Let me preface my comments first by saying that I’m a lifelong Laker fan going back to the Magic Johnson era. I, like a lot of people, got caught up in the Linsanity few weeks back. It was like a current day “Rudy” with a guy that had the same heart but was also physically talented. Pulling for the underdog is as American as apple pie…and I like apple pie.

Fast forward to the recent losing streak, which coincidentally started when Anthony came back from injury, and now you have a media and a select fanbase ready to push this guy back to the bench? Lin is the problem? Seriously? If the Knicks don’t know what they have in Lin, then I’d be happy to have him on the Lakers. I’ve been jealous for weeks that the Knicks were able to find a starting caliber Point Guard off the scrap heap, especially when I look at our own “weak-assed” backcourt.

With Lin, you have at the very least an above average PG, with a possibility of a star PG with some experience under his belt. It took Steve Nash years to become the PG that he is now, so how much sense does it make to give up on Lin after 20 or so odd games? Wouldn’t the goal be to accelerate his learning experience in case you make the playoffs, or at least find out how good this kid is so you know how (or if) to tender him at the end of the year? How does starting Baron Davis help this team in the playoffs or in the future?

The reasons for starting Lin over Davis are obvious to me…

1) Davis is on the wrong side of 30, he still has game, but his body can’t hold up to 35+ minutes a game. He’s an injury waiting to happen.

2) Compare Lin’s 20+ game stats to Davis’ first few years and Lin’s numbers are better. In fact, Lin’s PER is the best on the entire Knicks roster, and is better than 93% of the entire league.

3) Lin still has upside…Davis doesn’t.

4) Baron Davis doesn’t make the Knicks the kind of money Lin makes. What? You don’t think ownership is pushing Lin down Woodson’s throat? I think Dolan and his ilk understands “cash cows”. Try cutting Lin, see how many teams come knocking on Jeremy’s door…

Fortune has smiled on the Knicks, don’t overlook it…

I've avoided reading about the Cowboys over the past week. After the debacle on Sunday, I haven't had the heart to even listen to all the negative comments about my beloved Boys...to further complicate the matter, we don't even play for more than 9 days. I have noticed enough though to realize Romo is getting skewered by everyone and their sister. He deserves it, but it's gotten to such an extreme point that its gotten asinine. Did anyone see the Monday night game featuring Flacco and Sanchez? Would Cowboy fans rather have Sanchez as their QB?

Romo has lost most of his luster in my eyes. I still think he's a good QB, and can still win us a Championship if he gets streaky...and he does have a tendency to get streaky...we could do a lot worse at QB, but until we can draft someone who can actually challenge him for a starting role, I can roll with him. But for future reference, if we are behind in a game, turn Romo loose, but if we get a big lead, RUN THE DAMN BALL even if we only net 2 yards a carry! Romo is absolutely not a good frontrunner! I don't get this guy's psyche...usually people play better when they're relaxed and generally supported...Romo needs everybody to doubt and hate him for him to have good games...sheesh.

I've kept pretty quiet the past 2 days, because I really didn't have much to say after that loss on Sunday. Romo deserves the criticism he's getting, and he shouldn't be surprised about getting it after that horrible interception, but tonight I find myself wondering if the coverage has gone overboard. It seems like it has gotten to the level of character assassination?

I've seen clips here and there about Romo from all the usual media sources, but the stuff that ESPN is doing to the guy is just plain over the top. They're running his commercials from 4-1/2 years ago...and I just heard Kordell Stewart just rip into Romo.

If it had been Aikman, Steve Young, or Dilfer, I would have accepted it, because these guys have credibility. But when you roll out a guy who was nothing more than a novelty act, and wishes he had Romo's career, and have this guy talk the trash he's talking, it's ridiculous...I literally wanted to go slap the smugness from his face...

The underlying theme is that Romo consistently loses us games in the 4th quarter, and this isn't true...I've watched every one of Romo's games, and I can only remember 2 more games like the one on Sunday. One was the Seattle playoff game, and the other was the frozen Steeler game a couple of years ago. Other than that, we've been competitive to the 4th quarter  for all but 4-5 games in all of his starts. The criticism on him shouldn't be that he isn't clutch, but that he gets sloppy/too aggressive at times.

The worst part about all this is that there are Cowboy fans that buy into the false rhetoric...

Man, I'm still wired from that game...tried to sleep, but haven't had much luck, so hell I'll just do some writing to clear my head...

I'm currently pissed at Romo. I just wished he didn't throw that interception to Revis. Dez was gimpy, and Romo should have known that. It was trying to do too much, which almost always gets you in trouble.

I'm not so much mad at the fumble, because he tried to make a play, and he did tuck the ball, but the Jets just made a play on it. A couple of plays earlier, he was the same guy who made a beautiful throw to Witten to get us to the 1 yard line...we shouldn't forget about that. In fact, Romo made more than a few great plays to get us a 14 point lead going into the 4th quarter. Are we even in this game without him...I don't know. But the dude threw all over the vaunted Jets defense...he averaged over 10 yards per throw, which is pretty incredible...

The blocked punt was huge...without it we still have a 4 point lead going into the final drive. Reality check was that we gave the Jets all they could handle and we were in it till the end...we lost, but you can make a case we outplayed them overall...

But the silver lining is that our...

1) Offense will put up a lot of points on the majority of the teams we face...who can guard our receivers?...our O Line looks like it's for real...

2) Our Defense isn't as bad as we feared and it actually looked pretty good...we actually thought the run defense ws going to be bad?

3) A whole bunch of guys made plays...the list is long...hell even role players stepped up...freakin McCann forced a fumble.

4) Against our NFC East competitors...we look pretty good.

I started the season with tempered expectations, so I wasn't as devastated by the loss. I've already stated that I wouldn't be surprised if we finished 8-8 or 12-4...I just don't know about this team...but I also stand by my initial predictions...if we get to the halfway point 4-4...I think we will be a dangerous team down the stretch.

Like Garrett always says...we just need to stack good days together...back to practice tomorrow to get better...

...actually no they don't. Teams that suck are not competitive, have talent holes that will take years to fill, and are clueless when running their operations. The Cowboys are none of these.

I've been reading so many posts documenting how we should "rebuild" this team, but what we need to do is "polish" this team. A diamond isn't beautiful until you clean it up. I understand why so many fans are dissatisfied with the results of the past few seasons, but if you take an objective moment to evaluate this team, you will realize what many thought all along, this team is close...the key word for this team is "discipline"

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1) You're the only team with three jerseys in the top 25 in the NFL. (Austin #8, Romo #10, Witten #16)

2) You have the best selling merchandise of any team in the NFL.

3) The Monday Night Football game between the Giants and  Cowboys drew almost 18 million viewers, making it the biggest draw of the year and the fourth most-watched cable program ever?

...and you do this in a down year.

My first fan post...kinda nervous about it...

I had too much time on my hands this weekend so I was musing about the NFL CBA....My first draft was pretty lengthy and tangented off covering too many facets of the issue at hand, so I decided to abbreviate my thoughts to create a more easy discussion...

The main issue preventing the creation a new CBA is money. Both sides want more money and can't decide on a middle ground that each can live with...

Players want more financial security, while the owners want to reduce their risk. Both sides can agree that they want the best players receiving the highest salaries.

Neither side wants to kill/harm the "Golden Goose" which is the NFL...a lockout may do that...so both sides would prefer not to go down that route.

There are certain aspects of the NFL that prevent a true free market model...some of the more prominent ones are the draft, restricted free agency (franchise tags), and barrier to entry of new teams. Drastically changing any of these effects overall competitiveness and or dilute the NFL brand.

Some form of salary cap should be maintained to keep smaller market teams viable. Players will agree to that because fewer teams mean fewer available jobs. But players want some visibility to maintain a "fair" cap.

In my opinion, the fastest way to get a new CBA is to tweak the existing one and not start anew. It's not like the current system is broken, since both sides are making obscene amounts of money. Make the following tweaks and concessions...

1) Set a  fair cap. Have all teams provide financial figures on their operation that include revenues and expenses from home games stadium sales, television rights, league sponsorship agreements, league licensing profits...with exceptions to stadium income outside of direct football related operation and individual team ancillary sales. In other words, Jerry Jones shouldn't have to share profits from Boxing matches he stages in Cowboys stadium and mugs and t-shirts he sells of the team. Players should share in the profits of the league, not exclusive team profits...do the players assume the risk of an inventory overstock of pink Romo jerseys, or take a pay cut if ticket sales fall short? Penalties should be imposed for teams that do not reach a cap "floor" or exceed a "ceiling".

2) Owner profit sharing should be set against league revenues, not respective/exclusive team revenues. That is, if Jerry Jones sells more Romo jerseys than Yorks sell of Alex Smith jerseys, the Yorks shouldn't get a piece of that Cowboys pie. Conversely, if Jerry is able to sell naming rights of his stadium for 20 times what other owners are able to do, he shouldn’t have to share those profits because he did a better job of promoting his brand. As with better players getting paid more, better owners should make more money.

3) Change the rookie contract model. Impose a cap on the guarantees for the first half of the 1st round. There's no way Sam Bradford should get 50 million guaranteed before he even plays a single snap in the NFL, while Peyton Manning and Tom Brady need to wait on their money. Teams should be able to limit their exposure to "bust" rookies. No guarantee cap on veteran signings. If a team makes a mistake on that signing, they only have themselves to blame. In order to get this from players, owners should concede restricted free agency (franchise tag). A player should not have to deal with this unfair loophole when he has fulfilled his contract agreement. If you want the player, pay him...

4) Finally, I feel sympathy for the some of the retired early NFL players. But why is this even a viable bargaining chip for the NFLPA? Those players were not forced to play in the NFL, why should the NFL now assume financial responsibility? I personally, would like to see the NFL do something to help these players that paved the way for its current success, but this should be handled as a separate matter. I don't see the current players lining up to offset this cost with a percentage of their salary.

We all know a CBA will eventually get done, I just don't see the benefit of the current posturing.