Monday Morning With No Snow On The Ground In My Zone Of North Texas

Looking out my bedroom window this Monday morning we can see there is no snow on the ground. At 30 degrees it is cold enough for snow to stick if some fell after it was cold enough to avoid melting.

I was not much in the mood to deal with multiple inches of snow, so I'm glad the predicted accumulation did not accumulate.

I keep forgetting to get anti-freeze. I am going to have to make sure I remember this as we slide ever deeper into an Arctic Deep Freeze this week.

I learned this morning that the Seattle Seahawk's next step towards playing in the Super Bowl next month in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium is beating the Chicago Bears. Apparently Seattle already beat the Bears this current football season, doing so on Chicago's home field, where the Seahawks will need to beat them again to get to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile the Dallas Cowboys have a new coach. Methinks if the Dallas Cowboys ever want a winning season again what they need to do is somehow get rid of that re-animated cadaver who runs the team who has the same last name as me. Until that happens it really seems hopeless that that hapless football team will ever have a winning season.

But.

What do I know? I really don't like football at all.

A Rainy Sunday In Texas Musing About America's Team: The Seattle Seahawks

Saturday night when the sun set on North Texas the sky was blue. By Sunday morning's arrival of the sun the sky had filled with clouds and was dripping with extreme prejudice.

In other words, it is raining. Cold and raining. 36 degrees out there right now, with the temperature dropping and snow scheduled to arrive as Sunday progresses towards Monday.

I had planned to return to the Tandy Hills today to search for missing sunglasses. Not mine. Sunglasses belonging to one of those Manly Men who was hiking the Tandy Hills yesterday. I suspect, due to the rain, the lost sunglasses will remain safe until hiking conditions return to normal.

Yesterday, in yet one more clear indicator that I do not pay much attention to NFL football I said something like I did not know if the Seattle Seahawks are out of Super Bowl contention or not.

By Saturday night I was watching the Seahawks play the New Orleans Saints in what I was to learn was a Wild Card game in which the Seahawks had themselves an upset win over the reigning Super  Bowl champs.

Back when the Kingdome was still alive it was known as the loudest stadium in both the NFL and whatever you call the league baseball is played in. I did not know, til reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about yesterday's Seahawk upset, that the new Qwest Field is also known as the NFL's loudest stadium.

How can Qwest Field be louder than the new Cowboy Stadium? Qwest Field is open on the north end with a view of downtown Seattle. Qwest Field has no roof to reflect back noise, Qwest Field holds only something like 70,000 screamers while the Dallas Cowboy Stadium can hold around 100,000.

Has it yet to rain on a Seahawk game in Qwest Field? I read a couple years ago the lack of rainy games was wreaking havoc with Lesser Seattle's ongoing campaign to always portray Seattle as perpetually dripping.

Apparently Qwest Field is ruled out for a Super Bowl game. Partly because of the weather. The Super Bowl likes a warmer climate. So, why is it being played this year in Arlington? We are currently scheduled for snow followed by a DEEP FREEZE. Come Super Bowl Sunday we could easily be under a 4 inch coating of ice courtesy of an Ice Storm.

Seattle does not get Ice Storms. At least not in my experience. Holding a Super Bowl in Seattle you are right in the downtown of one of the world's trendiest towns, with Qwest Field served by multiple mass transit options. Arlington, where the Dallas Cowboy Stadium sits, has no mass transit.

Qwest Field sits surrounded by all sorts of touristy attractions, including a waterfront. The Dallas Cowboy Stadium is near Six Flags Over Texas and the Ballpark in Arlington, but other than that it sits surrounded by an awful lot of embarrassing urban blight. There is no urban blight surrounding Qwest Field.

I have no idea how many steps remain for the Seattle Seahawks to hurdle to get to the Super Bowl again. I strongly suspect the Seahawks will likely fail to get over one of those hurdles.

I really think, since the Dallas Cowboys don't even play in Dallas, as in the town could not manage to figure out how to erect a new football stadium in the town the team is named after, that this really should be the last nail in the coffin killing Dallas' ridiculous referring to itself as America's Team, which apparently dates from decades ago when Dallas actually had a winning football team.

I think Seattle should be the new America's Team. Seattle has been in a Super Bowl more recently than Dallas. Seattle apparently plays in America's loudest stadium. The team's stadium is actually in its namesake town. Qwest Field is in, by far, a more scenic setting than the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Plus Seattle always shows up near the top of any of those Best of type lists, while Arlington rarely shows up on such lists.

Okay, that is enough locally politically incorrect verbiage from me this rainy Sunday morning....

Getting My $29 Party Pass So I Can Stand In The Cold Outside The Dallas Cowboy Stadium

I've been seeing the above ad at the top of the Dallas Morning News website every morning for awhile now.

For those of you not in Dallas Cowboy land a Party Pass lets you watch a Dallas Cowboy game. While standing outside the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, watching the game on Big Screen TVs.

I do not know if the Party Passers have access to the restroom facilities inside the stadium, or if they are relegated to using one of the dozens upon dozens of Dallas Cowboy Trademarked Outhouses dotting the parking lots.

Do very many people actually pay 29 bucks to stand outside during a game? Will the Super Bowl have the Party Pass option?

Do other National Football League teams do this Party Pass deal? Or is it an only in Texas type thing?

Don Meredith; 1938-2010

Just taking a minute to remember "Dandy" Don Meredith, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and member of the classic Monday Night Football broadcast team for 12 seasons, along with Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell. Keith Jackson was MNF's play by play man during it's first season.

Don Meredith was 72.


"Turn off the lights.....the party's over".




Update 12/7/10 This morning I read a great column by Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger with some comments on Meredith and Monday Night Football's impact on American culture and media back in the day. Included in the column were some classic "Dandy Don-isms".

There was the time that Spiro Agnew, then the country’s vice president, visited the Monday Night booth. “I didn’t vote for you,” Meredith told him, “but you do have a nice suit on.”

or.....

....the time when, discussing what it was like to play for Dallas legend Tom Landry, he said, “He’s such a perfectionist that if he were married to Dolly Parton, he’d expect her to cook.”

and

....his assessment of teammate Walt Garrison: “If you needed 4 yards, you’d give the ball to Garrison and he’d get you 4 yards. If you needed 20 yards, you’d give the ball to Garrison and he’d get you 4 yards.”

He was one of a kind. MNF has been trying replicate the magic of Gifford, Meredith, and Cosell for a quarter of a century now. Tirico, Chuckie and Jaws are good, so were Michaels and Madden, and Michaels, Gifford and Dierdorf.

But the MNF crew of the 1970's and early 1980's was the gold standard, as iconic in sports broadcasting in their way as ALL IN THE FAMILY and HAPPY DAYS were to TV comedy in that era.

As Howard Cosell might have said it...."Rest in peace, Dan-DAH Roooo."

 

NFL Picks For Divisional Weekend

I'm kind of pressed for time and will be gone for most of the afternoon, but before I exit here's my picks for this weekend's NFL Divisional games.

Ravens at Colts.....love Ray Rice and the Baltimore ground attack, but it looks like Joe Flacco might be a little more beat up than generally known. The Ravens need a passing attack to score more points than Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and the Colts will put up. Colts win 31-14.

Jets at Chargers.....keep riding the crest of the wave into SoCal. On paper it looks like a mismatch, Rivers has had a fantastic year for the Chargers while Sanchez is still taking baby steps in his pro career. But there's just something about the way the Jet's defense has been playing that indicates they just might be able to force some turnovers and win a squeaker. I'll go against the conventional wisdom and take the Jets in a nail biter, 24-21.

Cowboys at Vikings....if you've ever read my pro picks before you'll know what's coming next; ABC- "Anybody But (the) Cowboys". It doesn't matter that Favre and Childress will have a steel cage death match after the season is over, or that Adrian Peterson will fumble at least once. Romo must fall, once again, to the guys with the horned helmets. 21-10 Vikings.

Cardinals at Saints.....Cardinals will win on the road for no other reason but Kurt Warner is playing at an amazingly high level. I agree with most of the smart guys on this; Brees and Warner will give us an old fashioned AFL shootout. Cards win, 42-31.

Then again....I could be (and probably am)....very wrong.

Wild Card Weekend NFL Picks/ Carroll Leaves USC For Seahawks!

OK guys, I'll go on the record and give you my picks for this weekend's Wild Card weekend NFL games. Mind you, I've given up on all sound reasoning on picking pro games years ago, because there really isn't any. And this year was probably even more bizarre than most- I mean, what are the odds of having two teams play each other in the last regular game of the season, only to meet again in the next week during the first round of the playoffs?

And to have that happen in three of the four games scheduled. Albert Einstein once said that "God does not play dice".

There has to be divine intervention at work....when all else fails, either credit or blame The Big Guy.

So without further ado....here's my picks.

Jets 24, Bengals 20....a tight game won by the Jets D and the running of Thomas Jones. And they're the local team- I have to take them. I can't imagine life without one of Rex Ryan's post game pressers. He may not be the best coach in the NFL yet, but he surely might be the funniest.

Eagles 30, Cowboys 21....David Akers kicks three field goals to be the difference for the Birds. Besides, its as simple as "ABC"...."Anybody But (The) Cowboys". And the Eagles are my brother's team.

Ravens 28, Patriots 17.....Because of Pro Bowler Ray Rice. Greatest Rutgers player ever now the best the school has sent to the NFL. Also, Welker is out for the Pats, Brady is beat up, and who knows if Randy Moss is copping an attitude this week?

Packers 35, Cardinals 21.... Because the Cards are only allowed to win playoff games every 50 years. 2060 is a long way down the pike. And I really like the way Aaron Rogers and the Pack closed out the year.

That's it....

But of course.......I could be wrong.


This Just In!!! Pete Carroll to leave USC to take over the Seattle Seahawks! They say the third times the charm. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter its a done deal.



Read more from ESPN.com.....