Predictable Spin

Could not agree more on the bankruptcy of these rumors floated from ESPN. If Parcells were contemplating retirement, he wouldn’t tell anybody who might turn around and call the boys in Bristol. Mortenson is simply trying to get somebody in that building to talk about something other than Johnny Damon.

As for the Dallas sports media, they couldn’t be more intellectually dishonest and vapid if they tried, led by none other than the scorned blowhard Dale Hansen. Hansen got booted off the A-list by Jerry Jones years ago and has been taking it out on Valley Ranch ever since. He hates the Cowboys, invents reasons for others to hate them, and barely tolerates the tremendous progress this squad has made in a year’s time. Hansen is such a sleazebag that I have more or less stopped listening to the Ticket because of him. (I know Ticket guys are reading this—-you better believe Iâ€â"¢m not the only P1 who tunes out and takes hours to come back). Steve Dennis may be a complete moron, but at least he seems to believe most of his own nonsense, and Jennifer Engels is one of the few bright spots in the entire Cowboy media constellation.

Hansen will take these retirement rumors and run with them tomorrow, whether or not the Cowboys win or lose. He will say that the rumors prove that Parcells was only here for the money, and so on and so forth, and he will criticize Jones and Tuna for things that not only havenâ€â"¢t happened yet, but WONâ€â"¢T happen. KTCK gives him the forum to take out his vengeance against Jones, the team, and all Cowboys fans. And weâ€â"¢re supposed to feel guilty about turning the dial to ESPN? I donâ€â"¢t think so. On the Ticket, Hansen operates his anti-Parcells campaign that so many other writers and talking heads in this town have adopted as their own, either through lack of imagination or the perception that Parcells will never be accepted by Cowboys fans because of where heâ€â"¢s from or the teams he coached previously. What they donâ€â"¢t seem to understand is that their leader, Hansen, is only leading the charge out of personal animus. He knows what heâ€â"¢s saying is nonsense. They donâ€â"¢t.

Have you ever read the articles and columns in other NFC East townâ€â"¢s newspapers, like Washington or New York? Their writers use complete sentences (see Gallowayâ€â"¢s one sentence paragraphs) and present ideas with some degree of complexity that assume the reader isnâ€â"¢t taking a break from his morning Kindergarten class. For living in one of the great pro football cities, we enjoy what has to be one of the weakest football media, easily swayed, manipulated by idiots, and ready to throw any player or coach under the bus if thatâ€â"¢s the flavor of the day.

Mark my words. BP is not leaving Dallas after this year.

Frank Luska asked Parcells about this rumor at the end of the post-game press conference moments ago. Parcells response: “F*** that. I don’t know where these guys get stuff like that. Why don’t you write about what this team did today?”