THE MANSION

Hope you like the new title to my weekly thoughts. Thought it fit well with The Mansion. Now here are The Jewels (another new name).

1. It is amazing that after 1 week people go from doomsayers to the season is saved. But that is what happened with the Tony Romo incident last night. Romo showed he is not going to get sacked 5-7 times a game. I had to ask myself would Drew Bledsoe had been given the start, would the Cowboys had won the game way in similar fashion? The answer is no. Do you really think Bledsoe could have broken away from Julius Peppers in that scramble? Julius Peppers!

2. Romo gives defenses more of a headache because now they have to worry about his mobility. With Bledsoe, it never came up. Teams just blitzed as though as if it were dogpile on the QB. Now they have to worry that he will break free from pass rush and use his mobility to pick up first downs or to put the coverage teams on guard as evidenced last night during the two-point conversions. Romo is not Michael Vick, but he will get free which will free up receivers or turn a sack of 6 yards to at best a 3 yard gain. Plus the Cowboys can use more quarterback draws, rollouts, bootlegs and have more options to use in short yardage and goal-line situations.

3. John Madden said something interesting last night about Romo reminded him of Joe Montana. It is to early to put Romo in Canton, but to have that kind of compliment from a guy who has seen his fair share of quarterbacks, is saying a lot. Romo does have a swagger that reminds me of Brett Favre, who so happens to be his idol.

4. I still do not feel that the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl because Romo is essentially a rookie QB, and he will make mistakes. Plus I do not feel the Cowboys are strong enough to dethrone the Bears who are playing well. Of course, we will have to see how the seaons progress. Tom Brady went to the Super Bowl in his first year.

5. What was Bill Parcells thinking kissing everybody in sight last night? It happens just when John Madden comments that Parcells is not as angry and mean as he once was.

6. I do not like to write off a teams' season this early such as the Steelers, Eagles and Redskins. A lot can happen between now and then as evidence by the Cowboys turn of fortunes in 1 week. Temas have gotten off to bad starts and good starts only to collapse. 1992 Chargers start 0-4 and win division 11-5 with a playoff victory. 1993 Oilers 1-4 and win division 12-4. 1993 Dolphins 9-2 and miss playoffs at 9-7. 1995 Lions 3-6 and make playoffs at 10-6. 1995 Rams 5-1 and miss playoffs at 8-8. 1994 49ers get ripped 40-8 at home by the Eagles, a media firestorm follows with the benching of Steve Young and the 49ers win the Super Bowl. 1993 Eagles start 4-0 and miss playoffs at 8-8. Hey there are still 9 weeks left in the year and to say that a team is over for the season means that the final games mean nothing. Hogwash.

7. If I were Steelers coach Bill Cowhler, I would bench Ben Roethlisberger for the season. You are probably thinking did I not just say that a team cannot be officialy be counted out. Yes, but at the moment, I feel Charlie Batch gives the Steelers a better chance to win right now than the banged up Roethlisberger. I do not know if he is all there because of the concussion or the ripples of the motorcycle accident are lingering, but there is something not right with Big Ben. You can't win a game to the lowly Raiders who your defense holds to 98 yards of offense? Batch has a better chance of getting a few more wins to salvage the season than Big Ben does. Let Ben take some time off to clear his head and think about stuff other than football.

8. The Jets got screwed at the end of the game. The play was clearly a shove and I don't know why that call cannot be reviewed because it is a judgement call. Aren't all referee rulings judgement calls? That is why they review the play, to contest the ref's judgement towards the teams' judegement. I do not know how I feel about the rule if a player catches a ball is about to land in bound and is shoved at the point to be rules a catch. I have no opinion right now about that but that is the rule and the refs goofed it up.

9. Replay is bad. The college replay has gotten to the same credibility as the NFLs as evidenced by the the Texas-Texas Tech game on TBS Saturday plus the plays reviewd during the Cowboys game.

10. The Bears are looking great but what is Bears coach Lovie Smith doing doing leaving Rex Grossman sol ate in the game when you are up 40+ point on the 49ers. Also, why are you going for it on fourth down when you are up by so many? I know you play to win the game, but think about your starters health. If Grossman gets hurt late in the game, man.

11. What's more, I do not understand why coaches leave their players in the game so late in the game when they have no means of catching up with that team. This was evident by Carolina in the final two minutes of the game and was brought up by John Madden. What if Keyshawn Johnson or Steve Smith get seriously hurt in the those minutes?

12. Speaking of Keyshawn, did you see the interview he did with Bob Costas on Football Night In America? Telling Chad Johnson to calm down and Steve Smith to do the same and for TO to straighten up. And when he had a shot to take against the Cowboys, he downplayed the game and situation. Remember when this guy was the TO of the league? Remember the book, Just give me the Damn Ball! Remember calling Jets receiver Wayne Chrbet a diamond when he compared himself to a star and his middle finger salutes to the New York media cameras when his first game against the Jets while he was with the Bucs? I never thought TO would be the voice of reason over all these new brash of receivers. Hall of Famer on and off field. I miss him playing with the Cowboys.

13. Colts and Broncos, game of the year. Nothing comes close. Not the Steelers-Falcons from a week ago or the Cowboys-Eagles.

14. Fact than may only interest me: Mario Williams sacked Vince Young in yesterdays Texans-Titans game.

15. BS title game looking to be a really ratings grabber. Who would not want to see the Big Ten winner play the Big East winner? My money is on Ohio State-West Virginia. yay

16. Colt McCoy is going to make himself a name in Longhorns history. To be down 21-0 and rally back to win 35-31? And he is only a freshman.

17. Expect another Longhorn comeback next week. The game is on TBS and everytime the Longhorns are on TBS, they always have to rally back, but they win.

18. World Series was one of the lowest rated ever. I watched mostly every pitch. I must have been the only one in my city with the channel on the Series. Extend my congrats to the Cardinals.

19. NBA season kicks off soon. I wonder if the new basketballs are goint to affect the games in any way. What came over David Stern becoming a dictator all of a sudden. Players cannot strip their warmups off on the court and now the ball is being messed with. Plus he is telling players not to carry guns to the arenas. I dno not know about the last one but the warmups part was a good part of the game. Who did not like to see that when a palyer came in.

20. Red Aerubach passed away this eekend at the age of 89 of an apparent heart attack. I am not old enough to have seen him coach but there is no one more influential in the game of basketball than Aerubach. Won 9 titles for a Celitics dynasty. Drafted the first black player, started an all black team in a racially tense city like Boston and hired the first black head coach in Bill Russell. Plus he ran the team as GM and coach with no assitant coaches. Can you imagine a team in the major sports league winning 9 titles in this day an age? The only thing I did not like about Aerubach was how he downplayed Phil Jacksons' accomplishments, saying frequently that Jackson went to where the talent was and did not develop talent. Granted taht was true about Jackson, a bad coach would not have led those teams to 9 titles like Jackson did with the Lakers and Bulls. I do not know if Red was jealous or felt people would forget his accomplishments because of what Jackson did. After seeing the outpour of emotion this weekend, Red they did not forget.

21. Still no NFL Network in my area.

22. I love to hear Mike & Mike in the morning but I have a beef to pick with them. Brad Sham, the Cowboys play-by-play man, wrote on the teams' website that the media was trying to create a controversy last week with a Parcells-Jerry Jones rift that was happening. ESPN including Mike & Mike were playing a soundbyte of Jerry Jones saying that he thought the best chacne of winning was with an experienced QB. They made it out to be like that Jones was saying to Parcells was making the wrong decision. But they failed to air the rest of that quote with Jones saying however the team needed to win games and that Romo's mobility was going to help with some of the problems of Bledsoe's mobility and that it would be a tough decision because they would give up on some experience as well. ESPN and other sports media outlets aired the same soundbyte.

Why do I pick on Mike & Mike? Because not too long ago, they criticized the media for doing the same thing. The two radio hosts criticized a reporter for asking White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen to comment on Tigers outfielder and former White Sox Magglio Ordonez saying he hoped Guillen feels the same way he felt the previous year when he watched the White Sox win the World Series. Guillen sounded off the way he always does but that was not the whole quote. The quote was Ordonez hoped Guillen would feel the same way he felt because it ate at him to watch the Sox win without and wondered if Guillen would feel the same way he felt the previous year now that the Tigers were in the playoffs and the White Sox were not.

Mike & Mike criticized the reporter because he phrased the question in a way to get Guillen to blow up like he usually does. Guillen himself said if he had heard the whole quote he would have responded differently. Well did they not cut and paste a quote from Jones to only show the parts they felt were more controversial? Had they read the whole quote in context the whole situation would have been downplayed. I know they have to take orders from their bosses and have got to hype it up because the Cowboys make good TV. But man what hypocrites.

23. Dikembe Mutombo has said that if a fan were to use a racial or ethnic slur against him, he will go into the stands to confront that fan. He says this after an Orlando Magic fan called Mutumbo a "monkey". Granted I am not African-American and I do not know what to be called that would feel like or what kind of emotions that would stir up but if he does go into the stands, he will be suspended and should be. And he has Ron Artest and the melee at the Palace to thank for that. The League cannot have a situation like that again and they need to stick it to the players for doing any kind of action toward the fans, no matter how foolish the behavior is.

24. The fan that used the slur was ejected from the game and is a season ticket holder for the Orlando Magic. He has written an apology saying he did not know "monkey" was a racial slur and will dontate $5,000 to Mutumbos' favorite charity and will not attend another game until Mutumbo thinks it is okay. I am fine with the apology and I feel it is more than what otehr fans have done, but you do not know that word is a racial slur? Plus, according to otherr fans at the game, they wanted you tossed from the game earlier, calling security earlier to complain about you?

25. NFL commish Roger Goodell has suspended Shaun Rodgers, Shawn Merrimen, Andre Haynesworth and fined an owner, Dan Rooney for criticizing officials. According to Peter King, Rooney was the man who broke the news Goodell was the new commishioner and cried and hugged each other when they were together. Shows that Goodell is not a man to be messed with.

26. I have given up on my fantasy football league. I am not good at it and do not have the patience or the desire to keep up with it. I have not won a game all year.

My time is up. Good night!