Terrell Owens' MRI shows no damage

So the good news is that Terrell Owens’ MRI showed no structural damage to his lower back, so it’s just a case of back spasms. The bad news is that it’s unknown when he will return. I wanted to see him play Thursday night against the Colts, but we’ll just have to wait and see. My prediction is that he won’t play given how cautious this coaching staff is about injury.

But there is some more good news on the injury front; it appears Ken Hamlin wasn’t seriously hurt after getting his bell rung by Jackie Battle in practice today.

The Cowboys got a brief scare near the end of the afternoon practice when starting free safety Ken Hamlin butted heads with rookie running back Jackie Battle, ending up with the worse end of the collision. Hamlin seemed severely dinged, and had to be helped off the field. But after showering, Hamlin walked back onto the field to sign a few autographs and appears to have stabilized.

That’s really good news, cause he looked like Michael Spinks after Mike Tyson floored him 91 seconds into the first round. I’m sure he was wondering what all those stars were doing circling his head after the hit. Nothing a nice hot shower couldn’t clear up.

On the other big news from today’s practice, it appears the fight has left no lingering feelings, at least among the defensive players. JJ got fired up, and as I wrote in my practice report, it fired up the offense, and they needed it because they were playing horribly up until that point.

"J.J. is like a sparkplug," inside linebacker Bradie James said of Jones, "and any time he gets fired up he fires up the offense. I mean, the guys just start moving the ball after we had the fight. Sometimes you need that. It kills the monotony.

"Today was, outside of the first two days, the most physical day we've had since we've been out here. It's just time to go out and play another-colored jersey, that's all."

Later Watkins leveled Sam Hurd. Here’s his take:

Jones and Watkins were noticeably animated the rest of practice, and the second-year safety delivered a ferocious hit to Hurd later in team drills.

"After that I was going to take everybody out," Watkins said. "It's all love. Everybody knows we're not out here to hurt each other, but we've got to play football. Sometimes tempers flare over."

Indeed. What was funny is I was sitting with Shango and Lauren, the attractive woman who appears in his videos called Fanspeak, and just minutes before the fight broke out she turned to us and said "I want to see a fight." Ask and you shall receive.

Tony Romo is going to play for a quarter on Thursday night, but he won’t have his two protectors at tackle to rely on.

On Monday, Wade Phillips said quarterback Tony Romo and some other starters will play a quarter in Thursday's preseason opener against Indianapolis.

But starting tackles Marc Colombo and Flozell Adams will miss the game because they're coming along slowly from knee surgeries.

It appears that rookie Doug Free (left tackle) and Pat McQuistan (right tackle) will protect Romo. Each has practiced with the first team when Colombo and Adams are given time off.

All right Free and McQ, it’s your job to make sure Romo doesn’t get killed on Thursday night.

Calvin Watkins has an article about the concern the Cowboys have for their QB’s getting dead arms, like pitchers in baseball. I don’t know if this has already happened, but our QB’s have been less than impressive over the last few days, including Romo.  

Jason Garrett gets some ink in the DMN.