Yay, minicamp starts today.
More Wade Phillips philosophy from a Nick Eatman article about minicamp.
"The first part is family, trust. I'm going to treat them like they're men and they may not want to hear it in some cases," Phillips said. "I'm going to tell them the truth. We're going be honest about things with the players. Loyalty is a part of family. I'm going to be loyal to the players, which means I'm not going to say bad things about our players when you guys want me to. I'm not going to call anybody out and say, so and so didn't do this or didn't do that. It's going to be a pretty positive thing in the old coach-speak stuff you don't like to hear, but that's part of what I believe you're going to do with your team.
"You need to be loyal to them if you want them to play for you. And then we have a common goal, which is to win as a football team and this is starting the process, this is starting the whole process."
You know what’s really been missing from this offseason? Articles on T.O. being a cancer. I mean really, with Pacman Jones and Mike Vick grabbing the bad-boy brass ring, Owens is left on the sidelines. What’s a guy got to do to get some negative press? But the SA E-N comes to the rescue with the latest theory; Jason Garrett will be the Owens’ whipping boy.
First they eliminated Wade Phillips because they talked to former Buffalo Bills’ player John Holecek.
In a phone interview this week, Holecek told me he doesn’t expect Owens to be a problem for the low-key Phillips, who replaced the retired Bill Parcells in February as the Cowboys coach.
"When Wade was (head coach) in Buffalo (from 1998-2000), he had to deal with Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, Thurman Thomas and Jim Kelly," Holecek said. "That’s not to say they were bad guys, but there were a lot of big egos.
"When you have a guy like (Owens) who needs to be dealt with kid gloves, Wade is the soft-spoken leader you want. If (Owens) can’t get along with Wade, he’s not going to be successful anywhere."
Cool, easy-going Wade will handle him with no problem, so the theory goes. But Jason Garrett, he’s this year’s Todd Haley.
If Owens is playing poorly, he’ll need a scapegoat. The likely candidate will be Garrett, who is nearly 20 years younger than Phillips.
If Owens doesn’t think he’s getting the ball enough, he’ll need somebody to lash out at. The likely candidate will be Garrett, who is making his debut as an offensive coordinator.
Of course, Garrett could be spared if Owens’ honeymoon with quarterback Tony Romo ends.
Maybe Garrett and Romo can spend the season throwing each other under the bus in a vain attempt to deflect the wrath of T.O. and put it on the other guy. As if.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled minicamp.
Update [2007-5-12 22:55:8 by Grizz]: I got a couple of emails asking me if I was playing that T.O. post straight, or not. Oops, I guess my satire was a little too subtle to come across. I definitely meant it as satire about a press who will write anything. I thought the line "What's a guy have to do to get some negative press?" was the tip-off. Obviously, T.O. hasn’t done anything to get negative press recently, like in the above referenced article. And the last lines about Romo and Garrett fighting was supposed to illustrate how silly the article is. It's a fine line with satire, too little and they'll think your playing it straight, too much and it goes from satire to farce.