SB Nation User Blog: markdamack

An absolute travesty

markdamack — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:09:02 -0000

This maybe espn at it's worst

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/news/story?id=3329687

Ok, all the events of the past few diaries aside.

This is ridiculous. Top 50 draft steals of all-time. Ok I hate to admit, but Tom Brady is the clear cut number 1. Number two is Joe Montana. I would argue that Roger could be number two but i'll settle for three...but wait..he's not number 3. Number 4? number 5? 15? 25? 50!??? He's not even on the list!!!!

where would you put him!? I can guarantee you everyone of you would atleast put him on the list!
\

edit It was pointed out to me that this was only covering draft steals since the merger, since Staubach was drafted before the merger in 1964 and begun playing in 1969 he was excluded

Still, if you included the pre-merger draft, where would you put him?

You guys kill me.

markdamack — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:14:01 -0000

You know, sometimes I think you guys don't want to have any fun.

Ok, here's my qualm. It seems to me that you guys have more fun shooting down big trade possibilities or draft hopeful situations than enjoying what could be. We all know that it may be illogical to trade up into the top 10 to get McFadden, We know it would be next to impossible to get Chad Johnson here, but as I remember that's one of the reasons I watch football.

The off season is, as Charles Dickens so eloquently put it, "The best of times, and the worst of times". I hate waiting for football season to start, I absolutely hate it. On the other hand, those trades that could happen, the unlikely player coming in that you thought wouldn't but hoped so bad would, a draft day trade for an explosive weapon...all these things are what makes football great. Instead of sitting back, disbanding every theory someone has, sit back and think "What if this did happen". The reason I watch football is because of the excitement.

Now I'm not trying to call anyone out here, or stir up something or anything. I just think if you sat back and immersed yourself in the excitement of possibilities rather than always just wanting to be right and logical you might enjoy the game more. I understand the whole "This is serious stuff here" and all that, and it is. Contracts are complicated, draft picks are even more complicated, and just overall football general management situations are tougher. I'm not a GM though. It's not my job to be business savvy. I'm a fan, it's my job to enjoy the game I love so much.

I know D-mac probably wont be a cowboy next year and I know Chad Johnson probably wont either, but dammit I like to dream ok. Rather than tell everybody how ridiculous it is thinking these players are coming on in, sit back and think about how great it could be if they did. Tell me that doesn't put a smile on your face. Jerry didn't become a billionaire on logic alone my friend, I'm sure he dreamed along the way too...and with great risk can come great reward. Just remember that. Enjoy the rest of your off season guys, it's gonna be a great year.

The air is gone

markdamack — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:03:24 -0000

Steve McNair announced his retirement this morning, he was a great qb blah blah blaaaah

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/s...

That's the article. You tell me now, one less person in the hunt for McFadden? Does this even change their draft strategy? You tell me, that's the topc, converse amongst yourselves :D

pacman and anthony henry

markdamack — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:47:56 -0000

Maybe i'm crazy, or maybe i've just missed it in your posts

But what really happens to anthony henry? It would be ideal to slip him in at 3rd corner but would he really wanna go for that? What happens, does he stay until his contracts up and leaves or is he content with 3rd corner? Will he be involved in a trade to free up cap room? Does he change position to safety? if that happens what happens to roy? is he traded? Moved to linebacker or something? Or is pacman even going to be the second corner What do you think?....seems like a chain of events could go off from this signing.

Poll

What will take place if we sign pacman

Henry leaves after his contract is up

29 votes

Henry is content with 3rd corner and ends up resigning

16 votes

Henry involved in a trade

2 votes

Henry Moved to safety

28 votes

Roy Williams traded

10 votes

Williams moved to linebacker

5 votes

Pacman takes 3rd cornerback spot

48 votes

138 votes | Poll has closed

(i'm baaack) d-mac interview and more.

markdamack — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:25:45 -0000

First I would like to say it's good to be back. Second, I don't know if you guys caught the interview on NFL Total Access last night with d-mac, the article is posted over at dcfanatics blog:

http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/story...

great job on them

He mentioned something about a certain team (that's right, the DALLAS COWBOYS) as his dream team. It's nice to hear. He also comment's on some of his off the field issues. Good stuff.

Now onto some things over the past couple weeks. First, I love marion barber..I do. He's been great since we got him and he's one of the most exciting backs in the league...but.... If we traded him for a top pick to get McFadden, I would not be heart broken. IF Keith Davis leaves, I will be. Julius Jones, as my cousin so eloquently put it, is "my favorite seahawk" F*** em and feed em fish food I say.

Ken Hamlin's franchise tag, smart move jerry. He basically bought him an extra year of evaluation before he had to commit. Pacman, BRING HIM IN. They said on DMN that he'd be a great 3rd corner...whaaaaaaat...Anthony henry will be a great 3rd corner (maybe a part time saftey?) Adam Jones will be a GREAT 2nd corner. Shore up the secondary real quick like. I'm sure there is more to hit on but I just needed to get this first one out.

Tony Romos new deal

markdamack — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:08:32 -0000

ESPN just announced tony romo got a new deal

That would be 6 years 67.5 million dollars!!

Im excited!

I don't see a link on espn.com, nfl.com, or dallascowboys.com

More info later

31 million dollars in guaranteed money, which is just 3 mil less than what Peyton was offered. The largest contract for a cowboy yet. Emmitt Smith says "wow"

new edit

Heres the link to that

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/s...

Thanks DaveTroll for the link

I couldn't have said it better myself

markdamack — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:44:44 -0000

This is an article my cousin showed me after a conversation we had about Keyshawn Johnson dogging T.O.

I have found a new respect for chad johnson

http://tvsportsdaily.com/article.php...

Honestly, does Keyshawn think he was a good guy that people on his teams looked up too?

Did he forget his Tampa bay fiasco?

Also, do analyst get paid to talk bad about Terrell Owens?

An Amazing Story (The Ballad of Big Mike)

markdamack — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:43:00 -0000

So I was reading up on peoples mock drafts and what not...this isn't you average draft diary.

I was reading about a kid named Michael Oher, he comes from about 20 minutes away from where I originally hail. It really is a special story, and should probably be a movie actually.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/ma...

thats the link, from the ny times. Please, read this. You'll be better for it afterwards. This kid is an offensive lineman but had a more than troubled childhood. He's mammoth in size and im going to post an excerpt from this article.

The set-up; Well, he wasn't that adept at playing football, he was easily confused by the plays and what exactly to do. He just wasn't that football smart. They said his biggest problems was that he had this amazing size, speed, and strength, but no aggression, didn't know how to use it. Well This kid thought he was going to get under his skin...

From the first play of the game, the Munford defensive end who lined up directly across from Michael targeted him for special ridicule. The Munford player was about 6-foot-2 and couldn’t have weighed more than 220 pounds, and yet he wouldn’t shut up. Every play, he had something nasty to say.
Hey, fat ass, I’m a kill you!
Hey, fat ass! Fat people can’t play football! I’m a run your fat ass over!
The more he went on, the angrier Michael became, and yet no one noticed. Freeze ordered up plays that called for Michael to block a linebacker or to pull and sweep around the right end and leave the defensive end across from him alone. The first quarter and a half of the scrimmage was uneventful — until Freeze called a different sort of play.
Leigh Anne rose from her seat to beat the crowd to the concession stand and so had her back to the action when the people in the stands around her began to laugh.
"Where’s he taking him?" she heard someone say.
"He’s not letting go of that kid!" shouted someone else.
She turned around in time to see 19 football players running down one side of the field after the Briarcrest running back with the ball. On the other side of the field Briarcrest’s No. 74, Big Mike, was racing at full speed in the opposite direction, with a defensive end in his arms.
From his place on the sideline, Sean watched in amazement. Freeze had called a running play, around the right end, away from Michael’s side. Michael’s job was simply to take the defender who had been jabbering at him and wall him off. Just keep him away from the ball carrier. Instead, he had fired off the line of scrimmage and gotten fit — which is to say, gotten his hands inside the defender’s shoulder pads — and then lifted the Munford player off the ground. It was a perfectly legal block, with unusual consequences. He drove the Munford player straight down the middle of the field for 15 yards, then took a hard left, toward the Munford sidelines. "The Munford kid’s feet were hitting the ground every four steps, like a cartoon character," Sean says. As the kid strained to get his feet back on the ground, Michael ran him the next 25 or so yards to the Munford bench. When he got there, he didn’t stop but piled right through it, knocking over the bench, several more Munford players and scattering the team. He didn’t skip a beat. Encircling the football field was a cinder track. He blocked the kid across the track and then across the grass on the other side of the cinder track. And kept going — right to the chain link fence on the far side of the grass.
Flags flew, grown men cursed and Sean called Michael over to the sidelines.
"Michael," said Sean, "where were you taking him anyway?"
"I was gonna put him on the bus," Michael said.
Parked on the other side of the chain-link fence was, in fact, the Munford team bus.
"The bus?" Sean asked.
"I got tired of him talking," Michael said. "It was time for him to go home."

I recommend everyone read this, it's an amazing story, I can't say that enough. Keep in mind, this kid was in high school when he did this.

Again all credit to this goes to the new york times and the author of said story.

Here comes the tough stuff, the second half of the season

markdamack — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:57:27 -0000

Well it's that time again..going into basically the second half of the season, and it's going to really be a test to see how good this team is.

First off let me start of with some stats for you. We have nine games left in the regular season, of those nine games only two teams have a losing record. Those two teams are the New York Jets and The Philadelphia Eagles. I don't even want to throw the Eagles into that category because it's a division game, and who knows what can happen in a division game. Every year, when I make my prediction for the win loss record of the season, I split the division 3-3. They're just too unpredictable.

Now, I'm not panicking or anything. I believe we have a real good team and a great opportunity to make a deep run into the playoffs and even the Super Bowl. You have to think though, this is where we see who the real Cowboys are. Like everyone keeps saying, I would take 6-1 at the bye in a heartbeat. Who wouldn't? Also, though, nobody expected the bears to be as bad as they are. Heck, I wouldn't have taken Miami OR St.Louis to be as bad as they are. I didn't expect them to be great, but I didn't expect them to roll over and die.

Coming up to the next half of the season we will most certainly be challenged. Heck, our next three games are division games. If we can sweep that little trifecta there I believe it's going to be real hard for anyone to stop us. Three division wins in a row would be a huge momentum boost, not to mention give us great separation from the rest of this division, not to mention the conference (hopefully).

The win loss record of our upcoming opponents is 25 and 19. That seems kind of close but you have to keep in mind that the Eagles have lost 4 games and the Jets have lost 6. So the schedule is tougher than the combined win loss record really shows. Heck, of all the teams we play, those are the only two teams on our schedule at this point with more than two losses.

I realize that the season is still young, but I believe this is where the true colors of our beloved Dallas Cowboys well be shown. We have to stay healthy, continue rolling on offense, and most importantly STOP BEATING OURSELVES. If this team doesn't have heart I don't know what it does have, because we constantly commit stupid penalties and turnovers and come back to find ways to win.

Push come to shove, I believe that we can win this division and keep playing great football. Barring a catastrophe or colossal breakdown we should roll into the playoffs (hopefully with a first round bye and home field advantage). This has been an exciting season thus far and I don't expect the next half to be much different. Thanks for reading.

Mark

Poll

Of these teams, which do you think will be the toughest for us to beat?

Philadelphia Eagles

2 votes

New York Giants

36 votes

Washington Redskins

5 votes

New York Jets

0 votes

Green Bay Packers

6 votes

Detroit Lions

0 votes

Carolina Panthers

0 votes

49 votes | Poll has closed

Tank johnson can practice

markdamack — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:39:35 -0000

According to Adam Schefter

I was watching point after on nfl network and adam schefter came through with breaking news "Tank Johnson will be able to join the Cowboys tomorrow for practice and for the rest of the season but will still serve an 8 game suspension"

in case you didnt read it in my last diary