The Playbook

Remember the "Sign Pudge" campaign that hit the DFW metroplex several years ago when the Rangers were winning games and fans wanted them to keep their catcher? Well he was the big fish that got away and went on to win a World Series with the Florida Marlins. What's to say Tony Romo won't do the same when his contract expires at the end of this season?

"Sign Romo" signs started making their appearance at Texas Stadium yesterday and the more accomplished Romo becomes each week, the more pressure Jerry Jones is facing to sign Romo to a long term deal.

A quarter through the NFL season, Romo leads all NFC quarterbacks in passer rating, average gain and touchdowns. Tom Brady is the only quarterback in the NFL who leads Romo in passer rating and average gain, but Romo is the league leader when it comes to the 11 touchdowns so far.

Jones clearly knows Romo's value to this team and its perfect start and was calm in the locker room after Dallas' win over the Rams on Sunday, saying the dynamics are in place to secure Romo's future as the long term quarterback for this franchise.

Jerry's admission his off-season moves have been centered around having Romo as his long term quarterback is enough to know that he won't let Romo slip away into free agency. If he doesn't seem to be so concerned that every day of continued Romo success is driving up the dollars on the contract, why should you be?

Romo continues to maintain that this is the place he wants to be and that money won't be the determining factor, but rest assured, if Romo rolls through the season and takes the Cowboys to the Super Bowl he'll have teams willing to pay him Peyton Manning money-14.2 million dollars a year, especially if he wins the MVP.

Even though Romo said yesterday, he wouldn't know what to do with more than 2 or 3 million, his agent does. Tom Condon is part of Creative Artist Agency in Kansas City, which represents both Mannings, got 10 million a year for Mark Bulger and 60 million dollars over eight seasons for LaDainian Tomlinson.

If Jones wants a few more games to see if Romo is really worth the 10-to-15 million dollar a season investment, don't fault him. He said he is "very sensitive about getting something long term done with Tony, and we'll get something done."

He's done it with Aikman, Smith and Sanders before, and if he's willing to sink 675 million dollars of his own cash into the one-billion dollar new Cowboys stadium, why question him now?

The first move the Rangers made to get fans back in the seats next year came today.
No ticket price increase for any of the full or half season ticket holder. If any of the full season ticket holder that renews their order and pays in full by December 14th, the team will waive the parking charge, which will come out to $648.

Before you full season ticket holders get too excited, if you hold seats in the Upper Box, Upper Reserved or Grandstand reserve you won’t get the rebate. Nice gesture, but the rich keep on getting richer. But it does look good when those lower, more expensive seats are all filled in during August/September when hardly anyone else is in the stadium, so maybe this will help to that end.

General Manager Jon Daniels said today he and several of the club’s scouts will be convening next week for meetings to review the free agent market, which isn’t expected to be very strong this year. Even though pitching continues to be the thorn in the side of this franchise, Daniels says most of the focus will be on finding a big bat for the middle of the line-up and improving the outfield. Daniels told CW33 Sports today that if he can improve the pitching staff, he will but said “I'm looking for quite a bit of improvement to come internally.”

As for the big bat in the middle of the line-up, Pudge Rodriguez is likely to become a free agent next week after the Tigers fail to pick up his 13-million dollar option, but he is 36 and only hit 11 home runs and drove in 63 during 129 games this year. Jorge Posada is also 36 and hit 20 homers with 90 RBI and will command more than the 12-million dollars he made this year. Both Posada and Pudge could settle in as the Rangers DH quite nicely, but with no parking income from the full season ticket holders who renew early, how could Tom Hicks afford them?

A better bargain may be Jose Guillen who would solve the middle of the order dilemma and also can play outfield. He roamed right field for the Mariners for 159 games and hit 23 homers with 99 RBI is only 31 years old. Just someone to keep an eye on.

Don’t rule out the return of Sammy Sosa. He told us he plans to sit down with the Rangers soon to hammer out a new contract for next year. Sosa said he “definitely” wants to play here next year and thinks the Rangers want him back. Despite being benched by Ron Washington for the final two months of the season to get a look at younger players, Sosa said Washington was “one of the greater guys I played for” and wasn’t one bit upset with the decision. Sosa didn’t gripe about being demoted despite revitalizing his career with 21 home runs and 92 RBI in 114 games.

That attitude spoke volumes to his teammates including Michael Young who wants him back for 2008. Young raved about Sammy saying “The guy's a pro. People can't say enough about the job he's done this year, he's been a great teammate, comes to work every day, and when Wash needs him, he's been ready, that's what good teammates do, they've got a responsibility to not only themselves and to the manager and to the teammates and to the fans and Sammy's taken all that stuff really seriously this year and that's why we love to have him around.”

What do you Rangers fans think?

Corporately, the Cowboys have had a perfect month of September with four wins to open the season. Individually, Tony Romo can say the same. The NFC put the cherry on top, naming him its Offensive Player of the Month.

The only game this season Romo has not thrown for at least 300 yards was the game against the Dolphins, but the Cowboys still won by 17 points. He throw 121 passes in September, completed 72 of them for 1,199 yards.

If you think Romo should be the NFL’s quarterback of the week, you can vote for him by clicking the following link.

http://cw33.trb.com/news/kdaf-links-story,0,7196035.htmlstory?coll=kdaf-news-1

The Cowboys know they have something special here. Not once in my nine seasons covering the team can I remember the media relations staff extending the locker room access by nearly 25 minutes just to accommodate a player’s schedule but they did that for Romo today, just so he could answer our questions.

You have to love Romo’s refreshing attitude and philosophy that helps him keep the game simple, he treats it like "a game."

“We understand we're lucky enough to be doing this, and also understand it's a journey, not a destination in some ways." Romo said. "We don't want to bypass these games and get to the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl, we want to go out and play each week. It's fun, it's a game, and we really enjoy going out there and being as good as we can be and try to score some points and try to stop the other team and have fun with each other, it really is an enjoyable experience.”

Wade Phillips should give Jerry Jones a game ball this week after finally getting Greg Ellis back on the field. Ellis rewarded Jones and Phillips by posting a sack and a half in Sunday's blowout of the Rams. Now you might not like his computer-enhanced dance moves in his Papa John's commercial or you might not be happy that it's eventually going to cost you an arm and leg to watch a game in the new stadium... but you have to give Jerry a "Thumbs-Up" for putting his ego in his back pocket and opening up his pocket book to give Ellis a little "Peace of Mind".
You see, Ellis had been complaining for months that we wanted his contract "re-done" and wanted more security after suffering a career-threatening.. torn-achilles tendon last year against the Cardinals. This on the heel(pun intended) of complaining and threatening to holdout before deciding instead to report to training camp in 2006. Now Jerry's policy toward Ellis has been to not re-negotiate his contract and said again during this years' training camp that he wouldn't do it even though Ellis threatened to retire before Darren Woodson helped talk him out of it. But after re-injuring his ankle on the first day of camp.. Ellis hadn't sniffed the field again until Sunday against the Rams. So what got Ellis back on the field? Well.. old twinkle-toes himself... Jones.. who restructered the veteran linebacker's contract by giving him a $500,000 raise this season and another guaranteed $1.5 Million bucks over the next two seasons. As Ellis put it this week quote "Jerry showed me some Love" and at the same time showed Cowboys fans some love as well... but maybe not enough to forgive him for Firing Jimmy Johnson.. How 'bout them Cowboys!

After losing two Super Bowls to the Cowboys and the Stanley Cup to the Stars, the folks in Buffalo will go to all lengths to give their team an advantage for tonights Monday Night Football game.

Just after 9:00am, the extremely effective fire alarm speakers in the team hotel proclaimed, "Attention, Attention, there is an emergency."

C'mon Ralph Wilson. I know you heard Wade Phillips taking shots at your franchise all week for firing him after coaching your team to above .500 records, but having one of your cronies set off the fire alarms at the Adam's Mark is a little ridiculous.

The hotel people are being hush hush about the conspiracy and won't tell us exactly what happened, but you would think the Bills owner would send his posse over at 5:00am or something instead of 9:00am.

Maybe he got his hands on the Cowboys itinerary which had an "optional" breakfast starting at 9:00am. The first meeting of the day wasn't scheduled until 10:00am, and that was for the special teamers, with the first entire team meeting set for 10:30am.

Nice job Ralph, you may have rousted a few Cowboys, but now draw the ire from most of the media who was really looking forward to slumbering until noon or so, after staying out late and ingesting Buffalo's finest wings at the famed Frank & Teressa's Anchor Bar-Home of the Original Buffalo Wings.

As sports photographer Jose Sanchez and I were enjoying our BBQ wings, which were a little crispy I might add, we saw Cowboys defensive line coach Kacy Rogers and defensive coordinator Brian Stewart sitting patiently, awaiting their to go order of wings.

It reminded me of the episode of the popular sitcom "Coach" when defensive coordinator Luther Van Dam had a hankering for wings and ordered carryout for most of his team. After chowing down, the Breakers came down with a nasty case of food poisoning the night before the big game.

Hopefully, Stewart and Rogers didn't share their carryout with DeMarcus Ware or Greg Ellis last night because Ralph Wilson had to know, someone from the Cowboys would make a trip to the Anchor Bar last night.

We'll have all the reaction from the Cowboys locker room on the fire alarm and the Monday night game against Bills on Tuesday's CW33 News at Nine.

Enjoy the game tonight!

Hey Cowboys Fans.. How 'Bout that win last night? Have you recovered yet from that emotional rollercoaster... from cursing Tony Romo's name at the top of your lungs to later declaring that you'll name your first-born Nick Folk!

Talk about gutsy as the rookie stepped up with all those obnoxious fans screaming in his face and drilled a 53-yard field goal to win the game. But wait... what in the name of Dick Jauron is going on here? Oh come on... Jauron.. the poor head coach of the Sorry Bills.. used that same lame tactic of calling timeout just before the kicker boots it thru the uprights that had already been successful twice this season.

But this time it wasn't as Folk.. the Rookie from Arizona.. calmly drilled it thru the uprights again and the celebration was on as the Cowboys won a game they had no business of winning 25-24 to move to 5-and-0 for the first time since '83.. the same year Global Warming Boy Al Gore said he invented the internet(but let's not get political).

I think Tony Romo's going to have a great career and Jerry Jones will have to back up the Brinks truck to Valley Ranch when he finally signs him to a long-term contract... but Romo was just awful the first 3-and-a-half quarters when he brought back bad memories of Ryan Leaf. Romo tossed five interceptions(tying Troy Aikman's Cowboys record believe it or not) and even lost a fumble to register a quite unimpressive 6 Turnovers all by himself. But to his credit.. Romo didn't wilt like a wallflower at the end of the bench.. he picked himself up and led the Cowboys on their final drive to a touchdown(4-yards to Patrick Crayton) and Folk's 53-yard field goal. That's the sign of a great quarterback.. but you have to think that ugly performance also had to hurt Romo's confidence just a bit.. 5 interceptions and a fumble against a weak Bills defense will do that to you. Yes.. Romo's always been a confident guy.. but he's also human.. so he'll have to turn things around in a hurry.. like this Sunday when a Real Team comes to town.. The Cheaters.. I mean.. the 5-and-0 Patriots.

On a side note... you have to feel bad for Buffalo fans.. on second thought.. maybe not. But give 'em credit as they tried whatever they could to help their feeble team win last night. First.. someone(hasn't been proven to be a Bills fan yet) pulled the fire alarm at the Cowboys Hotel at 9 O'Clock in the morning to give the team an extra early wake-up call. Then on the way to the game.. Bills fans pelted the Cowboys busses with eggs while flipping the team "The Bird" while slobbering all over themselves. Just makes you feel that much worse after seeing all the sad faces in the stands after Folk's game-winning kick..Not. Add to that Two Super Bowl Losses and a Stanley Cup Championship Loss to Dallas and you can see why Buffalo has such a "Dallas Complex".

Tennis fans of the Metroplex...Rejoice because there's a great event coming to town on Thursday Oct. 18th until Sunday Oct. 21st. It's the Stanford Championships going on at the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco.

The Stanford Championships is an eight-man, round-robin tournament featuring some of the greatest names in tennis including John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Mark Philippoussis, Pat Cash, Wayne Ferreira, Todd Martin, Mikael Pernfors, and Petr Korda. It's the sixth event of the 2007 Outback Champions Series, a collection of men’s champion tennis events in the United States and abroad. To be eligible to compete in the Outback Champions Series, players must be over 30 and have reached at least a Grand Slam singles final, been ranked amongst the top five in the world or played singles on a winning Davis Cup team.

Now even though these guys are all over 30 with McEnroe topping out the group at 47.. they still play some Awesome Tennis... you'll be pleasantly surprised. They can still compete with some of the best in the world(alright.. maybe not Roger Federer).. but they just can't handle or don't want to handle the week-in.. week-out grind of the Pro Tour. Courier told me last week that the reason why the Metroplex doesn't get any World Class Tennis events or isn't a regular stop on the Tour is because there's so many foreign tournaments these days that there's just no room on the schedule for an event here.

So that's why checking out this event is a good idea for anyone who loves tennis because of its' high quality.. and maybe if we're lucky.. we'll get a chance to see "Johnny Mac" go off on a chair umpire "Are You Kidding Me?".

For more info: logon to www.championsseriestennis.com or www.insideoutlive.com for tickets and this weekends' schedule and then head out to the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco to take in the action as these Legends battle for the $50,000 first prize.

To trade or not to trade. That is the question for a handful of NBA teams when it comes to disgruntled Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. After finishing 7th in The Western conference, only to be bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for two straight seasons... Kobe voiced his frustrations. Kobe said He and the Lakers have two different visions of the future. Recently during training camp, Lakers owner Jerry Buss told reporters that he's listening to offers for The League's Leading Scorer. So makes no if, ands or buts about it... Kobe will not be a Laker for life.

So who will be the lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) team to pull the trigger on the trade? Chicago, New York, Charlotte and Philadelphia have all been thrown in the mix. They all have young talent and draft picks to offer, they are all Eastern Conference Teams, so The Lakers would only see Kobe twice a year and more than likely they can get Kobe under the salary cap.

However there is one Western Conference team who may be able to make a move for Kobe. That's right my friends... The Dallas Mavericks! I know what a lot of you guys are saying... "We won 67 games last year." "We played in The NBA Finals two seasons ago." "Why should we trade for Kobe?" My question is... why not?

Bottom line... The Mavericks blew a two game lead to Miami two seasons ago during The NBA Finals... losing in 6 games. Last year, The Mavs had the best record in all of The NBA... only to be mollywhopped by Don Nelson and The Golden State Warriors. THEY'RE LOSING PEOPLE! The ultimate goal is to win a championship. The Mavericks will still be a contender in The West with its current team but Kobe can take The Mavs to the next level.

Lets examine the positives in acquiring Mr. Kobe Bryant. Last season, Kobe was the only player in the league to average 30 ppg (31.6 to be exact). In Kobe, you get an All NBA First Team Selection as well as an All NBA Defensive First Teamer. Don't you guys think we could have used a lock-down defender when Baron Davis and Jason Richardson were scoring at will against The Mavs last season during the playoffs? When The Mavs couldn't find their offensive rhythm... when The Mavs needed a big shot... when Dirk seemed to disappear... Kobe would have accepted the challenge and passed with flying colors.

You can call Kobe a lot of things but you cannot call him soft. I don't know if you can say that about The Mavericks in their current state. By no means am I saying Kobe is Michael... but he has a will to win that's very similar to his airness. I hate to be too critical of the Mavs because I am a fan… but… that will to win, the killer instinct that all champions have, was missing from Dallas, a year ago.

Now in order to make it happen, The Mavs are going to have to give up a lot. Mavs Owner, Mark Cuban has gone on record, saying he will not trade Dirk Nowitzki. So throw that scenario out the window.

More than likely, The Mavs would have to give up Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Jason Terry and maybe DeSagana Diop. Yeah that is a lot! But think about it for a second. Dirk Nowitzki (the reigning league mvp) playing alongside Kobe Bryant (maybe the most gifted player in the league) would be an untouchable duo.

You’re not going to need much to go around that type of talent. The Mavs would still have Eric Dampier and young power forward, Brandon Bass to do most of the dirty work. By the way, watch out for Bass. He’s played well during The Summer League and preseason. He’s going to make an impact… just ask Mavs Head Coach, Avery Johnson. The Mavs still have some scoring punch with Jerry Stackhouse and Eddie Jones. Put that with the 56 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assist that Dirk and Kobe will average…

So I say to owner Mark Cuban, now that he’s no longer Dancing with The Stars, make the trade! I think you’ll have a team that may not win 67 games but will definitely advance past the first round of The NBA Playoffs and possibly to The Finals. That’s more than I can say for last year’s team.

Wouldn't you love to have Tony Romo's problem? Now that he's Rich with a new 67 Million Dollar Contract... what's he gonna do with all that money? Sure he won't get all that cash unless he finishes out his contract in 2013.. but don't forget that he also got an 11.5 Million Dollar Signing Bonus and 30 Million Bucks of the contract is GURANTEED over the next three years.

Of course Romo.. in his ever-so-humble attitude.. said that getting the new contract was "neat" and he doesn't play the game for the money... but now he'll be able to help all of his loved ones and that's "neat". But as any lottery winner will tell you... once people know you've got a ton of money.. every single "loved one" you have or never knew you have.. along with their brothers.. sisters.. mothers and cute little puppy dogs.. come out of the woodwork asking for a handout.. so be careful Tony.

So what do you think Romo should do with all of his money? Should he save it.. invest it.. donate some of it.. buy a new house.. a new car... a new girlfriend(please not that Train-Wreck Britney) or maybe even a new pet monkey? Why? Because he can.. he can pretty much buy anything he wants to and ten of them at that.

Some of his teammates chimed in on that subject today with Leonard Davis(the guy that protects his life and now a new long-lost relative) even saying that Romo should buy himself a Rolls Royce before shelling out a few more bucks to buy his entire offensive line(him included of course) brand new Rolexes(don't be surprised if he does just that because Romo's that kind of guy).

But what do YOU think Romo should spend his money on(and don't say on you.. his new long-lost 7th cousin)? Give us your thoughts... but don't expect us to pass 'em on to Romo if they involve a Large Loan to a Long-Lost Buddy who used to be his WaterBoy at Eastern Illinois.