Two positions, two controversies

by Dave Halprin on Sep 12, 2006 9:43 AM CDT in Dallas Cowboys News

The QB controversy is on, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Now, whether it's just a media driven thing or a real thing is still undetermined. In Bill Parcells press conference, He made it clear that Bledsoe would start on Sunday, but he said some things in a way that leaves the door cracked open just a bit.

But as if all that wasn't fodder alone for foolish thought, Bill during Monday's post-mortem at Valley Ranch never brought himself to say beyond a shadow of doubt that he wouldn't bench Bledsoe for Romo.

"Right now," Bill said, "I wouldn't do that."

Does that mean this week or this month or this season, the mind wondered.

"I'm not thinking anything about that right now," he continued.

Those two little words, "right now". Was Parcells intentionally signaling that Romo could play if Bledsoe falters again? Or was it just Parcells being Parcells, and trying to stoke Bledsoe's fire? Or was it really nothing and we're just making too much out of it?

What did Bledsoe have to say on Monday?

"I felt it's important [to talk] after a game where things don't go well. I feel like I need to address some of these issues and admit that I made some mistakes in the game," Bledsoe said. "That's very important. It's more important for me as a quarterback and a leader on the team to say [I] didn't play as well as I wanted to. I'm going to play better next week, and we're going to move on."

And Romo?

"I think any time you have a couple quality players at a specific position, it's always going to happen," Romo said of speculation that he will play.

Whether that future is this month, next month or next season remains to be seen. Romo wants to play. He also doesn't want to cause a scene.

"I don't know if it's awkward," said Romo, whose locker is next to Bledsoe's. "You're just waiting your turn when your time comes down the road. You're trying to be ready at all times."

All I know at this point is Bledsoe will play on Sunday. What I think is that Bledsoe will have a good game. What I'm speculating is that Bledsoe will be out QB for the full season.

What about our kicker controversy? Where does that stand?

The Cowboys' training staff has told Bill Parcells that Mike Vanderjagt, the highest-paid kicker in franchise history, is fine physically. Now, they have to figure out if he's fine mentally.

So he's good to go, right? Not so fast, Parcells has doubts.

Given his status as the most accurate kicker in history and the $2.5 million in bonus money he was given by the Cowboys in the off-season to solve their kicking problems, isn't it time for Vanderjagt to do what he was brought here to do?

Parcells isn't so sure. He said he wants to see how Vanderjagt looks in practice this week before deciding on a kicker for Sunday.

Parcells said he hasn't seen enough so far.

And what does Vandy have to say?

Vanderjagt, who didn't play Sunday, declined comment Monday: "I've got nothing to say," he said good-naturedly. "Go away."

The Canada native did say, "We can talk about hockey all day."

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