--- With the draft quickly approaching, everyone is focused on whom will be the top choice for the Cowboys. Some draft aficionados even attempt to target second and third round talents. With all that going on, we'd be remiss in not mentioning that the Cowboys front office has seemed to always find a gem in the undrafted rookie free agent heap. The National Football Post recently ran a story where they listed the top 10 undrafted players of all time. Our current QB, Tony Romo, garners an honorable mention. Former Pro Bowl guard Nate Newton clocks in at #10. Newton has had an eventful post-career life, with the most recent news being the uplifting story of him losing 175 pounds.
--- Speaking of former Cowboys, the most prolific running back in the history of the NFL seems to have a card up his sleeve in the poker world as well. All-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith took out one of the poker world's top talents, David Williams, in the National Heads-Up Poker Championships in Las Vegas last week. Smith had also previously bested Phil Ivey, a man that for 3-5 years has been known as one of the one or two best players in the world. Championship mettle! Seeing how the most popular version of poker is named after the Cowboys home state, I'd imagine many members of BTB are pretty good players themselves. I tend to do better when I go into casinos than online, but I do know there is a new feature on some sites that allow you to create your own online poker night. If anyone is interested in having one for BTB members, hit my email up.
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--- The Cowboys obviously need a replacement for Keith Brooking at the inside linebacker spot. I think all of us were pleased with the progress we saw from Sean Lee over the last half of the 2010 season. His ascension means that although Dallas still needs to consider the ILB position in the draft, it is not a high priority need as Bradie James is an above average, albeit not elite, player at the position. Scout Inc.'s Matt Williamson profiles Sean Lee in ESPN.com's 'Soon to be Stars' series.
--- DMN's Bob Sturm writes an interesting piece about the snaps played percentage of Dallas Cowboys offensive players. I'm not quite sure why the editors slapped the headline that they did on Sturm's fine work; "Data shows why Cowboys are reluctant to pay running backs". They paid Marion Barber's huge contract that is about to get him released from the roster. Regardless, it's a good look, and we see that Doug Free and Andre Gurode were true ironmen in 2010.
--- Even without an NFL-NFLPA labor agreement, the city of San Antonio forges on. You say, but San Antonio doesn't have an NFL team! Well, they get great enjoyment (and local revenue boost) out of watching our Dallas Cowboys roll into town for training camp. With the NFL calendar indefinitely up in the air, the city is still holding out hope that the Cowboys will return to San Antonio, and has earmarked the proposed three week stretch. According to Tom Osborn, this is the final year of the five-year contract the Cowboys have with the Alamodome, and they are working on a new contract that will have the Cowboys training camps exclusively in Texas. With the debacle of the circus better known as the Traveling Training Camp Tour of 2010, I think all fans would rather see the team able to focus on learning the playbooks than making flights.