Folkin'-A

The Star-T gives a little love to kicker Nick Folk. 

"What makes me feel good is how he performed in critical situations," [Jerry] Jones said of Folk. "For years around here, we had a revolving door when it came to kickers. I decided to change that [by signing veteran Mike Vanderjagt in 2006] and got bit when we made a big commitment in one....I really like the one we have now."

Vandershank is like a bad dream. I remember being at training camp out in Oxnard in 2006 and watching him miss kick after kick and rationalizing to myself that he was just working on his technique, that this was just part of his routine to get ready for a season. I never thought that he would actually kick that way in games.

Back to today’s world, the one thing Folk is working on that wasn’t so great about his game last year is kickoffs.

Folk has spent the off-season working on kickoffs. The Cowboys ranked in the middle of the pack last season, with opponents averaging 23.01 yards per kickoff return. (The NFL average was 22.69.) On 93 kickoffs, Folk reached the end zone only 16 times and had four touchbacks.

To my eternal shame, I was apoplectic that we selected a kicker in the 6^th-round two years ago. At the time I was saying, what the folk?! Now, I say, folkin'-a!

I missed this article earlier in the week over at SI.com. In it Terence Newman discusses playing in the secondary with Pacman Jones and says he’s excited at the prospect, even going as far as saying the Cowboys might have the best secondary in the league now.

"It'll be good to get to work, but I can't wait until he gets fully reinstated because we have something special going on in Dallas and we're just missing that one link and I really believe he's the missing link," said Newman, who recently signed a six-year extension worth $50 million. "Once he gets reinstated, I think we're going to have the best secondary in the league."

T.O. will finally pay the Eagles the $700,000 he owes  from an arbitration ruling. After getting his contract extension, T.O. certainly has the cash to do that.

"I don't mind paying that," Owens told reporters, according to the Dallas Morning News. "It's not a big deal considering what happened [Tuesday].

"They can have it how they want it. They want it in cash, pennies, they can get it."

Better yet, why not pay them in popcorn?

Check out this interactive map of the Cowboys new stadium. You can pick any seat in the house and then get a 360 degree view from that seat.