Whitt's End: 11.30.12
Whether you've reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End:
*NBA commish David Stern has no right to punish the Spurs for not playing their best/exhausted players Thursday night against the Heat in Miami. San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich rested starters Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and Danny Green, not even forcing them to make the trip to South Beach after 6 road games in 9 days. Does a team have the responsibility to play its best players if healthy? Sorry, but the answer is no. Popovich is paid by the Spurs not to entertain fans in Miami, but to win games in San Antonio. In his estimation, losing last night's game will be balanced by more wins by a rested nucleus in the immediate future. I totally get it. Besides, the Heat long ago sold out its season so there weren't a lot of single-game fans on hand only there to see the Spurs' stars. I know the NBA has special ticket packages that are pricier per the star and the Spurs' 9 players last night totaled salary of $18.4 million (LeBron James makes $17.5 million), but did you watch the game? San Antonio led until Ray Allen's 3-pointer with 22 seconds remaining. It was dramatic. It was, yep, entertaining. We'd love to guarantee fans 100-percent participation of all the stars, but last Christmas Eve against the Eagles the Cowboys played Stephen McGee at quarterback in advance of a more important game the following week and Rangers fans with tickets to the game after Texas clinched the West division got an eyeful of only reserves.
*If you love to hate Tony Romo, you're not going to like this. With his next touchdown pass Sunday against the Eagles, No. 9 will become the franchise's all-time leader. And he'll throw his 166th scoring pass in much less games than any other quarterback. Romo will start his 89th game (he's 52-36) Sunday night, fewer than Danny White (166), Troy Aikman (165), Roger Staubach (131), Don Meredith (104) or even Craig Morton (97). Romo will have more TD passes than Aikman in 71 fewer games and 1,700 less attempts. Furthermore, he has the highest yards-per-attempt (7.9) and lowest interception percentage per 100 throws (2.9) of any Cowboys quarterback. In about 3 seasons, Romo will pass Aikman for franchise records in completions (924 more), attempts (1,667) and yards (8,751). He's on pace to be the best statistical quarterback in Cowboys' history. Says Romo, "I'm not a stats guy. Anybody that knows me knows it's about winning."
*Sure enough, I'm still eating Thanksgiving leftovers. You?
*When Baylor plays Oklahoma State Saturday in Waco it'll have the highest Over/Under point total in the history of college football: 87. You'd be a fool not to take the under.
*The respected Brookings Institute has determined that 3 areas of the country have "fully recovered" from the 2008 recession: Knoxville, Pittsburgh and, yep, Dallas-Fort Worth. According to its report, the Metroplex is back to normal in employment rate, standard of living and housing markets. So … enjoy?!
*Hot
*Not
*Rumors about the demise of the Cowboys' TV popularity have been greatly exaggerated. Since the 2012-13 TV "season" started in September, 4 of the top 11 shows have been Cowboys games. In fact, Cowboys-Redskins on Thanksgiving drew 28.7 million viewers on Fox, making it the No. 1 program of the TV season.
*So Mavs owner Mark Cuban somehow has a problem with the NBA selling Power Balance rubber bracelets because they're a "scam." Cuban should know first-hand about scamming his clientele, given that he boasted in the wake of losing out on Deron Williams how his team would be better off. Really? Cuban tried to sell to us Mavs fans that Darren Collison would be just as good as Deron Williams. The Nets are 10-4. The Mavs are 7-9 and are so desperate for a point guard that they've signed 38-year-old Derek Fisher. Scam much?
*Disraeli Arnold should be fired. The Hurst police officer who violently and needlessly kneed a 17-year-old in the back of the head and then screamed at him "Blink wrong so I can fuck you up!" isn't fit to be in a position of authority or power. I want people with guns – and charged with serving and protecting – to have more control under pressure.
*RAGE broadcasted from Diamond Doctor on Preston Road Thursday and owner David Blank let us fondle a pink diamond ring with a price tag of … $209,000.
*This is how weird America is: You won't play next week's Powerball lotto because the jackpot will be only $40 million. And somehow that's not enough to move us to action. For $579 million? Yeah, that'll get us off the couch. But $40 million? Nope, not worth our time.
*Happy that golf has outlawed belly putters. Always seemed like it was cheating to anchor your club. Now we can all go back to having the yips from 6 inches.
*By my math the Cowboys shouldn't have a Pro Bowl player this season. Not even Jason Witten. He's 2nd in the NFL with 82 catches, but his 7.8 yards-per-catch is the lowest among the league's top 30 receivers and he's got just 1 TD.
*Year of the Irish? Now Notre Dame's basketball team makes headlines with an early-season upset of Kentucky.
*Drew Brees had his NFL-record 54-game streak with a TD pass snapped last night in the Saints' loss to the Falcons. He had a TD dropped in the end zone by Lance Moore, and a score called back on the next play via offensive pass interference. And for what it's worth, he now has more interceptions than Romo.
*The full moon was so bright Wednesday night that I seriously thought the neighborhood had installed a new street light out front.
*If I hate an actor I don't go see his movies. If I hate a band I don't pay for a ticket to their concert. If I hate Italian food I don't eat at Spaghetti Warehouse. Likewise, if I despise someone on Twitter I don't follow them. But some of you do, and I don't get it. This week I received a Tweet from a follower that read "Richie Twit, nobody cares about you!" If the guy doesn't care, why doesn't he just unfollow me? It's as simple as the click of a button.
*This weekend? Today RAGE is at Sherlock's in Arlington. Since we get to sleep in Sunday, Saturday night will be an old–school, late-night date night with Sybil. Sunday it's Cowboys-Eagles, starting with the Official Pre-Game Show from Cowboys Stadium's West Plaza at 4:30. Don't be a stranger.
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