The Ravens Are the Dynamite

You've surely heard all about the Cowboys' tough home loss to Baltimore Saturday night. Tony Romo played poorly -- and it took seven minutes of ESPN NFL Countdown discussion before anyone (Keyshawn Johnson) said so -- and Dallas' season might as well have ended. Not exactly as Jerry Jones planned when he allegedly handpicked the Ravens to close down Texas Stadium. Via Shutdown Corner, Matt Mosley of ESPN's NFL blog reports that Jones lobbied the league to give Dallas the Ravens for its last home game, a seemingly easy mark to celebrate a win over as the Stadium gets shuttered.

[...] Jones apparently petitioned the league for the Cowboys to play the Ravens because it once looked like a winnable game. Jones sort of confirmed that theory to me after the game, but I couldn't tell whether he was joking. It didn't matter to the Ravens.

"We had a lot of politics that really made this game more fun," said Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs. "They personally recommended us as their homecoming opponent. We fed off it the whole game. We hope they enjoy their ceremony tonight, but I guess we were the dynamite."

Boom. As Chris Chase from SdC notes, that the NFL listened to Jones is really problematic -- I'm guessing the league isn't listening to scheduling requests from most owners. It will never be proven, and Roger Goodell is like teflon to the national media.

While we're here, might I mention the similar paths the Cowboys and Mavericks have faced this decade? Romo's 2006 postseason meltdown is notorious, just like Dirk Nowitzki's similar fate that summer. The teams, with oodles of promising talent, haven't bounced back yet. Public in-fighting (T.O. vs Witten, Josh Howard vs Avery Johnson), ineffective trades (Roy Williams, Jason Kidd), meglomaniac owners (Jones, Mark Cuban). One of these franchises needs to move to El Paso to get away from the stench.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.