Cowboys Country

Tough Love: Cowboys Correct in Managing Dak Prescott & La'el Collins?

The Mavs own Texas, McCarthy shows guts and a nauseating Rangers' memory, all in this week's DFW sports notebook ...

Richie Whitt

 WHITT’S END: 10.29.21

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

*Mike McCarthy handles his players much better than the clock. I’ve been critical of the Dallas Cowboys’ coach for this and that, but his strategy with offensive lineman La’el Collins is spot-on. 

A player shouldn’t lose his starting job because of injury (sorry, Tony Romo circa 2016), but absolutely should because of discipline. I’m sure McCarthy received input from owner Jerry Jones, but the decision to stick with Terence Steele at right tackle and not to automatically roll out the red carpet for Collins’ return is brilliant. 

Collins is talented, but at this point he has to earn the luxury of being trusted. 

In 2020 he arrived at training camp with a pre-existing – surprise! – hip injury that forced him to miss the entire season. This year he was suspended five games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Put an umbrella over his last two seasons and Collins’ actions could be labeled “conduct detrimental to the team.” He’s played in only one of Dallas’ last 22 games. For now, fittingly, he’s a backup forced to switch positions. 

Come January, Collins will likely be back as one of the Cowboys’ five best linemen. But in the name of accountability, McCarthy is making the right call.

*There was a time not that long ago that the Dallas Mavericks couldn’t find a way to beat their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. But these days? Thursday night they played without injured star Kristaps Porzingis, fell behind 25-5 and made only four of 13 free throws (30 percent, lowest in franchise history) only to win by five and improve to 3-1. 

Dallas is already 2-0 against their Texas foes this season, with no reason to believe they won't own the state again in 2022.

*This week was the 10th anniversary of one of my saddest and most surreal sports moments: Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. Covering the series as a host on the Texas Rangers’ flagship radio station, I sat high in the right-field media seats of chilly Busch Stadium on Oct. 27, 2011. The Rangers, who led the series 3-2, got homers from Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz to take a 7-4 lead into the bottom of the 8th. Derek Holland allowed a solo homer, but Texas still led 7-5 lead into the bottom of the 9th. 

Making about a 10-minute walk, I waited with a gaggle of media outside the Cardinals’ clubhouse. It was there that I watched the game on a tiny TV as MLB officials rolled carts directly past us carrying giant rolls of plastic, bottles of champagne, goggles and the World Series trophy. 

I typed out this Tweet, which I still have saved in my drafts: DFW baseball fans, after 50 long years your Texas Rangers are FINALY champions! 

I literally watched with my finger on the trigger. Closer Neftali Feliz had two on, two out and two strikes on David Freese before his normally catchable fly ball to right field turned into a game-tying triple. Headed to extra innings, I made the trek back to my seat. After Josh Hamilton’s two-run homer reinstated Texas’ two-run lead into the bottom of the 10th, it was another walk back to the media foreplay section. Perpetually poised, this time it was pitcher Scott Feldman who couldn’t slam door, allowing a two-strike, game-tying single to Lance Berkman. 

You know what happened in the 11th, and the following night in Game 7. On that fateful night of Game 6, the Rangers threw nine pitches while only one out from the championship – three of those with two strikes on the potential final batter. 

Safe to say a decade later I’m not over it. You shouldn’t be either. Worse, look how far the Rangers are from getting back to the World Series. It might have been a once-in-our-lifetime chance. Instead, it was one of the longest nights of my 35-year sports media career.

*Was reminded during Thursday’s Cat 2 hurricane in DFW that of all the elements, wind is by far my least favorite. It just screws up, well, everything. Sailing and kite-flying included. Seriously, when’s the last time you headed out the door and said “Boy, I hope the wind blows 40 mph today.” Answer: Never.

*If primo athletes heed the warnings of the NAACP and avoid playing in Texas, ours may soon indeed be a Lone Star State.

*I wonder if – considering they play in the pathetic NFC East during a regular season stretched to 17 games – the Cowboys should borrow some “load management” from the NBA when it comes to Dak Prescott. Sit him out Sunday in Minnesota to make sure his balky right calf fully heals for bigger games later in the season. The Cowboys can beat the Vikings with Cooper Rush. The Cowboys can’t beat anybody in the playoffs without Dak Prescott.

But after the way they handled the quarterback’s shoulder injury last Summer, they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Prescott’s health.

Indeed, this goes down as another positive mark on McCarthy’s ledger. Dak wants to play … but the coach is deeply involved in the tough decision to order Dak to sit.

Again, McCarthy urging caution here? Another right call.

*Jason Kidd’s Mavs have one-upped naming captains by installing a “Council.” Which, apparently, is a highly influential trio of elders Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. 

It sounds genius, until you learn that the “Council” urged Kidd to insert the overrated/underwhelming Dwight Powell into the starting lineup. Perhaps a reminder that the inmates should not run the asylum.

*Mike Hargrove. Pat Putnam. Adolis Garcia. Those are the three Rangers to win The Sporting News’ AL Rookie of the Year. Two takeaways: 1. The Sporting News is still a thing?; 2. Baseball has way too many awards (the official, recognized AL Rookie of the Year will be awarded in November by the Baseball Writers Association of America).

*Dallas-based Nieman-Marcus unveiled its 2021 Christmas Catalog this week and I admit that it caters to exactly zero people I hang out with. Snow skiing with Olympic champion Lindsay Vonn in Wyoming for $235? A 30-carat diamond ring for $6 million? Seriously, who curates their Christmas list from this book?

*Hot.

*Not.

*Toldja before the season that the Cowboys had one of the NFL’s easiest schedules. Believe me yet?

*Internet + Corporate overlords + “Fake news” = Governments unchecked. Almost shed a tear this week at this story detailing the ramifications of a society void of local journalism. Without watchdog reporters keeping them in check, American communities are seeing a rise in city budgets, a decrease in voter turnout/civic engagement and the pollution of political polarization and disinformation. Newspapers were once the trusted, singular source of news in a town. Now? People are retreating to their own tribes to not get the news, but merely confirm their desired narratives. The demise of the free press is dangerous.

*Not even primo matchups and an Emmy-winning studio show can help the NBA compete on Thursday nights with the NFL. Basketball is shelving its Thursday night marquee offerings until the NFL relinquishes its ratings stranglehold come January. Ouch.

*Jerry Jones says he is “very satisfied” with the league’s investigation into the Washington Football Team front-office scandal featuring owner Dan Snyder. And I say he is the “very last” person you should ask for a comment on that situation. 

What’s he gonna say, “Naw, y’all should dig deeper”? Riiiiiight.

*No NFL team favored in a game by seven points or more has lost outright this season. The big boys are laying the big wood.

*Boston has Larry and Tom. Chicago has Michael and Walter. Wouldn’t it be quirky – and cool – if two of Dallas’ most iconic sports names were Dirk … and Dak?

*In a continuing (albeit admittedly ultimately futile) attempt to stiff-arm Father Time, last weekend I sojourned to Granbury for the Spartan Dallas event. Essentially, I completed 30 obstacles – jumping walls, traversing ponds, lugging sandbags, leaping fire – in between running 13.1 miles in a cow pasture. The physical? Painful. Three days later I was still feeling it. The psychological? Priceless. Life’s little annoyances immediately diluted.

*NFL MVP approximately 40 percent through the season: Dak vs. Kyler.

*Speaking of Dak, he’s scary with his leg in a walking boot but not in … whatever this Halloween costume is supposed to be. (Tamer and lion?)

*I have absolutely no clue what the movie Dune is about. Trying to conjure interest but, sure enough, coming up dry.

*DFW, which hosted games at the Cotton Bowl in 1994, is one of 17 cities beginning the initial process to be a host city of soccer games in the 2026 World Cup.

*Former Mavs assistant Stephen Silas returned to AAC this week as coach of the Houston Rockets and noted that Dallas sports the same starting lineup in 2021 than during his time on its bench three seasons ago. Continuity makes sense for defending champions, but for a team that hasn’t won a single playoff series in a decade?

*From the Dept. of It’s Easy To Spend Other People’s Money: The World Health Organization estimates that it would take $2 billion to eliminate our planet’s hunger problem. Solutions: 1. Run those sad-piano TV ads featuring children with distended bellies and pleas for $17 a month; 2. Ask Elon Mask to fork over just two percent of his net worth. Hmm, adequately feed every mouth on the planet or shoot randos into space for five minutes? Seems simple enough.

*This Weekend? Friday let’s go with old friends to a concert at Dallas’ iconic Granada Theater. Saturday let’s play tennis early and go to a Halloween party late. Sunday let’s watch Cowboys-Vikings. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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Richie Whitt
RICHIE WHITT

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