Cowboys Culture Shock: 'Zen' vs. 'Zoo'?!
WHITT'S END 3.8.24:
Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …
*Everything’s bigger in Texas. Especially our sports welcome mat.
Thursday’s announcement that Jerry Jones will host Mike Tyson stepping back into the boxing ring for a “fight” against former YouTube star Jake Paul in the home of the Dallas Cowboys solidifies DFW as the hub of next Summer’s biggest sporting spectacles.
July 16 at Globe Life Field: Major League Baseball All-Star Game. July 20 at AT&T Stadium: Tyson vs. Paul.
The exhibition double-header is a reminder of DFW’s magnetic attraction. Also arriving and/or staying in our backyard:
World Cup at AT&T Stadium … Golf’s PGA Headquarters in Frisco … Texas-OU in Dallas … Dallas Mavericks’ resort/arena in Irving … Professional Bull Riding in Fort Worth … ATP Tennis at SMU … Pro Rugby in Dallas … Pro Cricket in Grand Prairie …
Not surprisingly, Sports Business Journal named Dallas as America’s “No. 1 Sports Business City” for 2023. Wrote SBJ in its exhaustive study of more than 100 cities: “Dallas is clearly the star.”
But, um, about that next Super Bowl. Not the Cowboys winning one. But Jerry hosting another one.
It’s been 28 years since his team won Super Bowl XXX. But, don’t look now, it’s also been 13 – and counting – since XLV was played in his building.
With NFL owners awarding Super Bowl LXI to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium in 2027, it will be at least another four years before America’s most popular sporting event could possibly return to the Metroplex. Next year’s Super Bowl LIX will be in New Orleans; LX is set for San Francisco in 2026.
Jerry’s $1.2 billion Taj Mahal is one of the most recognizable sports venues on the planet, but it may also have to get in line behind new Super Bowl-ready stadiums being built by the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans.
It’s fair to ask at this point: Was the ice-coated Super Bowl hosted in Arlington a one-hit blunder?
*According to Dak Prescott the Cowboys’ culture is all Zen, one he is proud to have cultivated and feels “attacked” when it’s criticized. According to Dalton Schultz, the Cowboys’ culture is a “zoo,” littered with too many bells, whistles and distractions to be a serious, football-first organization like, say, the Houston Texans.
Hard to envision Dak and Dalton played on the same team – in the same culture – for five years.
Clutchpoints
* For all his individual superlatives and record-setting performances before age 25, the Mavs are absolutely wasting Luka Doncic. Since drafting him in 2018 they are basically a .500 team: ***256-230*** including the playoffs. Over the last week he produced four consecutive games with 30-point triple-doubles and Dallas still went 1-3. Not sure what more he can do. But former Mav and ESPN analyst Tim Legler has a distinct idea of what the team needs to do around him.
“They don’t play hard enough on the defensive end,” Legler said. “They don’t lay it on the line. They have what they need to win offensively. If they can just leave a little skin on the floor, they have what they need to compete for a championship. If they don’t, it’ll be just a bunch of gaudy offensive numbers.”
Wait, is that Tim Legler on the Mavs or Emmitt Smith talking about the Cowboys?
*Remember the lightning-in-a-bottle-out-of-nowhere the Rangers caught last Fall with Evan Carter? Very early indications out of spring training suggest it wasn’t a fluke. Carter, 21, hit two homers in a game this week and is projected to be their everyday left fielder who can bat anywhere in the order. What a gift.
*Some days you’re the pig. Others you get to be the butcher.
If I had nine lives like a cat, in one of them I’d like to be an astrophysicist exploring space. Another, maybe a professional drummer on tour. And one I’d save to work in the FBI’s cybercrimes unit catching online scam thugs. I’m sure you’ve received a random and seemingly innocuous text/message from an unknown person asking how your day went. It’s a scammer, trying to fatten its intended pig.
I hope they all target me, because I love a good reverse slaughter.
*Hot.
*Not.
*With them trending more toward play-in tournament than NBA Finals, it’s irrational to fast-forward to the Mavs playing for a championship. But just in case they magically get there – think: Texas Rangers, 2023 – here’s hoping they don’t face old friend Rick Carlisle. They’ve played the Pacers twice recently with disastrous results: Losses by 22 and 17 points, surrendering point totals of 133 and 137. It would be a nice problem if the Mavs have to figure out the Pacers come June. But it would be a problem nonetheless.
*From my viewpoint, Tyron Smith is a Top 5 all-time Cowboys’ offensive lineman. He’s also a very large human being.
*Much like the Mavs are doing this season with Derek Harper and Devin Harris, the Rangers too – damn you, Bally! – will be an analyst-by-platoon TV operation this season. While play-by-play voice Dave Raymond returns for his eighth season, the lead analyst will be a random rotation between David Murphy, Mike Bacsik and Dave Valle. Not optimal, but anything without C.J. Nitkowski and his incessant analytics will be a refreshing improvement.
*I know everyone went gaga over Texas Longhorns’ receiver Xavier Worthy running a 4.21 40-yard dash at last week’s NFL Scouting Combine, but … give me substance over speed. Worthy might well have made himself millions by launching himself up draft boards, but it’s all preposterously silly. On the rare occasion that there is a 40-yard pass thrown toward Worthy, will his 4.21 speed really give him a distinct advantage over a cornerback who runs a 4.28? Of course not. Five reminders why you shouldn’t put stock into a player’s 40 time wearing track spikes and underwear:
1. Alexander Wright (4.14 on track at Valley Ranch in 1991), total bust for Cowboys; 2. Tyquan Thornton (4.28 in 2022), total bust for Patriots; 3. Emmitt Smith (4.56 in 1990), turned out decent; 4. Jerry Rice (4.61 in 1985), turned out decent; 5. Tom Brady (5.28 in 2000), turned out decent.
*With the annual rite of setting our clocks forward one hour to commence Daylight Saving Time Sunday morning, it’s officially golf season. You’ll find me on a number of public courses and, with any luck, at least one of these in the coming months.
*As someone who feels more spry at 59 than I did at 29, I’m not leading the band to drown out old folks. But it seems much more appealing to watch <>-year-old Dolly Parton sing at age <> than Tyson climb into the ring and box at 58. Especially against a 27-year-old. Alas, here we are. In a year where Americans are forced to choose a President between 80-something re-runs, why not also dig an almost 60-year-old boxer out of the mothballs for our entertainment?
*This Weekend? Friday let’s do something I attempt about once a year: cook an actual dinner. Saturday let’s lunch with Big Brothers Big Sisters lil’ bro Ja, and then set our clocks forward one hour. Sunday let’s visit the folks in JoCo MoFo. As always, don’t be a stranger.
