, but figured he had to be on the tail end of his career. It had been a long time since I had seen him in Pittsburgh, and hitters don’t last that long.

That’s when his hitting picked up. This seemed odd to me. By that point, I’d followed baseball long enough to know that this wasn’t right. As his hitting picked up, he started getting press. The pictures took me aback – Bonds looked nothing like how I remembered him. Comparison photos taken since prove this – Bonds looked like a totally different person. His head was a different shape, and his body was much more muscular than I remembered. Even then, I suspected him of steroids, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, I felt I had been unfair on him when he left Pittsburgh. I’d seen how Pittsburgh fans treat their quarterbacks, so I knew that we were capable of assuming the worst of everyone who played in the ‘Burgh we didn’t like. Even so, I hated seeing Bonds surpass McGuire’s record. It seemed anti-climatic, like I had seen something that I had been told was a “once in a lifetime” event for the second time, cheapening that event. Also, of all people in baseball to get this record, Bonds? BONDS? I had already had enough of this guy.

The instant he started talking about rubbing on cream he knew nothing about, I knew for sure. Bonds was on steroids. Nothing he could say after that would change my mind on that fact.

Barry Bonds should keep the records he gets to. No asterisk should be placed by his name. It won’t ever have to be. Thanks to this era, everyone will remember that the accomplishments were tainted. The history of baseball will not let us forget – unlike many sports, baseball has a long memory. Had Pete Rose been in the NFL, he would have been reinstated by now. Baseball will never let him be reinstated. Bonds may not be banned, but he will forever be remembered as a surly cheat.

Cross posted at The Unusual Suspects.

San Diego St. Arena Evacuated Over Bomb Scare

Arena reopened in San Diego following evacuation (ESPN)

Police evacuated Cox Arena on the campus of San Diego State on Thursday, hours before a first-round NCAA Tournament basketball game, after a bomb-sniffing dog signaled a potential problem at a hot dog stand.

The building was cleared while police tried to determine if there was an explosive device in the hot dog stand, assistant vice president for marketing and communications Jack Beresford told Reuters.

He said it was not immediately clear how many people were inside the building at the time but that the teams had not yet arrived.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas reported that Marquette was on its bus at the hotel and had not been cleared to come to the arena. Tip-off between the Golden Eagles and Alabama is scheduled at 2:40 p.m. ET.

ESPN.com’s Wayne Drehs reported the games will be delayed at least two hours.

“A bomb-sniffing dog noticed something in a hot dog cart,” Beresford said. “They got a hit on something that was in the cart itself.”

Later games include UCLA vs. Belmont at 4:55 p.m. ET, Illinois vs. Air Force at 7:25 p.m. ET and Washington vs. Utah State at 9:45 p.m. ET.

Cross-posted from Backcountry Conservative.

Air Force Passes Muster as At-Large Entry

Lee Jenkins thinks Air Force deserves to be in the Big Dance.

The hard-liners who say Air Force does not belong in the N.C.A.A. tournament point to the team’s strength of schedule, rated 158th by the computers. The sentimentalists who say Air Force does belong in the N.C.A.A. tournament also point to the team’s strength of schedule, starting every day at 6 a.m.

That is when the Air Force Falcons put on their uniforms — sometimes dress blues, sometimes fatigues, sometimes flight suits.
Most of their sport is still asleep. Generally, college basketball players are like any other college students, hitting the snooze button and skipping breakfast. At Air Force, players march with their squadron to the mess hall for a buffet of eggs, potatoes and orange juice. They need a head start. Most players take six classes each semester, including Practical Advanced Aeronautical Engineering. They spend the summer flying planes and jumping out of them. They participate in combat survival training and ponder whether they will be sent to Iraq after graduation. If time permits, they manage to shoot some hoops.

Of course, the N.C.A.A. tournament selection committee is not supposed to take curricular activities into consideration. In theory, the selection process is devoid of emotion, based mainly on power ratings and conference indexes. But by selecting Air Force as an at-large entry, the committee recognized a program that faces some of the stiffest challenges in college basketball, even if those challenges are not reflected in the Falcons’ strength of schedule.

Air Force is playing under its third coach in three years. Most members of the team did not get a scholarship offer from another Division I college. A few did not even start in high school. Yet they are achieving more than any basketball team from a service academy has since David Robinson was throwing down dunks for Navy. Air Force is seeded 13th in their bracket, the lowest of any at-large entry, prompting inevitable backlash. The Falcons (24-6, 12-4 Mountain West Conference) have been criticized for playing too soft a schedule, for losing in the first round of the conference tournament, for taking a bid away from a more deserving team.

“I think it’s funny when people hate on us,” Antoine Hood, an Air Force guard, said Wednesday. “We do so much more than your average college basketball player.” Take, for instance, the week that Hood was ordered into a forest with a rabbit, a chicken and nothing else. He had to sustain himself for eight days on only the rabbit and the chicken — killing them, skinning them, cooking them. “You call your boys at other schools and they tell you about the parties,” Hood said. “You don’t want to make those calls too often.”

Jeff Bzdelik, the Air Force coach, might have the toughest sell in the country. His recruiting pitch has to go something like this: Come to an isolated academy in Colorado Springs that is 10 percent female, does not allow underclassmen to be off campus after 7 p.m. on weekdays and requires a permission slip to wear a T-shirt to a football game. Graduate and begin a mandatory five-year military obligation, leaving little chance to ever play professional basketball.

The few who signed up for the deal will face fourth-seeded Illinois (25-6, 11-5 Big Ten) on Thursday in a first-round game in San Diego. “Most of us know that basketball will only take us so far,” forward Jake Burtschi said. “We are setting ourselves up for something more.”

Uncommon foresight is required. Air Force routinely loses recruits to Division III programs. They lost one head coach, Joe Scott, two years ago to Princeton. They lost another, Chris Mooney, last year to Richmond. Princeton, with its high academic standards, can seem a difficult place to recruit, but “it’s still a lot easier than at Air Force,” Scott said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

True enough. There’s no doubt Service Academy life is something unique in college athletics.

Of course, most hoopsters at the big schools won’t be receiving an active duty commission, either. It’s not entirely clear why the obstacles cadets endure have a bearing on whether they should ace another, more talented basketball team out of the NCAA tourney.