Yesterday, we discussed Roy Williams the safety and his comments about not wanting to be in a 3-4 and maybe a little T.O.-bashing. We only had the bullet points then but the interview ran last night. Thanks to the DMN blog and Timmy Mac, we have some transcribed quotes.
"I'm not playing the position I played in my first three years when Mike Zimmer was here and we ran a 4-3. OK? I got used in the defense. I don't make excuses. I don't need to make excuses. But just take my first three years and my last four years and see the difference in where I'm lined up. Yes, I'm better in a 4-3 scheme than in a 3-4 because it's gap sound."
My first reaction to this is nobody runs a defense in the NFL that isn't gap sound. That's about execution, not design. Wade Phillips' 3-4 defense isn't designed to be gap un-sound. Sure, it's a more aggressive scheme, but players still have gap responsibilities. My second reaction was why am I even debating that fact? When a safety says they can only operate in a 4-3, not a 3-4, we've gone over the ledge.
I want to like RW1, at one time I really liked his play. He's never been great in coverage, he's never had the instincts needed for that and has been noted many times the guy has stiff hips; he just can't get turned quickly enough. But he made up for it with intimidating, bone-crunching hits that caused fumbles, or caused alligator-arms or basically fired up the whole team. Sadly, those days seem to be long gone, I haven't seen that kind of play in a few years. The best I can say now is he does support the run pretty well - most of the time.
There's a litany of theories on why Roy's play has dropped off precipitously. From the rational - he needs someone like Darren Woodson to play next to. To the romantic - he was never the same after Kelly Rowland left. To the religious - his faith has replaced football in priorities. To the cynical - he was never that good to start with. To the infamous - with his horse-tackling days over, he's over. To his own theory - he's a 4-3 guy.
You know what, I agree, you're a 4-3 guy and we should make an effort to get you to a 4-3 team. I'm not hatin' on ya RW1, I'm just at the point that if you don't think you can excel with this team, then you should be somewhere else.
Here's Roy on T.O. - the other buzz point from yesterday.
"When you do those things, you create distractions. We have younger players on the team that are like, 'Man, I feel Terrell. Maybe I should be saying and doing the same thing.' That's just a trickle-down effect. And I feel at times that can hurt and that's not being a good example, because we do have a lot of young players that look up to him. But it's not always good to have your name in the midst of situations.
"I mean, I love the guy. I see you over there looking at me, like, 'You're lying,' something. But I'm just being real. I really do. He is a great guy."
Here's RW1 giving another interview where he says similar things.
Hat tip DC Fanatic
BTW, if you haven't read GloryDayz88's post on RW1, you should.
Make the jump to read about Tony Romo's interview.
There was another interview last night, this one with Tony Romo by Babe Laufenberg. CBS 11 TV sent me an email about it, so here's the link. I thought Romo was kind of subdued in the interview. He doesn't appear as whimsical as we've seen him in past interviews. Gone is the "golly-gee, this is just a great ride I can't believe I'm here" attitude. It seems to have been replaced by a more sober, "wisdom through experience" take on life and the game.
Or maybe he was just tired.
Anyway, of course he was asked about T.O. coming back and he said everybody wants everybody back. Kind of a cop out answer, but the smart answer. No need to dump gasoline on a few embers. The T.O. story will play itself out over the next few weeks; Tony took the diplomatic approach which is good. Although by not coming out 100% enthusiastically for his return, a "Heck yeah I want him back, why wouldn't I, he's a great receiver" answer, I think it's safe to say their relationship has changed. Not necessarily unworkable, but not as tight as it once was, just my opinion.
Romo did talk a lot about the team having a different mindset this year, they will be stricter about their work and all of that stuff. Good to hear but basically worthless to fans until we see it in action. Still, he was saying a lot of things that I wanted to hear.
But there was an interesting exchange about leadership. Timmy Mac made the effort to transcribe it, it's pretty long so just go over there and read it. In short, Romo was not buying the "emotional leader" scenario, he thinks that kind of guy is not what is needed. Sample quotes:
"Saying, 'C'mon! Let's go! Get ready! C'mon! Do better!' ... OK, I will. (rolls eyes) It doesn't solve anything.
"I mean, we're not 18 or 17. We don't need to be motivated to play harder in that regard."
Romo argues that what a leader needs to say is techniques for improving, details on what was wrong on the play instead. Interesting take.
Parts of the Romo interview on YouTube here and here.
Hat tip DC Fanatic
Couple of quick notes:
- Peter King jumps on the bandwagon predicting T.O. will be released.
I think everyone doing free-agent lists should add one name in pencil: Terrell Owens. I'll bet you a month's worth of lattes he'll be free in six weeks.
- Jamie Dukes does not agree.
- Troy Aikman gets his degree from UCLA. bruinbabe 2000 posted a video of Troy at UCLA in the FanShots.
- Pacman can be officially dumped from the Cowboys starting today.