Off Wing Opinion

With A Little More Than 12 Minutes Left. . . In the fourth quarter, the Houston Texans hold a 17-10 lead over the Dallas Cowboys. In light of this development, we should ask a few questions:

First, just how bad are the Dallas Cowboys? If they can't beat an expansion team, just how many games can they expect to win?

Next, after seeing the way the Cowboys running game has collapsed under the assault of an expansion team, might Emmit Smith's assault on Walter Payton's career rushing record be derailed, or at least delayed?

Finally, can it be more obvious that Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones may be the most incompetent executive in pro football? Remember, it was only a few days ago that Jones said he expected his club to make the playoffs.

Leave your responses in the comments box below.

UPDATE: It's over, 19-10 Texans. Wonder what the conversation between Jones and Campo is going to be like after the game.

Remember The Name, Clinton Woods. . . Because somebody is going to have to remind him who he is after Roy Jones, Jr. beats the tar out of him on Saturday night.

As Summer Turns To Fall Once Again. . . I can't help but think back to the Summer of 1985 -- the time when I left Long Island for good to come to Washington, D.C. to start college. Sometimes it's easy to forget that it's been 17 years since that Summer, one that I'll always associate with my first uneasy steps into adulthood.

Needless to say, those days were something else. After being cooped up in an all boys private Catholic school far from my neighborhood for four years, I was ready to have some fun. And Washington, D.C. was a heck of a place to have as a playground for an 18-year old kid tasting freedom for the first time. I seem to recall a writer from the Weekly Standard saying this before, but I think it bears repeating: Washington, D.C. may just be the best college town in America.

With such fond memories of those times, perhaps it was inevitable that I'd trip over the Web log of one J. Shevrin, late of Lexington, Mass., and now a student at Washington, D.C.'s American University. Reading some of his log entries over the past few days, it's been hard not to smile, realizing just what sorts of experiences he's got ahead of him. He's a pretty good writer too, at least better than I was at that age. Give him a read.

Now That The NFL Regular Season Is Here. . . I'll only have to wait one week in between my fixes of professional football. But whenever I get antsy, I'll always turn to my PS2, and grab one of the football simulation games I have in my library.

Just a few days ago, Ben Domenech gave an exhaustive review to EA Sports Madden NFL 2003 -- generally considered to be the gold standard when it comes to video football. After reading his review, it's clear Ben has given the game a thorough once over, something that gives his review all the more credibility.

But for those of us easily overwhelmed by Madden's pethora of options (i.e. the over 30 crowd), I give my approval to NFL Gameday 2003 by 989 Sports. For the most part, Gameday is considered to be a poor cousin to Madden, as well as Sega's entry, NFL2K3. And for the most part, they have a real point. But after being bewildered while trying to master Madden 2002, I found Gameday's ease of use to be quite a relief.

So, if you're a video game grognard, Madden is for you. But for those looking for something a little more playable, and willing to sacrifice some features, think about Gameday.

In Tampa Bay Last Night. . . The Angels beat the Devil Rays 10-1, winning their seventh straight game. In the process, the Angels creeped to withing 3 games of the AL West leading Oakland A's, who had the night off.

Amazing as that 20 game winning streak is, it's almost as amazing that the Angels are still this close. All that needs to happen is for the Angels to gain a game over the weekend, and then they have the A's where they want them: at home, starting Monday in Anaheim, for a four game series.

It's great to see at least one old fashioned pennant race this year, isn't it? Well, not quite, as it looks probable that both teams will make the playoffs, regardless of the outcome of their duel for the AL West crown.

UPDATE: The AP's Greg Beacham previews the A's tough, in-division schedule for the rest of the season.

I Have To Hand It To. . . Yugoslavia's Vlade Divac. Last week he said he was coming to the World Basketball Championships to knock off the U.S., and last night he and his team did exactly that, ousting them 81-78.

The best the Americans, dubbed by ESPN as the "Nightmare Team," can do is a fifth place finish.

Safe to say, I'm as shocked as anyone else. Whether we overestimated U.S. talent, or underestimated the talent and resolve of the rest of the world, the result is the same -- and it doesn't matter if Shaq, Kobe, and Tracey McGrady stayed home.

But then again, I'm not really sure it matters a whole lot.

Back on Wednesday night, I compared the U.S. loss to Argentina to the scare Canada got in ice hockey from the Russians in the 1972 Summit Series. That series set the stage for a huge number of European players to earn spots on NHL rosters -- a development that changed the game for the better. And don't doubt it, the outcome here will be much the same. If anything, the U.S. loss shows that basketball has a really bright future, perhaps better than any other sport.

Last Night, Lennox Lewis. . . Surrendered his IBF title. Unfortunately, given the sorry state of the heavyweight division, nobody cares, and it doesn't really matter. Lewis is good champion, and it's a shame, as he would probably tell you himself, that there just isn't any boxer out there right now who could give him a decent bout.

Sometimes, As I Watch A Movie. . . I try to play the role of script doctor. You know, one of those Hollywood types who gets paid big bucks to re-write a screenplay that's got some potential, has attracted some major stars, but has some big, big problems. From what I understand, Carrie Fisher, she of Princess Leia fame, is one of the best in the business.

But the man I'm nominating for the next opening is the head man at the Bus Blog, Tony Pierce. Last weekend we both saw the new Wesley Snipes/Ving Rhames vehicle, Undisputed. We both thought it could be better, but Tony did a little more thinking as to how.

Let me add my voice to the chorus started by Matt Welch: somebody, anybody, with some serious money in the entertainment biz ought to hire Tony right now. I don't care if it's for photo essays or screenplays, the guy is a genius.

At A Hotel In Chicago Yesterday. . . Major League Baseball Owners met to ratify the labor agreement they came to, in order to avoid a baseball strike last week. The vote was 29-1 (or 28, if you don't count the Expos, who are owned by all the teams and controlled for voting purposes by Commissioner Bud Selig), with George Steinbrenner and the Yankees alone in the "no" column.

Reports have indicated that the new luxury tax is going to cost the Yankees $50 million next season alone. Now, if the Yankees were a publicly traded company, and it was announced that a change in the tax law was going to knock $50 million off of next year's revenue numbers, I think it's a safe bet the stock would go down in recognition of a drop in the company's value.

We already know that Steinbrenner has retained the services of Microsoft/Gore Campaign uber-lawyer, David Boies. And, as I have noted before, all Steinbrenner needs to do to throw baseball back into labor chaos is for him to hold a press conference announcing a suit against the rest of the Major League franchises.

What would the basis of such a suit be? I'll leave that to the lawyers, but something tells me a good one could find a rational basis for a suit inside the labor agreement rather easily. The question is this: does George Steinbrenner want to become the Al Davis of Major League Baseball. Something tells me he wouldn't mind at all.

UPDATE: Bob Klapisch has a great little piece on the future financial situation of the Yankees and Mets over at ESPN.com. And while the future might look difficult for the defending American League champs, it's downright bleak for their crosstown rivals in Queens.

Players Start Speaking Up On Augusta: If Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, thought that pressuring players would be a good strategy in getting Augusta National, she might want to think again:

John Daly said Thursday at the Canadian Open that he is staunchly opposed to clubs that don't allow women. Then he was asked if he would consider standing up for his beliefs by sitting out the next Masters.

"I would not consider that,'' Daly said with no hesitation. "If I got into Augusta, I would play. It's a major. It's a tournament we dream as little kids of winning. Women protesting it shouldn't take it out on us for playing in it.''

In a letter to the National Council of Women's Organizations, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the tour has no contract with Augusta National and no plans to change its relationship with the Masters.

"It is recognized around the world as a major championship ... and is a significant part of the structure of professional golf,'' Finchem said in the Aug. 20 letter to NCWO chairwoman Martha Burk. "We have concluded that we must continue to recognize the Masters Tournament as one of professional golf's major championships.''

Burk said she was disappointed by Finchem's response, saying the tour was making a mockery of its own policy of not holding a tournament at clubs that discriminate.

Of course, there is one figure who could successfully lead a boycott. The question is, would he?

Daly said any boycott would have to be led by Woods because, "He's got so much power in the game right now.''

"If Tiger was to say, 'I'm not going to play Augusta if they don't allow women,' then I'd side with Tiger,'' Daly said. "But it would have to be all the players. And that's not going to happen.''

Hal Sutton, a member of the PGA Tour policy board, agreed that a boycott is unlikely.

"I don't think it's anything anyone has against women,'' he said. "If we had some say-so, like we ran the tournament, she might have a point. But we don't have any say-so. Who does have any say-so at Augusta?''

One thing is clear, at least two PGA Tour members got hold of the talking points the Masters produced, and are quoting them:

Former Masters champion Mark O'Meara noted that Augusta had more than 1,000 rounds played by women last year.

"If it was exclusive to men only, and no women were allowed there, it might be more of an issue,'' O'Meara said. "Women can play golf there. I don't understand what their point is.''

O'Meara said he supports equal rights, but he bristled at the idea of the NCWO pressuring those who play in the Masters.

"Am I some bad person because I don't absolutely adhere to their side of the story?'' he said. "It has to be their way or no way. That's not the way you do business.''

Scott Verplank was among those players who suggested Burk and the NCWO focus on more important issues facing women.

"Why is she worried about a lady that's worth $2 billion being a member at a golf club?'' Verplank said. "If she's really worried about advancing women's rights, she should be in Afghanistan helping people that are treated like animals.''

Give the rest of it a read. No matter how you might feel about the issue, the situation at Augusta is going to become an incredible case study in the strategies and tactics of media relations for public pressure groups. And while this story is all over the news now, I'm wondering how Burk and the NCWO are going to keep it in the public eye as we get further and further into the Fall and Winter -- especially with other sports beginning to dominate America's limited attention span. Stay tuned.

POSTSCRIPT: Once again, where are the members of the LPGA Tour on this issue?

Though I Shared My Own Feelings. . . On the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics earlier this week, I encourage all of you to take a look at a "blog burst" taking place right now commemorating that horrible event.

Just Who Is Hootie Johnson? That was a question I was asking myself this morning about the Chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club. It seemed over the past few weeks, that Johnson was being turned into a mere caricature, just another Southern "good old boy," doing his best to keep uppity women out of Augusta.

But after doing a simple Google Search, it was pretty easy to see that just isn't the case. Here are just a few facts I picked out of a biography I found over at a Web site for the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame:

Former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives;
Former board member of the National Urban League;
Served as co-chairman of committee that developed plan to desegregate universities in South Carolina;
In 1975, received the Outstanding Citizen Award from B'nai B'rith.

A banker by trade who worked his way up the ladder in South Carolina, Johnson now serves as chairman of the executive committee at Bank of America, and is also a director of the company. He's also on the boards of Duke Power, Liberty Corporation and ALLTEL.

Not exactly bullet points on a resume from a typical, "good old boy." In fact, it's probably the case that Johnson took a lot of grief in life for his political beliefs at a time when being a liberal in the South was rather a lonely business. To get an idea of what it was like, here's a quote from South Carolina's own, Virginia Postrel. Though the quote below addresses why she thinks so many Southerners in journalism are so reflexively liberal, I think it also sheds a bit of light over the situation at Augusta, and how Johnson has decided to handle it:

They're aggressively liberal because their thinking was formed by the civil rights movement, when local conservatives were really, really bad. I am not being ironic when I say that. Unless you were a southern liberal when being "liberal" meant being in the very small minority that believed in ending segregation and treating black people as equals, it is hard to imagine how Manichean the divide was. . .

With all this extra background, Johnson's conflict with Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations looks a little different now, doesn't it? Say you're Johnson, and you get this letter from Burk basically equating the situation at Augusta with that at Shoal Creek Country Club -- a club that specifically discriminated against African-Americans.

Now, as a board member of the National Urban League, you've been working for civil rights for African-Americans for a couple of decades now. While Dr. Burk is nothing more than an ivory tower academic, you've been talking the talk and walking the walk on racial discrimination for your entire adult life. In fact, you're pretty sure you've stared discrimination in the face up close a whole lot more often than Dr. Burk -- something I'm sure he saw at it's ugliest when he helped desegregate South Carolina's colleges and universities.

By all accounts, Johnson has been working his membership to prepare them to accept women members that fit Augusta's membership criteria for some time now (as a board member at America's largest bank, Johnson is in a pretty good position to do that). Remember, this isn't a club that takes in just anybody -- something that Microsoft's Bill Gates found out to his chagrin when he tried to wangle himself a membership recently. Even Gates' friendship with current member and Bridge partner Warren Buffet wasn't enough to get it done.

And, as a final insult, Burk ignores a number of inconvenient facts about Augusta. Like the fact that women play there as guests regularly -- to the tune of over 1,000 rounds last year. That when women do play at Augusta, they aren't discriminated against in terms of tee times -- a very common practice elsewhere. Finally, when Augusta opens it's gates every year for the Masters, women are welcome along with everyone else.

Meanwhile, in Bethesda, Md., a mere 15 minutes from the NCWO HQ in Washington, D.C. is Burning Tree Country Club -- a club that not only refuses to admit women as members, but also refuses to let them even step on the grounds.

Why the heck isn't Burk knocking on their door?

Admittedly, Augusta doesn't have the greatest track record in terms of inclusiveness, and it's failure to admit Black members for so long will always be a mark against them. But when you look at Johnson's life, it's pretty safe to say he's been working to integrate social, cultural, and business institutions like Augusta all of his life. So, when he gets a letter from a Yankee carpetbagger like Burk, basically accusing him of acting like folks he's been doing battle with his whole life, can any one of us be surprised that he reacted the way he did?

POSTSCRIPT: You can also see a short interview with Johnson here. Although it's a canned interview that's part of a tribute to him, I think it tells us quite a bit about what he's really like. If anything, Johnson is soft spoken and unaffected. You can also tell that he hasn't been coached very well on how to act and dress while he's on camera, something that, ironically, actually lends an air of credibility to what he's saying. This guy is getting a bum rap he doesn't deserve, and I wonder how much Northeast media bias has to do with it.

Meanwhile, Over At Google. . . The fruitless search for photos of ESPN on-air personality, Suzy Kolber, continues.

Newsflash to all of Kolber's new fans: she ought to be on the sidelines tonight for ESPN's broadcast of the Giants and the 49ers. Grab a screenshot there.

There Are Some Places In L.A. . . You just shouldn't be driving a new Bentley. Just ask Jalen Rose of the Chicago Bulls:

A passenger in a car driven by Chicago Bulls guard Jalen Rose was shot in the face during a carjacking attempt early Tuesday.

Rose was not hurt. The passenger was hospitalized, but his injury was not life-threatening, police Officer Ed Funes said.

The pair, traveling in a new Bentley, were approached at about 3 a.m. in Brentwood by an armed man who demanded the car.

Rose sped away, but the suspect started firing, striking the 34-year-old passenger, Funes said.

Is It Something In The Ice Water? In USA Today, intrepid NHL reporter Kevin Allen uses his column to praise the management acumen of the free spending New York Rangers. Over at ESPN.com, Terry Frei

As far as this life-long New York Islanders fan is concerned, however, it will have to happen over my dead body. The Rangers, "America's Team?" No thank you, Mr. Frei.

It's The Morning After For USA Basketball. . . And the post mortems after the 87-80 loss last night to Argentina are beginning to arrive. USA Today has a helpful poll asking if this U.S. team is a failure. Last I looked, the Yes vote was winning with about 70 percent.

The Washington Post's Steve Wyche has a workmanlike breakdown of, well, the U.S. breakdown (no word yet on whether or not Wyche is enjoying all Indianapolis night life has to offer). My favorite stat from last night's game: barely more than 6,000 fans were in the stands at Conseco Field House last night to watch the game -- and this in the cradle of American basketball. Although I'm sure as time goes by, the number of people who watched this game in Argentina is sure to skyrocket.

Over at the New York Times, Harvey Araton is taking a more philosophical point of view:

IT was inevitable from the day the celebrity pros from the United States embarked on a global strategy and hung the first racks of jerseys abroad that said, "Buy me."

Beginning with Barcelona, the basketball wannabes of the admiring world collected their autographs and took their pictures. They later lost their fear and established a plan. The Lithunians just missed in Sydney. The Brazilians got to overtime last summer at the Goodwill Games. Nobody remains infallible forever. In the case of the N.B.A., over a startlingly short decade in the international arena, supremacy gave way to superiority and then to survival and finally, last night, submission. . .

No Shaq, no Kobe, no McGrady, but please, no excuses, for more shocking than the score