Tales of Terror: Michael Irvin's Neck, Emmitt Smith's Numbness and Cowboys Snowman on Fire

Cowboys on verge of franchise history, Mavs' Luka vs. Wilt, Rangers' New Year's Resolution and the Grinch that stole my Christmas, all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

WHITT'S END: 1.6.23

Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …

*Admit it, you thought we were watching a football player die on live TV. Thankfully, Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin – after thoughts, prayers and more than $7 million donated to his charity foundation – appears on his way to surviving cardiac arrest in which he had to be resuscitated on the field last Monday night.

The scary scene got me thinking: Has a DFW player ever been in that dire situation?

Indeed. And a couple of other horrifying and traumatic incidents also come to mind:

*Dallas Stars – Eerily similar local scare to Hamlin’s occurred March 10, 2014 at American Airlines Center, when Rich Peverley collapsed on the team bench, flatlined for two minutes and almost died. Peverley, who six months earlier had undergone surgery for an irregular heartbeat, skated off after a first-period shift and immediately slumped into teammate Jamie Benn’s lap. 

Suffering cardiac arrest, his lifeless body was carried into the nearby tunnel by medical personnel who resuscitated him with CPR and a defibrillator. The game was postponed and Peverley, who underwent an additional surgery on his heart a week later, never played another game. 

So shaken by the scene was Stars forward Alex Chiasson that he was admitted to the hospital in shock.

*Dallas Cowboys – At the 1977 NFC Championship Game at Texas Stadium, a fan wearing a snowman costume caught on fire when it came in contact with a hot chocolate vendor’s Sterno flame. The fan, Daniel Yoder, suffered second-degree burns on his neck and legs and was taken out of the stadium on a stretcher to the hospital. … 

In 1996 on Monday Night Football, Emmitt Smith jumped over a pile of Chicago Bears and landed with numbness and tingling in his left arm and leg. He was carried from the field on a stretcher, but walked out of the hospital the next morning. … 

Michael Irvin’s final catch was his scariest, as after taking a seemingly routine hit in Philadelphia in 1999 he laid on the field motionless for 20 minutes. With owner Jerry Jones at his side, medical personnel cut Irvin’s facemask off his helmet and immobilized his neck before an ambulance took him to Philly’s Thomas Jefferson University Spine Trauma Center. 

The diagnosis of a swollen spinal column ended his career.

*Dallas Mavericks – Coach Rick Carlisle fainted on the court during a training camp practice in 2010 and was taken to the hospital. He was released after five hours and diagnosed with severe exhaustion.

*Texas Rangers – In 1978, pitcher Roger Moret went into a catatonic trance in the clubhouse before a game, standing on one foot and holding a shower shoe in his hand. He remained like a statue for more than an hour before doctors administered five sedative injections and ultimately diagnosed him with chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia. … 

In 2011, fireman and fan Shannon Stone attempted to snag a ball for his son during batting practice but lost his balance and fell over the left-field railing 20 feet to his death … 

In 2012, veteran play-by-play voice Dave Barnett went incoherent during a game, saying live on air that “ … a lead-off single by James Hedrick. The go-ahead run is at fifth on what Adams is insisting on calling a botched robbery. What actually happened was his henchman took a piece literally out of ... ” Barnett seemed to then snap out of it, and finished the game without a hiccup. He left the team for medical evaluation and never returned, as the Rangers didn’t renew his contract. 

The scary incident, of which Barnett says he still has no memory of, was blamed on a severe migraine headache.

*I acknowledge it’s skewed by NFL schedules that play 17 games now and as few as 14 back in the day, but when – not if, when – the Cowboys beat the Washington Commanders Sunday they will tie the franchise record for regular-season wins with a record of 13-4. Only previous teams to get to 13: 1992, 2007 and 2016. The ’92 squad won a Super Bowl; the other two didn’t even win a playoff game.

*The Cowboys’ late-season luck is all fine and good, but it’s not exactly preparing them for what’s to come on Wild Card weekend. They’ll face backup quarterbacks Gardner Minshew (Eagles), Josh Dobbs (Titans) and Sam Howell (Commanders) before – most likely – getting reacquainted with a guy named Tom Brady (Buccaneers).

*Mavs’ seven-game winning streak ended with a resounding thud in a 29-point home loss on national TV Thursday night. They fell behind the Boston Celtics 7-0 and were never really competitive. Yes they were without top defenders Maxi Kleber, Josh Green and Dorian Finney-Smith and, yes, the Celtics own the NBA’s best record. But still … disappointing.

*Stuff we’ve rarely heard from Major League Baseball pitchers the last five years: 1. I want to play in Arlington; 2. I think the Rangers can win. Now. Says new starter Nathan Eovaldi, “We can compete, and we can win.” Now that's a New Year's resolution!

*The Grinch That Stole (My) Christmas? The United States Postal Service, thank you very much.

Mailed only three Christmas cards this year, and all three – headed from my address in Plano to the exotic locales of Allen, Dallas and Fort Worth – are still unaccounted for. Correct addresses. Forever stamps. Return address labels. Nada. Not delivered. Not returned. Not anything. Went to the post office Thursday and spoke to a manager who immediately called my mailman on his cell phone and put him on speaker. 

“Yes sir,” he said, “I processed everything. Nothing left behind.” 

So … they literally got “lost in the mail.” I was left with a shrug. No plan of action. No real hope they’ll be found. A little frustrating. Not that getting a Christmas card from me isn’t reason to rejoice, but imagine if I had mailed something of real value?

*It's as if Gary Patterson got divorced from his wife of 20 years, and now has to watch her canoodle with Brad Pitt. 

For almost a quarter-century, Patterson was TCU football. Built the program from a punchline to prominence, with 10 seasons of 11+ wins, six Top-10 rankings and a Big 12 title in 2014. Remains the school’s winningest coach with 181 victories. There’s even a statue of him on campus. He was forced out late in 2021, ultimately replaced by Sonny Dykes. Now the Horned Frogs – with players mostly recruited by Patterson – will play Georgia for the National Championship Monday night. 

The last time TCU won the title, Davey O’Brien was the quarterback and gas was 10 cents per gallon – 1938. 

“You put 24 years of your life into a place, you wouldn’t want something like that to fail,” said Patterson, who this season served as a special assistant on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas. “If you’re sitting in my shoes, yes, it is probably bittersweet. But at the end of the day, it’s good to see them get where they need to.”

*Hot.

*Not.

*Next DFW sports statue? My money’s on … Jerry Jones. He’s 80. He’s deserving. And the man likely making the decision of who gets eternally honored at AT&T Stadium will be his son, Stephen.

*Give me the old Kevin McCarthy over this new Kevin McCarthy. The old one from Dallas is in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, and was the long-time public address announcer for Mavs games at Reunion Arena. The new version that resides in Washington, D.C. is a laughable 0 of 11 in attempting to win a vote to become Speaker of the House.

*While you marvel at Luka Doncic’s spectacular skill, for me it’s his subtle strength. The Celtics’ Al Horford is a 6-foot-9, 245-pound bull who often flexes and fancies himself as “old-man strength.” At 6-7, 230, Luka backed him down – and literally under the rim – twice in the first half of Thursday's loss to Boston to create easy layups.

*Go play golf and you expect some errant shots, but players on Dallas’ Keeton Park Golf Course were shocked this week when they were shot at. A man chased by police wrecked his car on the course, stole a golf cart and then fired gunshots at golfers before attempting to hide in a drainage ditch. Dallas police used a robot to throw a smoke bomb into the drain to chase out the man, who was arrested. 

Does the robot get credit for an official hole-in-one?

*Read a story this week about Luka’s Western Conference Player of the Month award that detailed his “staggering” December averages of 35 points, eight rebounds and nine assists per game. I got your “staggering” right here: In 1961, Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds … for the entire season. That, my friend, is staggering.

*Dad update: As it did in 2020, the chemotherapy fighting his cancer is working. He’s understandably ornery, but improving. All vital levels trending in the right direction. No timetable yet, but we’re still realistically planning on the being back on the golf course by the time golf weather arrives.

*Before we throw too many bouquets Dykes’ way for making all the right moves in “leading” TCU to the title game, let’s not forget he was the coach who decided last August that the team’s best quarterback was not Heisman Trophy finalist Max Duggan, but rather Chandler Morris. Morris was injured in the second half of the Frogs’ season opener. In stepped Duggan and … history. Dykes’ master plan got a valuable re-route from Lady Luck.

*Sorry, NFL announcers, but no, teams cannot possibly “control their own destiny.” Destiny, you see, is something pre-designed and pre-determined. It’s an outcome you can’t alter, regardless of your actions. 

Try “control their own destination.” Now that’s doable, simply by winning. Or losing.

*For all the wrong reasons, Bills-Bengals became the most-watched MNF game in ESPN history. The audience grew to 23.9 million when the game turned into a news event, eclipsing the network’s previous record of 21.8 million set by Packers-Vikings in 2009.

*This week was the 40th anniversary of Tony Dorsett’s 99-yard run against the Vikings on MNF. Seems like just yesterday Don Meredith exclaimed – during the run – “99 yards … and a half!” Given Dorsett’s speed, amazing that Tony Pollard has more 30+-yard touchdowns in 2022 than he ever did in a single season.

*2001: NASCAR fans hold up three fingers in salute of Dale Earnhardt, iconic driver of the No. 3 car who was killed during the Daytona 500. 

2023: NFL players – and fans, come Sunday – hold up three fingers in salute of Hamlin, who wore No. 3 at Pitt and now with the Bills.

*You know Texas wanted to keep basketball coach Chris Beard. You also know its investigation into charges of domestic violence against him – despite his fiancée withdrawing her story – found some gruesome stuff for the Longhorns to fire him.

*In case you were curious, for Cowboys games played at AT&T Stadium there are 30 medical professionals on hand including a neurological trauma expert and an airway management specialist. 

In Cincinnati, Hamlin was rushed from the stadium to a nearby (four miles) Level 1 trauma center, the likes of which Arlington doesn’t have. There are five in Dallas, two in Fort Worth and one in Plano. If a player sustains an injury comparable to Hamlin’s, he will be taken to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas’ Deep Ellum, 21 miles away.

*News of Hamlin’s “remarkable” progress is being met with joy by all, and received by some – according to my Twitter feed – as a confirmation of “the power of prayer” and “Prayer Warriors scoring a touchdown.” 

Maybe. 

But tell that to the Texas widow of the only NFL player to die on the field. 

On Oct. 24, 1971, Chuck Hughes, 28, a wide receiver for the Lions, caught a 32-yard pass and was tackled. Several plays later, he fell facedown to the ground, clutching his chest. He was taken the hospital, where he died. 

Weaker prayer warriors then? Naw. Just stronger science now.

*With 185 yards passing Sunday, Dak Prescott will be tied for the third-fastest NFL quarterback to reach 25,000. It will happen in his 97th game, behind only Matthew Stafford (90) and Dan Marino (92) and tied with Jared Goff, Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning (all 97).

*Recession. Inflation. The price of gas. Yadda, yadda and more yadda. When America really needs to find money to help a “neighbor” in need, we shell out $45 billion in aid to Ukraine. And when Americans really need to find money to help a fallen “brother”, we donate $7.7 million to Hamlin’s Chasing M’s foundation. Double bravo!!

*This Weekend? Friday let’s help a friend attempting to launch a new business. Saturday let’s visit Dad in the hospital. Sunday let’s watch the Cowboys do something they’ve never done: finish a regular season with a record of 13-4. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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