Fire Wade Phillips

Jerry Jones needs to fire Wade Phillips.  Today.  The Dallas Cowboys are undisciplined and lackluster, a perfect reflection of their head coach.

Phillips doesn’t mind losing. Lord knows, he’s had a lot of practice. He’s 0-for-career in winning playoff games as a head coach. When a 13 win team with 15 Pro Bowlers loses at home to a team it beat twice in the regular season, it’s fine. After all, they made it to the second round of the playoffs after a bye week. That counts as 14 wins!

When the team loses at home to a Washington Redskins squad with a depleted secondary, getting thoroughly outcoached along the way, it’s no biggee. Lots of season left! When the team nearly loses to the 0-5 Cincinnati Bengals, whose quarterback is playing hurt, “Everybody’s happy!”

This team is too talented to play this sloppy so often. They seem to be going through the motions. And relying on owner Jones to give them pep talks! Jean-Jacques Taylor says the Cowboys “need more fire from their head coach.” But Phillips simply doesn’t have any fire. And it’s not like he’s liable to get any at this point in his career.

[Phillips is] too defensive to go into detail about any of this team’s few flaws.

You don’t last 32 years in the NFL living off your daddy’s name. Phillips is a good coach, but you can’t deny this team has lost some of its edge under his leadership.

Championship teams are driven to perfection, though they understand it’s impossible to achieve. They bury bad teams like Cincinnati instead of nearly blowing a 17-0 lead at home.

Indeed.  You can bet Jimmy Johnson would be going nuts right now were he the coach.  Some poor performers would be turning in their playbook and he’d have had the team fired up.

That’s not Wades’ style.  It never was and never will be.

It’s time to replace him as head coach.  Jason Garrett’s young but he’s a motivator and disciplinarian.  Go ahead and move him up rather than waiting until after another disappointing playoff performance.

Make Wade the assistant head coach and put him in charge of fixing the underperforming defense.  That, we know he can do.

And, hey, we might as well get rid of Bruce Read and bring back Joe Avezzano while we’re at it.  The special teams need some fire, too.

Will Mark Purdy of The Mercury-Times please pick up the white courtesy phone

He writes today-

Lately, our favorite sports have dialed up a bunch of international area codes. And this is a good thing. Right?

In basketball, three of the past four NBA Most Valuable Player awards have gone to non-Americans. People cheered. In baseball, four of the past seven American League MVPs have been foreign-born. People applauded.

It is puzzling, then, why the recent flood of talented South Korean players onto the women’s pro golf tour has wound up raising such a ruckus. The trend is on full display at the Samsung World Championship that ends today in Half Moon Bay, where nine competitors in the elite 20-woman field are South Koreans.

Lets count the South Koreans in the Samsung field.

Na Yeon Choi
Seon Hwa Lee Inbee Park Ji-Yai Shin
Hee-Won Han
Jeong Jang
Eun-Hee Ji Song-Hee Kim

I count eight. Who is Purdy mistakenly counting? Angela Park. Will golf writers finally get the memo that Angela is a Naturalized US citizen of Korean heritage but born in Brazil. She’s only been to South Korea to compete on the LPGA Tour and for vacation.

If that qualifies Park as South Korean, I’m Polish because I got a tiny bit of Polish ancestry and my wife and I went there on vacation in 2000. Let me note also that NBC put the total at 8 during Sunday’s broadcast.

Mick Elliott of the Tampa Tribune made the same mistake last summer. I’ll be nice to Mark and not give him my Knucklehead award.(Elliott won it)

All nine players earned their invitations the hard way — through their 2008 performances. Two of them, Song-Hee Kim and Ji-Yai Shin, are in the top six entering today’s final round, within three shots of the lead. Kim and Shin did that the right way, too — by playing good golf in the weird and changeable, wet and windy coastal conditions.

At least 18 of the 20 women in the Samsung, not just the South Koreans, qualified ‘the hard way’ through their 2008 performance. Defending champ Lorena Ochoa is one possible exemption, though LPGA.com shows her qualifying through her 2008 play. Juli Inkster got a special invite.

The last sentence is dumb sounding also. I mean, all players try playing good golf. Don’t they?

Maybe I should give Purdy a Knucklehead award.

Weekly Miami Dolphins prediction

The Dolphins(1-2) play host to the San Diego Chargers(2-2) this afternoon. Miami was off last week, but the week before saw the fins upset the heavily favored New England Patriots by the score of 38-13.

One of the keys to beating New England, was Miami’s use of trick plays. What’s been termed the ‘Wildcat’. It worked great against the Patriots, but San Diego will come prepared. San Diego should be 3-1 now not 2-2. A blown call by a ref costing the Chargers a win in week two. Miami isn’t turning over the ball, and their last game was impressive, but I’m still not convinced. My prediction- San Diego 28, Miami 17.

Former MLB Shortstop Eddie Brinkman dead at 66

An excellent gloveman, but a light hitter, Brinkman played spent most of his career with the Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers. Brinkman was part of the deal that sent Denny McLain to Washington after the 1970 season. More recently Eddie Brinkman worked for the Chicago White Sox. Living in New York till I was 15, I saw Brinkman play when I sometimes watched NY Yankee baseball. He was an excellent defensive SS. RIP Eddie.