Playing against the lowly Carolina Panthers on Sunday, I figured it was safe to go on a road trip and listen to the game.
Leave it to Jerry Jones to sneakily make a long-overdue announcement. In case you missed it yesterday, the Cowboys' owner called a pre-game press conference.
The purpose of this was to announce that Jimmy Johnson would finally be inducted into the Cowboys' Ring Of Honor.
It will happen on Dec. 30th at halftime of the Cowboys game against the Lions. It's only about 18 years late, but I for one am glad it will finally happen.
Johnson should have gone in back in 2005 along with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith.
The Triplets were inducted at Texas Stadium on Sept. 19, 2005, the site of their Super Bowl runs.
Johnson's absence that day — and ever since — has been inexcusable. Had he passed before seeing this wrong righted it would have been criminal.
Once Johnson's name goes up on the Ring, it will also kill off one of the “curses” hanging over the franchise.
Will a Super Bowl victory return to Dallas after a nearly three-decade absence now that Jerry has relented? We'll find out in a few weeks.
For everyone in attendance for that game, when Johnson is introduced I will be sorely disappointed in each and every one of you if you don't shower him with a five-minute standing ovation.
Chants of “Jimmy” had better ring throughout the stadium for the rest of the day. They should echo within until the opening kickoff of the 2024 season.
Schoonmaker Strikes Back
After a mostly meh season over the first nine games, rookie tight end Luke Schoonmaker took a huge step toward shrugging off the “bust” label.
He hauled in a pass of more than one yard and kept hold of it. He even fell into the endzone with the ball.
While that result would have been nice two weeks ago in Philadelphia, it was still good to see on Sunday. Let us hope it's a sign of things to come.
Mr. Pick Six
It's a shame that the NFL doesn't allow letters to be part of the uniform number. Because I would lobby that DaRon Bland change his number from 26 to P6 if they did.
Bland tied an NFL record with his fourth interception return for a touchdown in a single season.
He stands with Eric Allen (Eagles – 1993), Jim Kearney (Chiefs – 1972), and Ken Houston (Oilers – 1971) in the NFL record book.
His Pick Six in the fourth quarter all but sealed Sunday's 33-10 win over the Panthers. With four career Pick Sixes, he is tied for 64th all-time.
Rod Woodson is the all-time career leader with 12 and it took him 17 seasons to get there.
Bland – at his current pace – would only need four more seasons.
That Was Actually Impressive
Xavier Woods – a former Cowboys' defensive back – deserves a hat tip. Although he likely would rather not receive it.
Woods managed to draw a facemask penalty with his left hand and a horse collar tackle penalty with his right hand.
On the same play. Nearly simultaneously too.
I'm pretty sure I've never seen that happen in the 54 years that I can remember watching football.
At any level at that.
The one consolation Woods can take from the play is that the Cowboys only managed a field goal on that drive.
Semi-Aubreymatic
I'll have to dig around but I don't think there has ever been a kicker in the NFL to hit all of his field goals but not all of his extra point attempts.
Enter Brandon Aubrey. The rookie hit field goals of 30 and 27 yards on Sunday.
But from 35 yards out he only hit three of his four extra point attempts.
The miss snapped a string of 29 straight extra points dating back to his miss on the first attempt of the season.
That one was easily blamed on wet conditions. Sunday's miss was a miss right off the bat. It wasn't a Brett Maher shank at least.
Aubrey hit a field goal after that miss fire so no need to call for a new kicker yet.
By The Numbers
Sunday's win moved the Cowboys to 7-3 on the season and puts more pressure on the Eagles going into their game tonight against the Chiefs.
Dallas also improved to 34-26-2 overall all-time in Week 11 contests. They are now 18-16-1 in road games played in Week 11.
It was Dallas' first Week 11 meeting against the Panthers.
The Cowboys are now 11-5 all-time against Carolina and 6-3 when playing at the Panthers' home stadium. It was Dallas' second straight win over Carolina.
The Cowboys have now won 15 of their last 17 Week 11 games.
Clean Up The Sidelines
A controversy arose this week when sideline reporter Charissa Thompson admitted she'd made up some of her halftime reports.
Her comments were originally made on a podcast. On Friday she tried to walk them back a little by saying she never fabricated quotes from players or coaches.
No matter what she meant it was a dumb thing to do. It was even dumber to admit doing it.
My only comment on the matter is toward a larger issue. There are too many non-essential people on the sidelines of football games.
Sideline reporters are among that number.
I've covered professional and college football as both a reporter and photographer since 1992. You've seen a few of my photos here on this site including this one below.
The only people with any business on the field during a game are the players, coaches, officials, medical and security staff, and the TV/still camera people.
We don't need sideline reporters, cheerleaders, or VIPs like Darryl Strawberry was above cluttering up the sidelines. They bring nothing to the game.
All they do is increase the chances of someone – players and non-participants included — getting hurt.
Get them off the field of play until the game is over.
