Thoughts on T.O. and the Eagles, our defense, and Britney Spears

This year, the T.O. vs. McNabb and the Eagles theme just doesn’t have as much fire to it. The novelty has worn off, T.O. has already been to Philly once, plus, they are making nice with each other in the media. It’s funny, but all of T.O.’s ex-coaches take care to do nothing but praise him. Last week it was Brad Childress, this week it’s Andy Reid. Whatever bad juju was going on when T.O. was there, coaches are usually smart enough to avoid the bulletin board material. They also know that stripped of everything else, T.O. is a talent that you don’t trifle with, let sleeping dogs lie kind of thing. Too bad, we get fired up when opposing players get up in our grill this year. And Lito Sheppard pining for his ex-girlfriend doesn’t count. Can’t someone from the Eagles go all Patrick Crayton on us?

Oh well, there was one thing I noticed from this article.

And McNabb said it's easy to move on because it's obvious to him that Owens is not the same player or person he was as a member of the Eagles.

"You're seeing a different T.O. right now," McNabb said. "He's staying out of the media. He's realizing that nothing really works in his favor. He's just playing football. And that's the way you go about it."

McNabb knows! He knows T.O. is a pod-person. Notice the code language: not the same player or person, you're seeing a different T.O. right now. He knows.

But T.O. is all about love right now.

"They still love me, I don't care what they say. Those boos, they're not really boos, man. There's a lot of love in those boos. They've got no choice but to boo me because I'm on the other side. I guarantee you if I were to get traded to the Eagles right now, they would love me."

See, he knows Lito Sheppard is thinking about him. He knows they still love him, he’s the ex-girlfriend that got away.

The Tuna has another commandment for Romo.

"Now Tony has two things to be careful with – the football and his money," Parcells said. "Both are equally hard to take care of and there's always someone out there trying to strip you of them. I hope he hangs on tight. The circus never stays in town forever."

Listen up Tony, just like Jerry said, they can smell fresh cash.

Here’s a generic look from the outside at the Cowboys defense. The question is - how good is our D, really? It re-hashes most of the same arguments, soft-schedule, torched by the two teams they played with a decent QB, yada yada yada. Here’s the money paragraph.

But the second half of the season will show exactly what kind of defense this truly is. A division-winning defense? Maybe. A Super Bowl defense? Could be. Or just a unit that's been able to take advantage of a hapless parade of quarterbacks and is in for a long second half and disappointing postseason once the quality of opposition goes up?

Negative ghost rider, no second half collapse this year. If we get Henry, Newman and Reeves all on the field together – healthy - our defense will improve. Greg Ellis is starting to make an impact, and should get better as he gets healthier. The players as a whole are starting to get comfortable in the Phillips 34. And the Tank starts playing after this game. If they are good, we can go far, if they are very good, we could go all the way. If they become great, then...I can’t say it.

OK, things are getting very weird in Cowboys World. Britney Spears is back in the Cowboys news, but it has nothing to do with Romo. Nope, it’s coach that has issues with Brit.

But it doesn't end there for Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, who said he is not happy with Spears because of the title of her new album, "Blackout," and because some of the images used in her videos were borrowed.

Phillips' daughter, Tracy, is a dancer/choreographer in Los Angeles at a club called Blackout. According to Phillips, Spears attended one of Tracy's shows. Coincidentally, there were some similarities with her new album.

Phillips said there was nothing they could do about it and reasoned that people sometimes borrow things like in coaching.

I’m speechless. As Lombardi would say – What the heck is going on out here?