“It’s Getting Hot Jerry, Isn’t It?”

With the Dallas Mavericks winning a title, the Texas Rangers playing in the World Series last year, and the Dallas Stars winning the Stanley Cup in 1999, would you be surprised to hear the Dallas Cowboys are the team in the Dallas market with the longest drought of playing for a championship? You have to think while it was good for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a part of Jerry Jones had to be dying, watching Mark Cuban celebrate an NBA Title with his Dallas Mavericks. After seeing the Texas Rangers in the World Series last year, Jerry has to be feeling the pressure to deliver a team that can make a serious run in the playoffs soon or risk losing some market share in the Dallas area. With ticket prices for every sport constantly rising and the economy only slowly recovering who would you want to spend money to see; a team that is competing for a World Series, an NBA title, or a team with a meddlesome General Manager who seems to be doing his best to have the fans endure a painful lockout.

I’m not seriously thinking the Cowboys would become irrelevant with the national or Dallas media, because like the New York Yankees, University of Notre Dame and a few other sports dynasties, the Cowboys always generate more sports coverage and attention than they certainly warrant. You have to wonder though how much longer the Cowboys can still feel they own the Dallas market if the streak continues of missing the playoffs, first round playoff loses, poor drafting and free agent signings while other sports teams in the same market are winning or playing for titles. Hopefully for Cowboys’ fans across the world, Jerry does his part to get this labor situation resolved as soon as possible, allows Jason Garrett the chance to continue coaching without any interference from the front office, and spends money wisely on free agents. As the Packers showed the league last year, it takes an entire roster to win a Super Bowl. In other words, it’s better to sign three or four good players to fair deals than overspend for one or two flashy players like Jerry has done in the past.

Prior to the lockout starting, Dallas was making what appeared to be some really good moves in hiring Jason Garrett as head coach on a full time basis and giving him control of the staff and roster, adding Rob Ryan as defensive coordinator, drafting the first offensive lineman in round one in thirty years, and preparing to make some difficult roster decisions regarding the future of such players as Marion Barber, Marc Columbo, Terrance Newman, Roy Williams, Leonard Davis, and Keith Brooking. It just appears now, with the Dallas Mavericks winning an NBA title, and the Texas Rangers poised to make another playoff run, that things are going to be a lot hotter in Texas for Jerry to continue to make the smart and sometimes hard football moves in an effort to have the Cowboys make a serious playoff run. Just how hot can it get in Texas? We may soon find out.

You can follow Pat on Twitter at @ftballdialogue

Terelle Pryor Best Fit is Buffalo?

If we are to believe the tandem of Chan Gailey and Buddy Nix are long term fixtures in Buffalo, then a very intriguing predicament will soon be facing them, and that is whether or not to draft Ohio State QB, Terrelle Pryor.    I know your first reaction is to say I’m crazy, as the frugal owner Ralph Wilson would never allow a team to invest money in a player like Pryor, but hear me out.   If the selection only cost the Bills a day three pick (say in the 4^th round) then I say do it and here are the reasons why:


Mobility---Remember Chan loves quarterbacks that are mobile (one of his prized students was Kordell Stewart, whose best years were with Gailey) and he can slowly bring Pryor along behind Fitzpatrick and whatever veteran (say Brodie Croyle) they sign this off-season.

Veteran Depth----Ideally, Pryor rides the bench all of next season as a third string QB to get his feet wet in the league.  This will allow him to work with Gailey and the staff on his obvious QB flaws without having the pressure to have him immediately play.  Coming in this late not much should be expected from Pryor, so sitting behind a guy like Fitzpatrick (who showed he’s a solid quarterback better than just a game manager) and Croyle (who has a brief history with Gailey in KC) will give him time to digest a playbook and life in the NFL.

Location, location, location----Unlike the past “future franchise” QBs for the Bills, Pryor is a PA kid who grew up only four hours from Buffalo, played in the Big Ten so Buffalo weather and its climate should not be that much of an adjustment for them to gauge his abilities.    J.P Losman, Rob Johnson and Trent Edwards all seemed to freeze up when the temperature got colder than the warm weather they were used to.   Plus being a Pennsylvania kid you would think Pryor would be able to have a stronger support unit around him to help prevent future problems as the Bills experienced with say,  Marshawn Lynch who was from Oakland, CA.

 Low Risk-----It would be safe to assume by the end of year number two, Gailey and his staff would be able to determine if they had the next Randall Cunningham, Kordell Stewart or maybe better on the roster, or maybe instead someone like Matt Jones or Brad Smith, who they could use as both a receiver and a passing threat, or the next Damon Allen which would be the worst case. Should the experiment fail it only cost them a fourth round pick and after some of their misses on first round picks (Aaron Maybin, Mike Williams, and Erik Flowers) a fourth round gamble seems low risk to say the least.   Should it work the Bill could start drafting players to specifically match Pryor’s strengths and really build a team the Buffalo faithful deserve.

For the media starved Buffalo Bills, rolling the dice on a talented but raw Terrelle Pryor makes a lot of sense as he possess many of the skills their head coach likes in his quarterback.  It would also give them someone to get their fan base excited about not only this season, but the upcoming years.  Also with his hometown four hours away, it may help the Bills expand their fan base a little south which certainly wouldn’t hurt.   Do you think a #2 Bills Jersey might become a bigger seller in the Buffalo area? I do.  Pryor has a ton of potential but needs a coach who knows how to develop it.  Should the experiment fail, it only cost them a 4^th round pick, and after some of their misses on 1^st round picks, a fourth round gamble seems low risk to say the least.   Should it work the Bills could start drafting players to specifically match Pryor’s strengths.   Gailey has the track record to show he can develop guys like Pryor but the real question is how long will that Head Coach be given in Buffalo?  Hopefully he’s given the chance and the opportunity to develop a raw but talented player like Pryor.

The Game I Loved

For anyone who knows me, or read anything I’ve ever written, my passion and love for the great game of football is quite obvious.   For a long time, well before DIRECTV and the Sunday Ticket, before Fantasy Football or Sirius Radio, I realized the game of football was not only America’s real past time but also its passion.   As a kid I used to wait patiently for the summer to move along until I would hear the magic words on TV of “Football training camps opened today.”  Hearing those words was the start of the most wonderful time of the year (complete apology to the holiday song) as you could start to track how your team was doing, who would make the roster and what time the games would be on.    As the years passed, football has grown in popularity.  It is the perfect sport for the busy modern fan because everyone can commit to watching at least their favorite team once a week and then continue with the normal issues in life without interfering with the rest of the week.    Probably my error, but I also got the feeling that the owners and players understood the importance of the game to the fans, and would do whatever it took to keep it uninterrupted (at least that’s what Pete Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue and Gene Upshaw made it seem like).

Well let’s just say my feelings for NFL football are starting to change each day this nonsense continues.  I would be somewhat empathic if it showed the NFL was in financial troubles, but very few if any business do as well as the NFL year in and year out.   This leads me to understand that this is just a simple case of greed by both parties of not wanting to share the billions of dollars of profit they make from the fans.    Another discouraging aspect of this I’ve noticed lately is some of the national media’s attitude towards their radio listeners calling in on various shows of “so what you’re mad, the NFL doesn’t really care and they know you’ll be back so quit complaining.”  I’d like to remind those in the media that it’s the fans that spend the money out of their own pockets at the stadium, for the Sunday ticket, and all the merchandise. Every fan has the right to be ticked off at this greedy group of people, so please stop apologizing for the NFL.

There are certainly no angels in this as both sides deserve blame.  My gut feeling is that the biggest portion goes to the new acting chief of the player’s union who seemed determined from Day 1 to make this lockout happen.  What where the players thinking when they hired him?   Hopefully the players are learning from their error and fix that problem when his contract comes due.    He certainly has shown the world that when it comes to leading NFL players, he’s no Gene Upshaw.

Someone mentioned to me the other day they would love for us fans to get organized and on the same page to truly make our power felt. It can be done, but it would take a lot of unity and a lot of organizing. But if we as fans did, we could really serve these guys a wake-up call.  Boy, wouldn’t that be something!  If it started I certainly would want to be part of it. 

I can certainly see how people get turned off to professional sports and stick with college. At least a majority of the kids playing college ball play for the love of the game, and you know you can count on them each week and each season.  As everyone has read and heard, I’m sure there will be an agreement sooner or later but let’s be honest, the 2011 season will be a joke because all you’ll hear from teams and the media is that you can’t fairly grade this player or coach because of the lockout.   Everyone in the NFL will get a Mulligan for 2011.  So call me in the summer of 2012, and if I haven’t replaced NFL football in my life, I might care about it again or maybe not.   

Email or post me your thoughts.