Shut Up and Play

I agree with you, which was one of my gripes with Owens.

But some people still… OMG T.O. SCORZ TUCHDOWNS!

Which is what Mike Singletary said. He went to war with his fellow players as a bear and cannot imagine having the sniping and primadonna attitudes that permeates the locker room today. Oh and btw he played with Jim McMahon.

Just think Jerry could have had this guy as our Head Coach.

So we can start collectively looking forward? I’m pretty burned out on the he said/she said crap.

Pride-in yourself and how you carry yourself, and in your team and how you treat them.

I try to teach this to 10-year olds every day.

Most of these athletes have been brought up in a bubble, treated like prima donnas since they were 13-add in our culture at large, which doesn’t exactly reek with class and pride, and you get the modern athlete.

i even posted about this a while back. except it was mostly regarding to. i wanted him to shut up and play. time and place for everything.

under the bus anymore. I guess his time with the Cowboys is just about up too.

I had a great boss once who told us, “Never criticize down (to subordinates) or laterally (to peers). They can’t do anything about your problem except become unhappy, as well. Complain up to me.”

JV, I loved your write-up. Completely reflected that advice. I wish everyone — football and otherwise — would heed it.

That was my biggest complaint with TO and this kind of behavior was starting to spread. TO was not the only problem last year but hopefully cutting him will show the rest of the team that this will be a team and anyone who tries to undermine that mentality is expendable.

I still Defend TO during his tenure as a Cowboy but hes gone now so i might as well move on right… right.

If the Bills make the playoffs (or would they have to win the division?) and the cowboys miss out.. will that be the only scenario where cutting TO would be a bad idea? Or would it be just purely coincidence?

I was one of the biggest supporters of letting TO go. All this blame on the media causing a riff is the real B.S. of this whole story. If you think that only 3-5 guys on the team had a problem with him then you are short sighted. Only a few have enough juice to speak up. The Cowboys werent much of a team in December. Something had to change.

I think Dungy said it best on NFL network, TO is the kind of girl you date but dont marry. He is good for a couple of seasons and then its time to move on. If he hadnt already been on the team and would have become available, I would be screaming for JJ to sign him. He will do well in Buffalo and will make Trent look like a probowler but that doesnt mean we should have kept him.

I also think looking for anyone to replace him is dumb. That kind of talent doesnt grow on trees. What we are looking for is a more coheisive offense and more wins. A chance for the young guys to develope and the finishing of Romos maturation process. I have said it before and Ill say it again," I dont know if we can win without him but I do know we couldnt win with him.

But…I live in Philly and if the Eagles try to take Miles Austin, I’m knocking down Lincoln Financial Field.

I have never met the guy personally but for some reason I like him. I think the greek tragedy is a good analogy.

If he was really a difficult presence in the locker room, why not find some other way to discipline him? Does discipline have to mean cutting? There’s everything from fining, to not starting, to benching for various amounts of time, to banning from the team and practices for a while, to suspending, and THEN to cutting him.

That’s the biggest reason I don’t buy the BS about this move being a punitive decision. TO was cut because they felt the team would do better ON THE FIELD without him. I.e. they are going running game-heavier next year. There is no need for a big-time WR in that offense. They then feel that his prooduction in 2008 was not worth the contract if it continued to 2009 (conveniently forgetting 1200+ yards and 15 TDs just the season before). So even with his big contract, they felt the production (going off of his 2008 numbers) would not match the contract, therefore they cut him. They knew they would not be able to get him to agree to a lesser contract for a lesser role (and projecting lesser production anyway), so they did not offer restructuring.

I will NOT buy a word of the “cancer” retribution garbage until/unless someone official with the organization says it. Directly. That means Jerry Jones. That emphatically has not been the case.

They cut him because we are going to be a running team next year. It’s really that simple. That was the organization’s decision, and Jerry Jones’ decision for the team next year.

I personally believe that this is now a passing league and a 90s-type Cowboys balance will not work long term. But they are seemingly aiming towards that. I know that my opinion won’t be popular around here, but I believe it. A team has to pass more than run to be successful. Thus I disagree with the direction of the offense, and I disagree with the projection of TOs potential production. Thus I disagree with cutting him.

They may win next year, but the defense has got to be much more stiff at critical times, and the running game has to be consistently producing yards. At the moment we don’t have either. We have a big play Felix, a guy looking to hit people and move east-west rather than move the ball north-south in Barber, and the only possibly steady RB is Choice.

If we continue with a pass-heavy offense without TO’s production, we will be hamstrung for the big play receiver that draws extra coverage on every play.

We’ll see how it works out.

I hate to bring up Bill Parcells since he is the past but one thing that I was excited about when he was here in Dallas is that he wanted stand up guys. He would pass on players that had that “something special” on the field if they did not have the right attitude. Attitude first. If a player thinks that he is bigger than the team then the player wasn’t the right fit, period. A lot of these players come into the league with over inflated ego’s, especially if they have a lot of talent. They know it. They might not have had the best upbringing and were told how great they were in their short adult life by coaches, other players, fans and so forth. They are young and need leadership. They might not have had the right role models, if non at all. Think Pacman had the right role model to help him along? Getting rid of these types of players is the start. The cancer has already taken a hold of this team even though most of them are gone. There is doubt and dissention among the players as the last player (T.O.) was released. This team is not cohesive. The post above references this fact. These players are not men. They are spoiled teenagers. If they want more than a paycheck, want more than some bruises and hardknocks, they need to grow up. Keep the mouth shut to the media and play football. Drama is for high school, not the NFL.

T.O. spoke about his new QB, to no surprise Trent Edwards and said that he is excited to play with him. One comment that really caught my attention was that he mentioned that their offensive line play is excellent. Just look at how many times Edwards was sacked last year. If Edwards has time to throw, us receivers will be open.

Hmmmm…. he was yelling at the offensive line a lot at the end of the year and I think this comment references at how frustrated he was at Dallas’ offensive line.

Great post…Greg Ellis is really starting to chap my hide btw…his comment from last week regarding T.O. :

“It could make us an instantaneously better football team. But do I think that that will happen? I really don’t.”

This guy needs to learn to shut up in the worst way. It may be time for this guy to go…

Once Kyle went down, so did the season. Tony’s legs are the reason the offensive line received good marks in 2007. 2008, Tony wasn’t scrambling as much and it showed. We need to draft some new blood, this year.

and so did Brian Dawkins. I think Philly is going to have trouble at their LT all year. I may be over-estimating those two players, but I think those two did a lot for that franchise. I don’t see philly adequately replacing either of them.

Tra Thomas is basically as good as Flozel Adams, and Brian Dawkins as good as Darren Woodson. Cowboys have tanked upon losing players like that

Now, no do-it-all safety will be directing the DBs. Now, the most important blocker on Philly’s OL is a question mark

even royce. The philly comment is awsome. A better oline was definately on the list of needs, But now its essential.