Dallas Cowboys News: May 3rd, 2011

Let's take a spin around the web and see what's what in the world of the Dallas Cowboys. You know, other than that silly little draft thingy.

-- All-Pro tight end Jason Witten felt the same way most of us fans did when the NFL shut its doors again on Friday... teased. The open for business, closed for business yo-yo has he, Tony Romo and Bradie James scrambling to re-organize the player-led workouts we've spoken about.

"It’s tough because it was almost like the first day of school," Witten said. "You go in and everybody’s so excited and anxious to get started. Personally you do know how important this time is and for that to get taken away, it’s a bit of a tease because you felt it was about to get started and the writing was on the wall. Now you go back to the old system of getting locked out."

Witten is among a handful of veteran players, including Tony Romo and Bradie James, who will organize practices.

"We’re going to have to discuss it again because it’s changed in the last couple of days," Witten said. "We’ve got to do the work whether there’s a lockout or not. We can’t go the next two months and not have on-the-field activities. We’re going to rally to together and put the work on so when training camp comes we’ll be a better team."

-espn.com

More..

-- We might get a litmus test of the annual silly debate over Tony Romo's golfing hobby. It appears that Romo will once again attempt to qualify for the US Open. Is he going to schedule the non-organized team activities around the practice tee times? [DMN.com]

-- Owner Jerry Jones is still cautiously optimistic about playing football in 2011. From ESPN's Todd Archer:

"I didn’t build that stadium not to have football out there," Jones said. "If I knew I was going to spend my life in courtrooms and controversies over contracts and doing all of those things and that’s where I spent all of my time, then I’d be doing something else … Here’s where I am: I do think we’re going to be playing football. I think the process we’re going through will get us there and we’ll be a lot healthier then we’ve ever been and what we want to have for the National Football League is in the best interest ultimately of the players and ultimately doing better financially than they would do if we don’t make these changes."

-- Lost amidst the Tyron Smith euphoria and Bruce Carter/Demarco Murray head scratching, was that Jerry Jones and Dez Bryant were supposed to meet on Friday.  That meeting did not take place, and it's still a little unclear whether their schedules didn't match, there was a miscommunication, or Dez blew off Jerry. From ESPN.com:

The Cowboys owner said he became too busy with the draft and labor issues and couldn't clear his schedule to speak with Bryant. Yet Jones defended Bryant for not being at Valley Ranch. At least 20 players visited the complex to work out Friday, a group which included Tony Romo, Kevin Ogletree, Andrew Sendejo and the bulk of the offensive line.

"We had the good communication that I wanted to have," Jones said regarding his Thursday night conversation with Bryant. "It would have been redundant, that's why we did talk. We had a real good talk yesterday and that's where I like to leave it."

I'm undecided on what I can glean from this, but I firmly remember the Thursday statement that they were planning on meeting in person.

And because I just can't resist the draft talk... we'll leave tidbits with this nugget.

-- Norm Hitzges recently interviewed former Cowboys assistant and current University of North Carolina head coach Butch Davis about newly drafted linebacker Bruce Carter. As transcribed by Bob Sturm, here are some interesting tidbits.

in high school coming out - this will give you an indication of what kind of athlete - in high school he was a safety and a Quarterback... Bruce is one of those unique rare linebackers that you never have to take out of the game. He can play Sam, he can play Mike, He can play Will and he can play in all of your nickel packages. Because he has great speed and great ability to cover. He can blitz and he can come off the edge.

If true, sold.

-- Funny twitter exchange between two Cowboys last night, in regards to the NBA playoffs. Orlando Scandrick and Barry Church were attempting to execute a wager:

Turns out Church should've made the bet, the Lakers lost in the final minute to a Dallas Mavericks comeback.