A couple quick teases from the land where Cowboys roam.
-- The Cowboys success can only be halted by evil masterminds plotting to take over the world, sometimes the universe. It only makes sense then, for Dallas to team up with Captain America, The Hulk and other Marvel Entertainment characters for some merchandising. Throw in the bowling tournament and you can see some things one might attribute to Charlotte Jones looking out for her fathers bottom line.
From the press release:
The Marvel/Dallas Cowboys collection for infants, kids, and adults will include t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, caps and onesies. The line will debut this summer at mass, mid-tier and sporting goods retailers as well as at the Cowboys Stadium and Cowboys fan shops. Through their Dallas Cowboys Merchandising (DCM) arm, the Cowboys are the only major sporting team to design, manufacture, and distribute its own apparel and has an impressive 400,000 square foot facility which houses their corporate offices, distribution center and showrooms. The five-time Super Bowl champion Cowboys annually stand atop the NFL's team merchandise sales.
-- The news of Dallas setting a training camp date for San Antonio made the media rounds. The implication is that by setting a firm date, it's an indication of the progress of the labor talks,which I don't believe in. We've had way too many 'signs' before for me to believe anything short of the signature page on a CBA.
The team had previously released a three week hold on the Alamodome for July 25th through August 11th, so setting the date of July 29th wasn't as big a leap as it's being made out to be, in my opinion. We also know that Dallas, like several other teams, have a contingency plan in place to move training camp to Valley Ranch, to avoid the travel difficulties of a shortened camp.
-- Todd Archer of ESPN.com is reporting that the Cowboys have every intention of evenly splitting snaps among middle linebackers Bradie James, Sean Lee and Keith Brooking. The club also seems to have every intention, reportedly, to bring second round draft pick Bruce Carter along slowly. I think if his playing time follows to arc of Sean Lee, than we can expect Carter to make more of an impact as the season goes along, and then replace Brooking in the rotation next year, and James in the starting lineup by 2013. Of course, Carter has all the physical tools necessary to accelerate his progress depending on his health.
-- Over the weekend, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stated that the practice of NFL teams subsidizing stadium deals for clubs 'is on it's way out', according to several reports including this one from CBSSports.com. Maybe I'm missing something, but to me the story seems to only be talking about building stadiums, and Jones insistence that the teams shouldn't be paying for these types of things. I did not see any reference to revenue sharing as a whole, which is how the story is being framed by several outlets. I'm not saying that Jones isn't talking about revenue sharing in general, it's just that none of the stories have expanded on the quotes to provide that same leap to me as a reader. We've had some great educational debates throughout the lockout. What do you take away from this story?
-- Sorry to get all TMZ here, but it still is the slow season waiting for the lockout to end. It appears that Roy Williams was turned down in his marriage proposal, and she tried to keep the $76,000 ring. After realizing that the relationship wouldn't continue, Williams asked for the ring back, was told it was lost only to have an insurance investigation uncover the young lady's father had the ring. If you would like to read more about this, click here for the article from National Football Post.