Whitt's End: 9.2.11
Whether you've reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:
*Raymond Radway was thiiiiis close -- three seconds, in fact -- to making the Cowboys' final roster. Then in Thursday night's 17-3 meaningless loss to the Dolphins the rookie free-agent receiver broke his left leg on the final play. Gruesome. His lower left leg bent outward in a right angle. He'll have surgery today to have a rod inserted. Same injury that ruined the career of Cowboys' 1986 No. 1 draft Mike Sherrard. The kid, from McKinney North High School, will be put on injured reserve and is done for the season, maybe forever. Total bummer. Remind me again how life is fair.
*At the top of my list of concerns after Dallas' preseason is kicker. Dave Rayner is out of the equation after missing two field goals last night, and David Buehler didn't help his cause by pushing a 48-yarder, though it was in the rain with his plant foot in the mud and the ball on the grass and with a snap that looked a little low. At this point I think the Cowboys keep two kickers, because they don't have one.
*C.J. Wilson is a legit ace. Won his 14th game last night and flirted with a no-hitter. But he's got to stop stabbing at balls hit up the middle with his bare, pitching hand. For a really intelligent guy, it's just a stupid move.
*Now comes word that Texas tried to invite A&M into a joint Longhorn-Aggie Network two years ago but A&M AD Bill Byrne wasn't interested. When he realized Texas was gonna get rich in the deal after all, Byrne wanted back in. Says UT AD DeLoss Dodds, "I said we were too far down the road. We had figured out how to do it by ourselves." The Aggies are such, well, Aggies.
*If you hate 105.3 The Fan and stubbornly harbor the irrational opinion that CBS will pull the plug on the station by sundown, please skip this item ... By the time the Stars and Mavs (fingers crossed) start playing at American Airlines Center this season, you'll have a new sports-bar option in Victory Park. Welcome to The Fan Sports Lounge. It's the old Boardroom space, right in the thick of things. Lotsa TVs. Gourmet menu. And, yep, a full studio in case we wanna get a wild hair and broadcast before or after a game or just for the hell of it. First round is on me. No, seriously, when The Fan Sports Lounge opens this Fall I'll host a Sportatorium appreciation party where hopefully y'all can stop kicking me in the nuts long enough to let me buy you a drink or two.
*Hot.
*Not.
*DeMarco Murray > Tashard Choice. And apparently former Kimball star/free-agent running back Phillip Tanner has made this team. Wow.
*It opened this week, but I totally don't get "dove season." Went once. Bored outta my brain.
*If you ever wanted to see NBC5's Kim Fischer (#82) smiling and 105.3 The Fan's Sybil Summers (#118) scantily clad, it's your our lucky day.
*Number of snaps played by Cowboys' starting cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Terence Newman this preseason: 0. Owner Jerry Jones is a tad testy over this. As are we. Right?
*You guys get on me for not acting my age, but I bet you're one of those men who put on a jersey to play Madden '12. Aren't you?
*One of the amazing feats in sports is the fact that Rafael Nadal does everything in his life right-handed (eats, signs autographs, etc.), except tennis.
*Ian Kinsler is one of the most productive .240 hitters in baseball. 23 homers. 62 RBI. 32 doubles. And 74 walks, 6th-best in the AL.
*Being a relatively smart company which has tricked consumers into thinking there are huge differences in their F-series pickups, does Ford really expect us to believe the commercial where they trot out a "real Ford owner" to a "real press conference"? They take us for idiots I tell ya.
*Appearing in Rangers' games this season, players named Merkin, Hamburger, Furbush and Fister. Oh, the possibilities.
*Congrats Dallas-Fort Worth, we are now No. 4 in U.S. population behind only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
*Buddy of mine has the Longhorn Network on his Verizon Fios. Called this morning to brag he was watching show about how to cook "Longhorn fried corn."
*Floated this theory on my Twitter (@RichieWhitt) to varying degrees of criticism, but I don't understand how -- when they're just forming as tropical depressions, as big as your kitchen table off the west coast of Africa -- we can't use fans or leaf blowers or a bomb to disrupt hurricanes in their embryo stage.
*Been tapping my foot to this all week.
*Coming to The Fan/RAGE next week: Best ratings ever for our time slot? Maybe. The debut of the weekly Jason Garrett Show? Definitely. Speaking of radio, kudos to The Ticket (I think it was BaD Radio?) for getting Troy Aikman to fire back at Skip Bayless for the gay conjecture. I wrote a "Straight Talk" story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1998-ish with Aikman talking about the stubborn gay rumors around Dallas, but somehow I can't find where the Internet might have hidden it. Anyone?
*This weekend? Tonight let's meander into Deep Ellum for a set at Reno's by Crel. Saturday night the four dorks from RAGE will throw out the first pitch before the Frisco RoughRiders' game around 6:30. Sunday afternoon I'll defer to my beloved aunt Patti who turns a crisp 80 years old, then Greggo and I will be on Fox 4's Sports Sunday Sunday night. And on Monday? Labor Day Schlabor Day, I'll be at work on this here blog and on the radio from Molly Maguire's in advance of next Saturday's (Sept. 10) Brew at the Zoo. Plenty of opportunities to not be a stranger. So don't be.






















