Just a few days ago in the midst of another frozen afternoon in Austin that was forcing me to rethink ever telling someone from another state that we mostly have mild winters around these parts, I was in the middle of a conversation with a source of mine within the Texas football program when he said something that hasn't exited my brain since.
"We're still a year away," he said matter-of-factly. "We're going to need one more."
It was the kind of remark that stopped me in my tracks, not so much because it's almost certainly true, but as the owner of this site, I couldn't help but think of the poor souls in our community that have been waiting five-plus seasons for Texas football to return to national relevance.
Barring a complete turnaround in a number of key personnel areas, the wait will likely become six-plus seasons and there's a part of me that can't help but wonder what the burnt orange world is going to look like if the fan base suffers through anything less than nine wins this season.
Are you guys ready? Do you understand that the team is still missing some important parts and faces a schedule that sends it to South Bend, Fort Worth and Waco? Then there's a trip to Morgantown. And then there's that little game in Dallas that's played every single season in early October.
That's not to say there were will not be areas of improvement this season because Charlie Strong is too good of a coach not to get some on-field momentum going in year two, but if folks are being honest with themselves, they have to know that this team isn't quite going to be ready for prime-time.
Consider the following
a. The overwhelming favorite to start at quarterback in South Bend on September 5 is junior Tyrone Swoopes, a truth that might cause mental anguish for some, but a truth with which many are going to have to come to grips. Barring an unforeseen transfer in June, the Longhorns are going to have Swoopes and Jerrod Heard as options at the most important position on the field. The success at this position for the Longhorns in 2015 is going to come down to whether Tyrone Swoopes has another gear vs. top competition than we've all seen thus far or if Heard can start to display the talents and want-to of a high-level college player. If you take a poll behind the scenes, you'll find that there's more hope for the former over the latter.
b. The Texas offensive line as of this very moment still has to rank as one of the worst in the Big 12. Expect two new starters at offensive tackle this season, but that might be by default more than anything else. When I asked my insider friend if he thought the coaches had a single player that they could take to the bank as a plus-Big 12 player, he responded, "Yes, I think so Sedrick Flowers."
c. Losing the likes of Malcom Brown, Cedric Reed, Jordan Hicks, Steve Edmond, Quandre Diggs and Mykelle Thompson on the defensive side of the ball cannot be underestimated, especially when there aren't clear high-end replacements in line ready to take over.
From a talent perspective, I don't think anyone can claim that the 2015 team is better than the 2014 team.
I'm not trying to scare any of you, but I am trying to wake up some of you that live in 10-win clouds. The renovation of the Texas football program is not going to be a quick fix, not with the infrastructure leaning on unsteady parts. If anything, Charlie Strong might need to completely give way to the young pieces in his program that he's recruited in the last two years, winning games this year be damned.
More than anything, I'm warning many of you not to fall for the orange Kool-aid this off-season. With six months until the season-opener, everyone should keep open eyes for the ol' banana in the tailpipe trick. If Strong and Co. can get this team on a roll, starting with the game in South Bend, then enjoy the ride for all its worth.
However, do not allow yourself to be in a position of great unexpected disappointment if a conference championship run isn't in the makings.
Be prepared.
It won't be popular, but the reality of Strong's situation is that they might very well be one more season away.
No. 2 - The 1-9 conundrum
When Colt McCoy was a recruit and even a young redshirting quarterback for the Longhorns, one of the biggest reasons for the doubts that I had for him centered on the fact that I had never seen a player with his exact resume succeed at the high Division I level.
Until McCoy came along, no small-town West Texas quarterback from a Class 2A high school had ever emerged as a high-end, championship-level college quarterback. Of course, that's not to say it couldn't happen, it just hadn't happened in the time I had been covering recruiting going back to the mid-90s. Hell, there weren't many situations that had even come close to matching the set of circumstances that McCoy ended up leaving in his wake on the way to back-to-back Heisman contending seasons and an eventual career in the NFL.
My reasons for doubt and concern might have been justified by the metrics of such a success story taking place, but sometimes you just can't discount a man's want-to when that man's want-to is unbendable.
Enter Tyrone Swoopes.
Although his demographics are slightly different than McCoy, his story as a player is similar in that in order for him to emerge as a high-level college quarterback, he's going to need to overcome a set of circumstances that suggest his ability to ascend into the stratosphere ranges between slim and none. It's not just that Swoopes is a product of a small East Texas town and played for a Class 2A program during his high school career. It's that Swoopes is a product of a small East Texas town and played for a Class 2A program that inexplicably went 1-9 during his senior season.
In talking with sources in and around the program this week, the big questions with Swoopes don't have anything to do with physical talent and everything to do with the mental makeup of a player who has lost so much on the field as a player that he can't muster together the intangibles needed to put it behind him.
How does a guy that has endured so much losing begin to trust himself in a way that allows for him to retire the losing-gene in his current football DNA forever?
If Swoopes can pull it off, it might register as one of the greatest evolutions in the history of the sport because I'm not sure I can point to another similar success story in the 20 years I've been in the business. In fact, I know I can't.
To Swoopes credit, he's been a lightening rod in the off-season program, leading all of the players through drills and looking the part in shorts and a t-shirt of a player that wants to be the leader of men who accomplish great things on the football field. If you knew nothing of the team at all and watched it in workouts, it would seem clear to you that Swoopes was the leader of his position and trying to establish leadership powers.
Of course, leading drills at 6 a.m. workouts is one thing and leading a team to a victory in South Bend to start the season is another, with the latter being the thing that concerns those in the program about Swoopes.
Are you born a winner on the athletic fields or can you learn it?
If Swoopes can prove stronger than almost anyone gives him credit for, it might just ignite the greatest unexpected success story in school history, but there's no getting around the fact that he's wading through some rocky, uncharted territory.
No. 3 - Poll Question of the Day...
If it turns out that Charlie Strong and his program are still one year away and the Longhorns finish with less than eight or nine wins, what is your mental outlook on the 2016 season?
No. 4 - Scattershooting on the Longhorns
The off-season reports on Malik Jefferson continue to sound incredibly promising, so much so that I'm really going to be shocked if he doesn't start this season. He's just different than the others cats available at linebacker.
I wonder if we're all underestimating Johnathon Gray's upside in 2015, especially if the line improves on any level. As the season went along last year, I thought Gray's showed flashes of pre-injury form and he seemed to trust his legs more. Given the injury, it seems more than fair to think there's a better Gray out there than the one we watched a year ago.
A little birdie told me this week that the following defensive ends have been on the pit for various reasons in the last week: Quincy Vasser, Caleb Bluiett, Bryce Cotrell and Derick Roberson. BTW, there's a lot of positive buzz going into spring workouts about Roberson's emerging upside.
If you're looking for a wide receiver name to tuck away as a possible 2015 breakdown, scribble the name of Dorian Leonard. The second-year star from Longview created buzz last season in practice when given the chance and he's looked very good in off-season workouts, according to those with knowledge of such things.
No. 5 - Rick Barnes' Zombie Longhorns ...
Oh, everyone might have already run Rick Barnes out of town after another season gone upside down, but say this about his group of parts from the Island of Misfit Toys
They won't quit.
It's been a season of what-ifs for the Texas men's basketball team, but the one thing that's been true of it all season, but especially true as the heat surrounding its coach reaches Hell's Kitchen levels, is that this team will leave its guts out on the basketball court night-in and night-out.
More times than not this season against its best competition, all of the spilled guts has occurred in the wake of bad basketball, but by-Gawd effort and want-to won't be an issue, even if a lack of know-how sometimes is.
Ironically, just as the season's twilight appeared over the horizon, the Longhorns have discovered just enough know-how to go along with the want-to that it pulled out a guts-on-the-floor win over Baylor early in the week and then an impose-your-will-dominance in a victory over Kansas State on Saturday afternoon. Suddenly, the team is back on the cusp of earning an NCAA Tournament bid that seemed rather unlikely seven days ago.
Perhaps it changes nothing in the long run for Barnes or the program, but hope has not yet perished with this bunch, which means that in their minds, a season worth fighting for still exists.
Onto the Big 12 Tournament we go and the promise of good basketball following what might be the two best wins of the season doesn't automatically exist, but they'll have all the want-to needed.
Don't completely count them out just yet.
No. 6 - The Texas baseball team is going to be fine
You can worry away about Augie Garrido's bunch if you want, but outside of a blip on the radar that was a three-game set of uninspired baseball in the cold, I see a team that has otherwise put forth the brand of baseball that will thrive later in the year.
Baseball is a sport that lends itself to tough lessons and the Longhorns were brought back down to earth after a quick run of success that had Garrido comparing this team to his all-time great squads. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, we all should have known the team would have its feet flipped out from underneath it for a spell.
However, after dropping a couple of hard-fought games to Stanford in Palo Alto to begin the weekend, the Longhorns flexed some muscle in outscoring the Cardinal 15-5 in a pair of wins that earned the team a split in the series.
It'll be a long season and I'm sure more adversity will follow, but this team is going to be just fine when the games really start to matter next weekend against West Virginia.
No. 7 - The future of the 20125 Cowboys is in Jerry's hands ...
Free agency in the NFL officially begins on Tuesday afternoon and the spending is expected to be frisky, especially after the league announced that this year's salary cap will be lifted to the tune of $10,000,000 from last season.
Just don't expect the Cowboys to do anything that revs your engine once the action begins.
That would seem to almost certainly include re-signing Demarco Murray.
Part of this is by forced design and part of this has to do with the fact that the Cowboys likely can't go big in free agency without pushing a lot of current money into future seasons, which is exactly the type of salary cap jail that has plagued the team so many years previously.
With the resigning of Doug Free this weekend, the Cowboys have about $3 million available, although the number is forever fluid because of potential cuts and restructured deals. So, the Cowboys will have to shop at the NFL's Goodwill for 2015 parts, most of whom will likely be pieces from the current team that it can also resign (see Rolando McClain, Justin Durant, Bruce Carter, Nick Hayden, Dwayne Harris, George Selvie and maybe even Anthony Spencer).
What this means is that in order for this team to really seek improvement from last season to the next, it will almost certainly require a crackerjack rookie class from the Draft to do so.
It means NFL front-office Man of the Year Jerry Jones is going to have to be on his A-game and represent himself as the franchise's ultimate difference maker.
In Jerry (or Stephen), you must trust.
No. 8 - Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind
I watched this on loop more than 7,000 times this weekend.
According to the NCAA, Jim Boeheim ran a program outside of the lines for a decade-plus and the man still has a job that makes him millions and an institution that will stand by him no matter what. Meanwhile, Dez Bryant lied about a meal and was cut off at the knees.
Stay gold, Torrey Smith.
Nothing will teach Ndamukong Suh to be less of a jackass on the field like giving him $114 million, with $60 million guaranteed. Watch out Tom Brady, your legs are in serious danger every time you play the Dolphins moving forward, you better believe that. Lesson learned if you hadn't already learned it? Money talks and everything else in the world walks.
If I'm Nick Foles, I'm renting in Philadelphia and not buying. It seems pretty obvious to my naked eye that the Eagles are getting ready to make a Marcus Mariota run.
... The news of Cliff Lee's elbow problems and the knowledge that Cole Hamels will eventually be out the door makes me wish baseball season was already over. Thanks for nothing, Reuben.
Speaking of elbow problems, the news on Yu Darvish probably has Rangers fans with me in wanting to protest the sport of baseball. Damn the injury gods!
I'm pretty sure that boxing wasn't saved this weekend with the return to prime-time TV, but Keith Thurman continues to evolve into one of the few fighters in the game I want to see every time they enter the ring. In absolutely dominating Robert Guerrero this weekend, Thurman sent a message to everyone in the sport that it's time to get him involved in some even more interesting fights. Trust this Thurman is just the kind of fighter that Floyd Mayweather will never get in the ring with.
Adrien Broner is such a tool.
Liverpool might be playing at a high level in the EPL, but it pains me to see them play grabass with teams like Blackburn in the FA Cup. PUT THE DAMN BALL IN THE BACK OF THE POTATO SACK, ALREADY!!! Geez, that was painful.
No. 9 - Image of the Weekend
Forget about any and all politics for just a moment if at all possible and just appreciate the symbolism coming out of Selma over the weekend.
50 years after one of the worst incidents in American history, you had the families of George W. Bush, and Barack Obama walking arm in arm with John Lewis and hundreds of others across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
America.
No. 10 - The List: Michael Jackson (Listen via Spotify)
Once upon a time not too long ago, I swear I put together a Michael Jackson list, but for the life of me I can't find the column and there's zero proof on Spotify that I've so much as thought about making a list.
Therefore, this week became Michael Jackson Week.
A few thoughts from the week and beyond
First, if you didn't know this about me, I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan when I was kid. From the moment the Thriller came out when I was six and I was glued in front of MTV, I l-o-v-e-d some Michael Jackson. While living in Waco at the time, I used to walk to the flea market every weekend in an effort to find a Michael Jackson poster that wasn't already pinned to my wall. I had the red jacket with the zippers, the glove everything.
b. I started to fall out of my MJ phase when I was 11 and Bad was released, but I have to say that in retrospect, it ranks as one of the best pop/R&B albums of all-time. If I could have wiped away the Bad video from my 11-year old memory bank, my MJ phase might have lasted into high school.
c. It's crazy to think about how big of an event the release of a Michael Jackson video used to be.
d. Anyone else ever sit around with their friends when they were young and argue about who would win in a fight between MJ and Prince?
e. Whenever I hear an MJ song, I'm constantly conflicted by what we know the final 15-20 years of his life brought to the table. Is there any other person in pop culture that we've given a bit of a moral pass to in the name of us still being able to enjoy his art? I guess what I'm saying is that if Jerry Sandusky had released Thriller instead of MJ, we probably wouldn't still be listening to the songs in the clubs? Or would we?
Ok, let's get on with the list.
(Note: Songs from the Jackson 5 years were not considered for the main list.)
Top 5 Jackson Five Songs: Rockin' Robin
Last five songs out: Ben
10. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
MJ's three-year album run of Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad stand up against any three-album run in the last 50 years. Go ahead, try and top it.
9. Thriller
If we're talking videos, this bad boy soars up the list, but the song itself isn't better than a number of songs on Thriller
8. Smooth Criminal
As far as his dancing skills are concerned, MJ invented a number of moves that are so iconic that they can be found horrendously performed on almost any dance floor anywhere in the world at any given moment.
7. Remember the Time
One of my personal favorites.
6. Beat It
The Eddie Van Halen solo alone gets this song on the list. This song was pure fire when it came out in 1982.
5. P.Y.T.
I don't care what anyone says, if I can only listen to two songs off of the Thriller album, this is one of the two.
4. Rock With You
The crowning moment from the forever underrated Off the Wall, an album some think is better than Thriller.
3. Man in the MIrror
Michael takes it to church and produced a song that makes everyone want to be a better person every time they hear the song.
2. Dirty Diana
Just listen to it. It's Michael with the most raging amount of swag that he's ever put on any track. All these years later and it still sizzles, grinds and gets dirty. One of the most underrated songs of all-time in my estimation.
1. Billie Jean
The greatest pop song ever recorded. It's really that simple.
Archives List
Blues/Jazz: Listen via Spotify )
Classical: Listen via Spotify)
Country: Listen via Spotify )
Electronic: Listen Via Spotify
Funk: Listen Via Spotify (Part I)
Metal: Listen Via Spotify
Pop: Listen via Spotify )
Punk: Listen via Spotify)
Random: My Number 1's on Spotify
Rap: Listen via Spotify),
R&B: Smokey Robinson (Listen via Spotify)
Reggae: Listen via Spotify)
Rock: Listen via Spotify )
"We're still a year away," he said matter-of-factly. "We're going to need one more."
It was the kind of remark that stopped me in my tracks, not so much because it's almost certainly true, but as the owner of this site, I couldn't help but think of the poor souls in our community that have been waiting five-plus seasons for Texas football to return to national relevance.
Barring a complete turnaround in a number of key personnel areas, the wait will likely become six-plus seasons and there's a part of me that can't help but wonder what the burnt orange world is going to look like if the fan base suffers through anything less than nine wins this season.
Are you guys ready? Do you understand that the team is still missing some important parts and faces a schedule that sends it to South Bend, Fort Worth and Waco? Then there's a trip to Morgantown. And then there's that little game in Dallas that's played every single season in early October.
That's not to say there were will not be areas of improvement this season because Charlie Strong is too good of a coach not to get some on-field momentum going in year two, but if folks are being honest with themselves, they have to know that this team isn't quite going to be ready for prime-time.
Consider the following
a. The overwhelming favorite to start at quarterback in South Bend on September 5 is junior Tyrone Swoopes, a truth that might cause mental anguish for some, but a truth with which many are going to have to come to grips. Barring an unforeseen transfer in June, the Longhorns are going to have Swoopes and Jerrod Heard as options at the most important position on the field. The success at this position for the Longhorns in 2015 is going to come down to whether Tyrone Swoopes has another gear vs. top competition than we've all seen thus far or if Heard can start to display the talents and want-to of a high-level college player. If you take a poll behind the scenes, you'll find that there's more hope for the former over the latter.
b. The Texas offensive line as of this very moment still has to rank as one of the worst in the Big 12. Expect two new starters at offensive tackle this season, but that might be by default more than anything else. When I asked my insider friend if he thought the coaches had a single player that they could take to the bank as a plus-Big 12 player, he responded, "Yes, I think so Sedrick Flowers."
c. Losing the likes of Malcom Brown, Cedric Reed, Jordan Hicks, Steve Edmond, Quandre Diggs and Mykelle Thompson on the defensive side of the ball cannot be underestimated, especially when there aren't clear high-end replacements in line ready to take over.
From a talent perspective, I don't think anyone can claim that the 2015 team is better than the 2014 team.
I'm not trying to scare any of you, but I am trying to wake up some of you that live in 10-win clouds. The renovation of the Texas football program is not going to be a quick fix, not with the infrastructure leaning on unsteady parts. If anything, Charlie Strong might need to completely give way to the young pieces in his program that he's recruited in the last two years, winning games this year be damned.
More than anything, I'm warning many of you not to fall for the orange Kool-aid this off-season. With six months until the season-opener, everyone should keep open eyes for the ol' banana in the tailpipe trick. If Strong and Co. can get this team on a roll, starting with the game in South Bend, then enjoy the ride for all its worth.
However, do not allow yourself to be in a position of great unexpected disappointment if a conference championship run isn't in the makings.
Be prepared.
It won't be popular, but the reality of Strong's situation is that they might very well be one more season away.
No. 2 - The 1-9 conundrum
When Colt McCoy was a recruit and even a young redshirting quarterback for the Longhorns, one of the biggest reasons for the doubts that I had for him centered on the fact that I had never seen a player with his exact resume succeed at the high Division I level.
Until McCoy came along, no small-town West Texas quarterback from a Class 2A high school had ever emerged as a high-end, championship-level college quarterback. Of course, that's not to say it couldn't happen, it just hadn't happened in the time I had been covering recruiting going back to the mid-90s. Hell, there weren't many situations that had even come close to matching the set of circumstances that McCoy ended up leaving in his wake on the way to back-to-back Heisman contending seasons and an eventual career in the NFL.
My reasons for doubt and concern might have been justified by the metrics of such a success story taking place, but sometimes you just can't discount a man's want-to when that man's want-to is unbendable.
Enter Tyrone Swoopes.
Although his demographics are slightly different than McCoy, his story as a player is similar in that in order for him to emerge as a high-level college quarterback, he's going to need to overcome a set of circumstances that suggest his ability to ascend into the stratosphere ranges between slim and none. It's not just that Swoopes is a product of a small East Texas town and played for a Class 2A program during his high school career. It's that Swoopes is a product of a small East Texas town and played for a Class 2A program that inexplicably went 1-9 during his senior season.
In talking with sources in and around the program this week, the big questions with Swoopes don't have anything to do with physical talent and everything to do with the mental makeup of a player who has lost so much on the field as a player that he can't muster together the intangibles needed to put it behind him.
How does a guy that has endured so much losing begin to trust himself in a way that allows for him to retire the losing-gene in his current football DNA forever?
If Swoopes can pull it off, it might register as one of the greatest evolutions in the history of the sport because I'm not sure I can point to another similar success story in the 20 years I've been in the business. In fact, I know I can't.
To Swoopes credit, he's been a lightening rod in the off-season program, leading all of the players through drills and looking the part in shorts and a t-shirt of a player that wants to be the leader of men who accomplish great things on the football field. If you knew nothing of the team at all and watched it in workouts, it would seem clear to you that Swoopes was the leader of his position and trying to establish leadership powers.
Of course, leading drills at 6 a.m. workouts is one thing and leading a team to a victory in South Bend to start the season is another, with the latter being the thing that concerns those in the program about Swoopes.
Are you born a winner on the athletic fields or can you learn it?
If Swoopes can prove stronger than almost anyone gives him credit for, it might just ignite the greatest unexpected success story in school history, but there's no getting around the fact that he's wading through some rocky, uncharted territory.
No. 3 - Poll Question of the Day...
If it turns out that Charlie Strong and his program are still one year away and the Longhorns finish with less than eight or nine wins, what is your mental outlook on the 2016 season?
No. 4 - Scattershooting on the Longhorns
The off-season reports on Malik Jefferson continue to sound incredibly promising, so much so that I'm really going to be shocked if he doesn't start this season. He's just different than the others cats available at linebacker.
I wonder if we're all underestimating Johnathon Gray's upside in 2015, especially if the line improves on any level. As the season went along last year, I thought Gray's showed flashes of pre-injury form and he seemed to trust his legs more. Given the injury, it seems more than fair to think there's a better Gray out there than the one we watched a year ago.
A little birdie told me this week that the following defensive ends have been on the pit for various reasons in the last week: Quincy Vasser, Caleb Bluiett, Bryce Cotrell and Derick Roberson. BTW, there's a lot of positive buzz going into spring workouts about Roberson's emerging upside.
If you're looking for a wide receiver name to tuck away as a possible 2015 breakdown, scribble the name of Dorian Leonard. The second-year star from Longview created buzz last season in practice when given the chance and he's looked very good in off-season workouts, according to those with knowledge of such things.
No. 5 - Rick Barnes' Zombie Longhorns ...
Oh, everyone might have already run Rick Barnes out of town after another season gone upside down, but say this about his group of parts from the Island of Misfit Toys
They won't quit.
It's been a season of what-ifs for the Texas men's basketball team, but the one thing that's been true of it all season, but especially true as the heat surrounding its coach reaches Hell's Kitchen levels, is that this team will leave its guts out on the basketball court night-in and night-out.
More times than not this season against its best competition, all of the spilled guts has occurred in the wake of bad basketball, but by-Gawd effort and want-to won't be an issue, even if a lack of know-how sometimes is.
Ironically, just as the season's twilight appeared over the horizon, the Longhorns have discovered just enough know-how to go along with the want-to that it pulled out a guts-on-the-floor win over Baylor early in the week and then an impose-your-will-dominance in a victory over Kansas State on Saturday afternoon. Suddenly, the team is back on the cusp of earning an NCAA Tournament bid that seemed rather unlikely seven days ago.
Perhaps it changes nothing in the long run for Barnes or the program, but hope has not yet perished with this bunch, which means that in their minds, a season worth fighting for still exists.
Onto the Big 12 Tournament we go and the promise of good basketball following what might be the two best wins of the season doesn't automatically exist, but they'll have all the want-to needed.
Don't completely count them out just yet.
No. 6 - The Texas baseball team is going to be fine
You can worry away about Augie Garrido's bunch if you want, but outside of a blip on the radar that was a three-game set of uninspired baseball in the cold, I see a team that has otherwise put forth the brand of baseball that will thrive later in the year.
Baseball is a sport that lends itself to tough lessons and the Longhorns were brought back down to earth after a quick run of success that had Garrido comparing this team to his all-time great squads. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, we all should have known the team would have its feet flipped out from underneath it for a spell.
However, after dropping a couple of hard-fought games to Stanford in Palo Alto to begin the weekend, the Longhorns flexed some muscle in outscoring the Cardinal 15-5 in a pair of wins that earned the team a split in the series.
It'll be a long season and I'm sure more adversity will follow, but this team is going to be just fine when the games really start to matter next weekend against West Virginia.
No. 7 - The future of the 20125 Cowboys is in Jerry's hands ...
Free agency in the NFL officially begins on Tuesday afternoon and the spending is expected to be frisky, especially after the league announced that this year's salary cap will be lifted to the tune of $10,000,000 from last season.
Just don't expect the Cowboys to do anything that revs your engine once the action begins.
That would seem to almost certainly include re-signing Demarco Murray.
Part of this is by forced design and part of this has to do with the fact that the Cowboys likely can't go big in free agency without pushing a lot of current money into future seasons, which is exactly the type of salary cap jail that has plagued the team so many years previously.
With the resigning of Doug Free this weekend, the Cowboys have about $3 million available, although the number is forever fluid because of potential cuts and restructured deals. So, the Cowboys will have to shop at the NFL's Goodwill for 2015 parts, most of whom will likely be pieces from the current team that it can also resign (see Rolando McClain, Justin Durant, Bruce Carter, Nick Hayden, Dwayne Harris, George Selvie and maybe even Anthony Spencer).
What this means is that in order for this team to really seek improvement from last season to the next, it will almost certainly require a crackerjack rookie class from the Draft to do so.
It means NFL front-office Man of the Year Jerry Jones is going to have to be on his A-game and represent himself as the franchise's ultimate difference maker.
In Jerry (or Stephen), you must trust.
No. 8 - Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind
I watched this on loop more than 7,000 times this weekend.
According to the NCAA, Jim Boeheim ran a program outside of the lines for a decade-plus and the man still has a job that makes him millions and an institution that will stand by him no matter what. Meanwhile, Dez Bryant lied about a meal and was cut off at the knees.
Stay gold, Torrey Smith.
Nothing will teach Ndamukong Suh to be less of a jackass on the field like giving him $114 million, with $60 million guaranteed. Watch out Tom Brady, your legs are in serious danger every time you play the Dolphins moving forward, you better believe that. Lesson learned if you hadn't already learned it? Money talks and everything else in the world walks.
If I'm Nick Foles, I'm renting in Philadelphia and not buying. It seems pretty obvious to my naked eye that the Eagles are getting ready to make a Marcus Mariota run.
... The news of Cliff Lee's elbow problems and the knowledge that Cole Hamels will eventually be out the door makes me wish baseball season was already over. Thanks for nothing, Reuben.
Speaking of elbow problems, the news on Yu Darvish probably has Rangers fans with me in wanting to protest the sport of baseball. Damn the injury gods!
I'm pretty sure that boxing wasn't saved this weekend with the return to prime-time TV, but Keith Thurman continues to evolve into one of the few fighters in the game I want to see every time they enter the ring. In absolutely dominating Robert Guerrero this weekend, Thurman sent a message to everyone in the sport that it's time to get him involved in some even more interesting fights. Trust this Thurman is just the kind of fighter that Floyd Mayweather will never get in the ring with.
Adrien Broner is such a tool.
Liverpool might be playing at a high level in the EPL, but it pains me to see them play grabass with teams like Blackburn in the FA Cup. PUT THE DAMN BALL IN THE BACK OF THE POTATO SACK, ALREADY!!! Geez, that was painful.
No. 9 - Image of the Weekend
Forget about any and all politics for just a moment if at all possible and just appreciate the symbolism coming out of Selma over the weekend.
50 years after one of the worst incidents in American history, you had the families of George W. Bush, and Barack Obama walking arm in arm with John Lewis and hundreds of others across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
America.
No. 10 - The List: Michael Jackson (Listen via Spotify)
Once upon a time not too long ago, I swear I put together a Michael Jackson list, but for the life of me I can't find the column and there's zero proof on Spotify that I've so much as thought about making a list.
Therefore, this week became Michael Jackson Week.
A few thoughts from the week and beyond
First, if you didn't know this about me, I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan when I was kid. From the moment the Thriller came out when I was six and I was glued in front of MTV, I l-o-v-e-d some Michael Jackson. While living in Waco at the time, I used to walk to the flea market every weekend in an effort to find a Michael Jackson poster that wasn't already pinned to my wall. I had the red jacket with the zippers, the glove everything.
b. I started to fall out of my MJ phase when I was 11 and Bad was released, but I have to say that in retrospect, it ranks as one of the best pop/R&B albums of all-time. If I could have wiped away the Bad video from my 11-year old memory bank, my MJ phase might have lasted into high school.
c. It's crazy to think about how big of an event the release of a Michael Jackson video used to be.
d. Anyone else ever sit around with their friends when they were young and argue about who would win in a fight between MJ and Prince?
e. Whenever I hear an MJ song, I'm constantly conflicted by what we know the final 15-20 years of his life brought to the table. Is there any other person in pop culture that we've given a bit of a moral pass to in the name of us still being able to enjoy his art? I guess what I'm saying is that if Jerry Sandusky had released Thriller instead of MJ, we probably wouldn't still be listening to the songs in the clubs? Or would we?
Ok, let's get on with the list.
(Note: Songs from the Jackson 5 years were not considered for the main list.)
Top 5 Jackson Five Songs: Rockin' Robin
Last five songs out: Ben
10. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
MJ's three-year album run of Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad stand up against any three-album run in the last 50 years. Go ahead, try and top it.
9. Thriller
If we're talking videos, this bad boy soars up the list, but the song itself isn't better than a number of songs on Thriller
8. Smooth Criminal
As far as his dancing skills are concerned, MJ invented a number of moves that are so iconic that they can be found horrendously performed on almost any dance floor anywhere in the world at any given moment.
7. Remember the Time
One of my personal favorites.
6. Beat It
The Eddie Van Halen solo alone gets this song on the list. This song was pure fire when it came out in 1982.
5. P.Y.T.
I don't care what anyone says, if I can only listen to two songs off of the Thriller album, this is one of the two.
4. Rock With You
The crowning moment from the forever underrated Off the Wall, an album some think is better than Thriller.
3. Man in the MIrror
Michael takes it to church and produced a song that makes everyone want to be a better person every time they hear the song.
2. Dirty Diana
Just listen to it. It's Michael with the most raging amount of swag that he's ever put on any track. All these years later and it still sizzles, grinds and gets dirty. One of the most underrated songs of all-time in my estimation.
1. Billie Jean
The greatest pop song ever recorded. It's really that simple.
Archives List
Blues/Jazz: Listen via Spotify )
Classical: Listen via Spotify)
Country: Listen via Spotify )
Electronic: Listen Via Spotify
Funk: Listen Via Spotify (Part I)
Metal: Listen Via Spotify
Pop: Listen via Spotify )
Punk: Listen via Spotify)
Random: My Number 1's on Spotify
Rap: Listen via Spotify),
R&B: Smokey Robinson (Listen via Spotify)
Reggae: Listen via Spotify)
Rock: Listen via Spotify )
