Ego vs. Fan

A person can always make a prediction based on their interpretation of the facts at hand. Last year I predicted the Indiana Pacers would win the NBA East. They didn’t and so I had to placate my ego by saying if they hadn’t imploded I probably was going to be right looking at how badly Miami did against San Antonio. I know the Pacers aren’t the Spurs, but I think Indiana was overall potentially a better team than Miami. And since I am not a Pacer fan it didn’t matter to me except for a bit of a bruised ego that my prediction didn’t come to fruition.

It can be extremely different though if you make a prediction of a team you are a fan. And if you are a mega fan of the team the prediction can weigh heavily on you every day. And usually fans will make overly optimistic predictions. This year though I didn’t have much faith in my beloved Cowboys and am predicting they will go 5-11.

Now though they are 2-1 and our superstar owner is telling the whole world to “give the Boys a glance”. Yep the wonderful Mr. Jones is on his overly optimistic horse and wants the whole world to focus in on him, oops I mean the Cowboys. So am I riding that horse with him?

Lets take a look at the situation.

THE EGO INSIDE ME:

When I said the Cowboys were going to go 5-11 I counted the two wins they have right now towards my prediction of 5 total wins. And in some ways they were lucky to get the second win. I felt all three teams in the East were better and their out of division schedule was tough. I felt like they were going to be in some games, but unless there was improvement on defense they would lose close games in the end therefore only end up with about five victories. I said if they were going to have any chance at all the offensive line and running game were going to be a big part, but for the line to be good for the whole year it would be a huge step forward for them to gel this year. I felt the line has a chance to become a really good in the next couple of years if they are kept together.
I was worried about how good the defense was going to be. And even though they have made some plays I still think they have a ways to go to become consistently good.
The Washington New York game suggests Washington may have some problems so the Cowboys might pick up a win I wasn’t expecting. And even though they are 2-1 I haven’t seen hard evidence they will have a drastically better record than 5-11. I might be a bit off and they may end up with 6 or 7 wins, but I don’t see any drastic upswing at this time. I feel good about my prediction.

THE FAN INSIDE ME:

Can you believe these Cowboys? They are already 2-1 and wow wasn’t that a great comeback last week. Our offensive line is turning out better than expected. And our defense is making plays when they need to. Romo hasn’t looked great, but he is getting better each week.
So with our running game doing well, Romo getting better, and a better than expected defense the Cowboys have a legitimate chance of doing something this year. Maybe Mr. Jones is right and we should give the Cowboys a bit more of a glance.

THE TRUTH:

The truth can be very elusive, but we might get a good glance at it in a few hours. The Saints Cowboys game may actually tell us something.
If the Saints hand it to the Cowboys tonight then I feel good about my pre season prediction. The Cowboys may have their moments this year, but overall it is going to be a struggle.
If the Cowboys lose a very close game and especially if it is low scoring because the defense plays well then that might bode well for an 8-8 or 9-7 season and my ego will have to eat a little crow.
And if the Cowboys win tonight then the fan inside me is going to be impossible to live with tomorrow morning.

I will step up to the plate and take my swings, I am still worried about the outcome tonight and the overall season. I want to be wrong, I fear I am not. And that is the problem with making any prediction for anything you have an emotional attachment. It only works when you are overly optimistic and the team performs better than expected. That is a rare day.



#300

A news/media point

I love going to Yahoo since it pulls stories from many different sources. There are times when you can see completely contradictory headlines on the same story or topic.

This just shows me why our politics are so screwed up, how badly we need to teach critical thinking in public schools, and too many so called news sites pander to their audience instead of actually reporting news or investigating issues. Friggin amazing. Yet even when its obvious we still don't get it. If you only read one news source time to reevaluate what you know.

There is too much..... and some NBA comments

There is too many cameras going in our society. I saw the article with the video of the Atlanta Falcons game where this girl reaches down and apparently grabs the crotch of the man beside her. There is a head of the fan in front of them blocking the exact activity, but the article alludes to something amiss going on.
First of all, there are tens of thousands of fans at this game. Are there this many cameras going that all activity can be seen? Or is there too much time on someone’s hands who can watch tons of video just to find something this inconsequential and try to make a story to post online. Either way pretty scary,
So it begs the question, who is the real big brother? Is it the government, corporations, the media, or social media? Personally I think the corporations are going to win in the long run, but if someone ever gets to the point where the can manipulate all four we are going to have a big brother on steroids like nothing George Orwell could ever imagine.
Again pretty scary that for whatever reason someone found this 10 seconds of activity on video and managed to convince their boss this was something relevant to post on a prominent website. It is pretty sad that we can no longer have a bit of fun without being demonized for the whole world. And worse someone got paid to be this juvenile. Us paranoidists are already sure big brother is around the corner, but it is sure manifesting itself in strange ways.


I worry a bit that the players in the NBA aren’t sure what they want anymore. This past offseason was a bit weird. Everyone was trying to be in the hip town on the superstar (like Heat)team, but nothing ever came of it. Yes Cleveland may have come close, but overall most “Stars” stayed put. No one could figure out which town and team was going to be the next “Heat”.
The Heat gave everyone a notion that if you threw a bunch of stars together you were guaranteed a championship. The Heat were talented and lucky. The East is weak and San Antonio threw one series away. They beat OKC because basically their stars were better than Durant and company. Coaching or team play were not the dominant factors in that series.
Anyway now all the players are looking to be on the next team. The next victim to fall for this misconception is Eric Bledsoe. Too bad for Phoenix, they were looking like a team on the rise.
And another sad note is the LA Clippers might have become a super megastar team if they could have done something in the off season. The Sterling fiasco really hurt that team. And for the rest of the West it could have been a disaster. Doc Rivers is a much better coach than Miami’s coach and so the Clippers could have truly dominated the league for awhile. They are still a good team and Doc a good coach, but now they are competing for second seed unless SA takes a step back. Imagine if they got Gasol or Melo, the balance of power would have definitely shifted.
So hopefully team play will become important again for the future and players will once again try to become stars by trying to win with their team. And maybe Minnesota will get to develop all the talent they may put together with draft picks and prove this point. Lets hope they emulate players like Russell, Havlicek, Reed, Frazier, Bird, Magic, now Duncan, and Dirk. Stars in their own right, but also stars for what they did with their teams. This definitely makes for a better NBA.


If you look up fans in the dictionary one synonym should be overreaction. I was reading the reader’s posts about Tyson Chandler’s comments about what Phil Jackson may have said about him.

Knicks fans were mostly complaining how he was no good, didn’t contribute etc and Maverick fans were treating his return well as the second coming of Chandler. As always there is a truth. I don’t want to comment on the Knicks fans because I don’t follow them too close. For the Mavericks’ fans though a bit of a reality check. It is great to have Tyson back, but remember he his older, had a few injuries, and for all his great defense in 2011 he had help and that help as moved on. Shawn Marion was just as valuable to the team as Tyson. The Mavericks can be better, maybe much better than last year with him, but we still need to fill a couple of roles before talking Championship. If things go well maybe Crowder will fill one of those roles, but we are on a wait and see for that.
And actually I am one of those fans that have to temper my expectations for this year, they can be better, just help my find my reality glasses before the year starts. Ha ha ha ha

Two wildly different topics

Well just hung out with my youngest at the Truckyard. Way too much of a flashback moment. Outside of the big screen TV could have been the 70’s. Okay some of the way people were dressed wasn’t the 70’s, but then again others…

We watched the Longhorns almost upset the Bruins. Don’t know why the Longhorns were still in the hurry up offense with 3 minutes left and the lead. Then again not a good idea to give up a 45 yard punt return either. Fun to watch them almost pull it off. They are definitely going to need to upgrade both offense and defensive line going forward. Overall UCLA was pushing them around on both sides of the ball.


There is going to be a documentary on the Roosevelts this week on PBS. I think a seven part series or something. And if you read my blog regularly you may have gleaned that I am a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt. I don’t always say it, but if you read between the lines on some of my posts you may have picked up on it. Anyway somewhat excited about watching it if I get the chance. FDR is okay and for historical purposes probably going to be good, but looking forward to what they say about the bullmoose.

Wonderful early fall evening here in North Texas. Great evening to spend a few hours downing a couple of cold ones and a philly cheese steak sandwich in what was once called a beer garden type environment while watching football on the big screen. Salud!

I said that???

If patience is a virtue, then married men are very virtuous people. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Oh man my better half is going to kill me.



And I am glad I was wrong, (at least temporarily) and gas prices didn't go up for Labor day weekend. Surprised me.

Is it really all about Romo?

It is the start of football season and of course, the Cowboys are all the buzz, why, well who knows. Yet Jones, Romo etc have been in the news and the title of this blog was inspired by an article about Romo that was well written that I found in Yahoo sports and there apparently is a video story about Mr. Jones, but for today….

And so is it really all about Romo? Does the success of this year fall on his shoulders? I think not. There is so much more at play than what Romo can do. Is it all about Garrett? Nope, do both of them have any responsibility in what happens? Well yes, but what hopes does a Cowboy fan have?

Well if you are still one of the two or three people left on this planet that thinks Jerry Jones can make a positive impact on the Cowboy football world then this blog post might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back of your optimism or belief.

Let’s go back a few years to see why yours truly doesn’t hold out much hope.

At one point Mr. Jones hired one Jimmy Johnson and Mr. Johnson spent about three years putting the foundation together for a great football team. It didn’t happen right away, but lo and behold the Cowboys won and won again. The team he put together was so good that even after he left it still managed to win and compete well for another five years. Remember Jerry Jones said that any one of five hundred people could coach the Cowboys to a championship once he let Mr. Johnson go. Yep well for two years one Coach Switzer kept our little dreams alive. I have nothing against Barry, but Jerry was right and anybody could coach that much talent to victory.

Time took its toll. Whenever something is not maintained well sooner or later things fall apart. And guess who was in charge those wonderful post Johnson years, yep one Jerry Jones.

The decline happened gradually, but by the early 2000’s and a few coaching changes later (so don’t blame the coaches) the team racked up three 5-11 seasons in a row. The one constant from the end of the Johnson era to then was Jerry Jones. He wanted to run the show and he certainly ran it into the ground.

Then Cowboy fans got a visit from the tooth fairy and Mr. Jones had a lucid moment and hired Bill Parcells. It took about three years and lo and behold the Cowboys were winning football games again. Then the tooth fairy disappeared Mr. Jones forced Terrell Owens on Mr. Parcells. Mr. Parcells saw the writing on the wall that Mr. Jones would never give up the ghost of his ego and decided to move on. Mr. Parcells was in the process of getting the Cowboys back on track and even for a few years after he left the remnants of what he started ended up winning the only playoff game the Cowboys had won in a decade. Yet he left and the decline began again.

Now we have watched three 8-8 seasons in a row, and couldn’t win the proud East in its most mediocre years since the 1960’s. Could Romo have won us the East at this point? Yes quite possibly, he did make some bonehead plays a couple of times, but overall the team was not up to the overall task. This is not just because of the quality of players or coaches. No this goes back to the attitude of the owner. The whole party is nothing but a party, no real discipline, no accountability, especially on the owner by the owner.

And what next? Unfortunately myself and some national sports writers see another 5-11 season on the horizon. Why, well Mr. Jones has been left in charge again for years and the demise has just kept building. Could the Cowboys do better this year? Maybe, the one lucid moment Mr. Jones had since Bill Parcells was drafting offensive line instead of Johnny Football this year. From stories told though it sounds like there may have been other hands involved. And this offensive line the Cowboys have somehow managed to obtain is there best foot going forward. The potential is there, hopefully they can keep them together and develop them, but almost sounds like too much to ask from a man who prefers image over substance. Maybe just maybe though this line can keep the offensive on the field for forty minutes a game, the defense makes the other team punt once in the game and the Cowboys win some games by one score. We can dream.

And speaking of image over substance, the whole Jerry Jones/Cowboys thing in some ways show why we have so many problems in our country. How can a man who is basically responsible for the decline in value and quality of a product that was once highly touted be rewarded with increased value in his company? How is it the Cowboys keep growing in value making Mr. Jones richer every passing year, yet he is responsible for the product that is diminishing in quality as he grows richer. It is all marketing and hype. I would say no substance, but that would be grossly unfair to the many players such as Witten, Ware, even Romo and more who do go out day in and day to win football games, but aren’t given the tools to be successful such as an owner that holds himself accountable to the product he puts on the field.

There is no accountability, no discipline, no drive, or the Cowboys should have won the East the last few years even with Romo making a mistake every now and then. It is not just him, but a team not having win at all cost driven into their heads day in and day out; A GM that knows football and how to find the right players; a head coach that can be a head coach, makes decisions and lives and dies by them; and an owner that knows nothing about football except how to spell it staying out of the way. Yep that would be great, but instead Mr. Jones is rewarded year in and year out with increased value making him think he does actually know something and we, the fans, are left holding onto dying dreams.

Go Cowboys, I will say it now because it looks like it is going to be a long year.


And that image/substance thing, well the problems for our country are found right up the street from DC’s football team where Congress is more concerned with its image (especially at the individual level) than doing anything of substance.

And next up on the hit parade of blogs, a little bit about our man of action one Mr. Rick Perry. Image/substance?? Well maybe, maybe something more