No prime-time game for the Dallas Cowboys in week one

The prime-time schedule for the first week of the 2008 season was announced today; surprisingly Dallas was left off the list.

Green Bay will host Minnesota on Sept. 8 in a Monday night game on ESPN. That game will start at 7 p.m. ET and will be followed by Denver at Oakland at 10:15.

The Super Bowl champion Giants will host the Redskins Sept. 4 in the opening game of the season at 7 p.m. on NBC. The Colts will host the Bears in a Sunday night (Sept. 7) game on NBC.

The schedule for the Thanksgivings Day games should have been announced today, yet will most likely come out tomorrow.

When the opening day game was announced I thought it an odd choice to pit the defending Super Bowl champions against the Washington Redskins. I guess the league is still looking to ride the big run the 'Skins had at the end of last season. The fact that the Cowboys played the Giants opening night last year on NBC was probably the main deterrent is not working a rematch of the playoff game into opening night. I can understand that but it would have been one heck of week leading up to it.

The league worked out all the compensatory picks for this year's draft and the Cowboys ended up with none. That's a good sign that your team did a good job improving the year before. The Cowboys signed Ken Hamlin and Leonard Davis and the biggest offseason loss was special teams ace Ryan Fowler.

With the compensatory picks out of the way, the full draft schedule is now in place. The Cowboys' picks will work out like this:

First round - Nos. 22 (from Cleveland), 28
Second round - No. 61
Third round - No. 92
Fourth round - No. 126
Fifth round - No. 163
Sixth round - No. 167 (from Miami for Jason Ferguson trade)
Seventh round - No. 235

Hat tip to DeRat for posting the story in his diary.

SI.com lists some risers and sliders headed into the draft and CB Justin King tops the list.

Scouts are rethinking that opinion as King's combination of athleticism, intelligence (he graduated from PSU early) as well as his high character now has him on the verge of breaking into in the first round.

It would be interesting to have one of the best all around character guys in the draft on the same team as Pacman Jones.

Another day, another chapter in the never ending Pacman Jones trade saga. Something we all have to remember about this whole thing is that there is no guarantee Roger Goodell will reinstate Pacman anytime soon. The commissioner issued a brief statement today on the situation.

Addressing the "Adam" Jones suspension today, commissioner Roger Goodell had this to say: "In my last correspondence with Adam, I told him that I would make a decision prior to the start of training camp. I have seen some of his recent comments that he made on the Michael Irvin radio show, and I think some of those comments are encouraging. I always said he has to accept responsibility for his actions, and that when he does, I would reconsider his status."

Alex Marvez at Foxsports.com talks about how Pacman's recent comments have not exactly won everyone over.

But just because acquiring Jones makes sense for the Cowboys doesn't make it right — especially while he is barred.

Goodell said some of the comments Jones made about his past actions last week during a lengthy radio interview were "encouraging." Yet there also were times Jones continued to make excuses for his troubles. Jones even admitted he wasn't necessarily going to stay out of strip clubs forever despite the problems he has encountered there.

I have remained a bit silent amidst all of the Pacman Jones drama. I wanted to make sure that I truly assessed the situation before flying off the cuff and making statements based on my personal emotions. This is a tough situation to deal and one that is completely different than what Cowboys fans went through two years ago when Terrell Owens was signed. I had slowly started coming around and had come to a point where I would accept Pacman Jones as a player on my favorite team if he was able to stay out of trouble. Yet today I watched a video about the bouncer who was paralyzed in the infamous Vegas strip club incident.

I find myself completely torn about this whole thing. Ever since hearing the true nature of Pacman's past I have felt that he no longer belonged in the NFL unless he received professional counseling. While I do not think that Pacman is completely to blame for Tom Urbanski getting shot, his decisions throughout his life have yet to show that he learns from mistakes and respects the authority of those around him. This player is in a different situation than any of the other Dallas Cowboys problem players of the "white house" era.; what those guys were doing was only hurting themselves. Pacman has been involved in incidents that could and have hurt other people; Pacman's statements on the Michael Irvin show came far from convincing me he had learned his lesson. It was just too rehearsed and coached.

On the other hand, I think Roger Goodell needs to go ahead and make a decision one way or the other. If he does in fact reinstate Pacman and the Cowboys make the trade for him, what will I do? Well, I have no choice but to begrudgingly cheer him on as a Cowboys fan. You just have to hope that he truly has learned his lesson and stays clean for the duration of his time in a Cowboys uniform.