Jul
30
7:11PM | July 30, 2009 | posted by Dave Crome | comments: 0
Welcome to the NFL...rookies
When
the 12 Cowboys draft picks arrived at Valley Ranch for their first
workout of rookie camp, they felt a little overwhelmed to be in the big
show, but they were only competing against fellow rookies.Then the veterans arrived for the OTA's and Mini Camp and their taste of the NFL got a little saltier. Now that they've put on the pads for the first two-a-day workout of training camp, Bradie James had to chuckle a bit about what those rooks are going through.
"Oh some of the rookies, they're learning." James said. "It's not a game that you play in shorts and jerseys. This was the first day with pads, the guys were getting a little roughed up, but I think the rookies look decent. You have to be consistent. You can't celebrate one play and have a down play; you can't take a play off, you have to be right every play."
Just a few of the lessons Bradie is trying to teach some of the youngsters who have five more
practices before the new week arrives. DeMarcus Ware still vividly remembers his rookie season in 2005 coming to the Cowboys from Troy State. He's now doing his best to mentor another player from a small school, Jason Williams from Western Illinois.
"The thing is right now he's listening, he's listening and he's learning as much as he can" Ware said about the first player the Cowboys drafted this year with the 69th overall pick. " He's an athlete just in general and he had a great first day today in half pads on. A lot of the guys who are rookies, they were learning and just moving forward."
You're looking for leaders on the Cowboys? Looks like you just found two of them in James and Ware.
Much more from Day 2 of Cowboys Training Camp coverage including Desmond Purnell's report on Tony Romo's first chat with the media...tonight on The 33 News at 9:00pm
7:54PM | July 30, 2009 | posted by Dave Crome | comments: 0
Wade maintains that "Touch Football" is best for his Cowboys
The first day of two-a-day workouts brought 8,686 fans to the Alamodome
today and though the Cowboys were in full pads for the first practice,
they only practiced in shoulder pads for the second workout. No matter
the what pads they wore the edict remained the same from Wade
Phillips....NO hitting!"My Dad ( Bum Phillips ) practiced with shorts and shoulder pads every practice. It was still live" Phillips said, maintaining that his men are still required to go full speed and get to the spot of the tackle.
"Well, we work tacking drills, we work at getting to the position to be able to hit somebody, and we work on wrapping up and doing those things in other drills." said Phillips. "Some of it is just you've got to run into somebody and wrap them up. You don't need them tackling people to the ground all of the time, but you need to get them into the position to be able to make the tackle, and that's what they are doing."
Even though the defensive players lick their chops to get able to do some hitting, they have to wait until the pre-season games and that seems just fine to DeMarcus Ware. "You gotta get that edge thing back; seeing all of the balls, and getting off. Learning the guy you are going against even though you just go against him in practice, they know you just as well so it's a little bit harder. So I'm just trying to get to where I need to be" Ware said.
Phillips does not believe that the lack of tackling will hurt this team resulting in missed tackles during the season.
"They do bang them, and they do bump them with their shoulders and so forth; they grab and knock the ball and pull the ball out, and you work on those things" Phillips said. "You don't necessarily have to take them to the ground to be able to get in position to be able to tackle. If a guys not a good tackler then we'll work extra on some of the specifics. A lot of is getting into the position to tackle and not the hitting itself."
More touch football continues at the Alamodome tomorrow with one practice at 2:15pm. The 33 Sports will be at every practice of Training Camp and make sure to check back with us often for the very latest on the Dallas Cowboys
Jul
31
6:55PM | July 31, 2009 | posted by Dave Crome | comments: 0
Rangers stand pat at the trade deadline
Based on their performance the past two weeks, the Rangers believe they
can win the American League West or the wildcard race so when Roy
Halladay informed his General Manager on Thursday night, he didn't want
to be traded to Texas, it didn't phase the Rangers much.
"It's not a secret, he was one of the more attractive names that was out there" said Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels. "His club talked about him publicly and we certainly went down that path. There's 30 clubs in baseball that would love to have him, whether they're in it as we are or if they are younger club, he fits in so many ways, but in the end of the day it wasn't meant to be" Daniels said. "When we looked at it we said, who do we really want to take out of the starting rotation and who do we really want to bump out of this bullpen, who here deserves to lose their job unless it was an obvious upgrade. We went after some of those obvious upgrades but when those didn't materialize , we didn't think it made a whole lot of sense to shuffle the deck and bring in guys that were materially better than our own."
The Rangers went into tonight's game against Seattle, three games behind the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West and just a game and a half behind Boston in the wildcard race, but Daniels didn't want to sacrifice too much of the future including pitchers Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz, especially when the club is playing it's best baseball of the year.
"In the end of the day we really like our club" Daniels said. "We believe in these guys and have the chance to be better in the next two months than the previous two."
Rangers Third Baseman Michael Young agreed. " We have a good team and we're getting better. Any player would welcome a way for our club to improve, by any way possible. If that meant adding the best pitcher in the game, we were all down with it, without a doubt but you know for whatever reason it didn't happen, we're going to move on and we have a good club now and were going to continue to get better over the next two months" Young said.
One of the key pieces to many of the trades was young Rangers starting pitcher Derek Holland who had a no hitter going into the fifth inning last night before settling for a ten strikeout, two hit victory last night. Holland's friends made sure to inform him that his name was being tossed out in these trade rumors but he said, it wasn't his motivation on the mound last night. "I don't let that stuff get to me" said Holland. My plan, is here to stay here. This is my home I want to be here in Texas." And it's obvious that the Rangers feel the same way about the rookie.
"He's one of numerous players we were asked about, for good reason" said Daniels. "We didn't want to trade him six months ago, six weeks ago or 24 hours ago and certainly don't want to do it now."
Holland is one of the many young players that has made the Rangers farm system ranked among the tops in baseball, which Daniels took much pride in on Friday. "It was very encouraging to hear the players that other teams had interest in. It was third party reinforcement that we do have quality on the way."
"It's not a secret, he was one of the more attractive names that was out there" said Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels. "His club talked about him publicly and we certainly went down that path. There's 30 clubs in baseball that would love to have him, whether they're in it as we are or if they are younger club, he fits in so many ways, but in the end of the day it wasn't meant to be" Daniels said. "When we looked at it we said, who do we really want to take out of the starting rotation and who do we really want to bump out of this bullpen, who here deserves to lose their job unless it was an obvious upgrade. We went after some of those obvious upgrades but when those didn't materialize , we didn't think it made a whole lot of sense to shuffle the deck and bring in guys that were materially better than our own."
The Rangers went into tonight's game against Seattle, three games behind the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West and just a game and a half behind Boston in the wildcard race, but Daniels didn't want to sacrifice too much of the future including pitchers Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz, especially when the club is playing it's best baseball of the year.
"In the end of the day we really like our club" Daniels said. "We believe in these guys and have the chance to be better in the next two months than the previous two."
Rangers Third Baseman Michael Young agreed. " We have a good team and we're getting better. Any player would welcome a way for our club to improve, by any way possible. If that meant adding the best pitcher in the game, we were all down with it, without a doubt but you know for whatever reason it didn't happen, we're going to move on and we have a good club now and were going to continue to get better over the next two months" Young said.
One of the key pieces to many of the trades was young Rangers starting pitcher Derek Holland who had a no hitter going into the fifth inning last night before settling for a ten strikeout, two hit victory last night. Holland's friends made sure to inform him that his name was being tossed out in these trade rumors but he said, it wasn't his motivation on the mound last night. "I don't let that stuff get to me" said Holland. My plan, is here to stay here. This is my home I want to be here in Texas." And it's obvious that the Rangers feel the same way about the rookie.
"He's one of numerous players we were asked about, for good reason" said Daniels. "We didn't want to trade him six months ago, six weeks ago or 24 hours ago and certainly don't want to do it now."
Holland is one of the many young players that has made the Rangers farm system ranked among the tops in baseball, which Daniels took much pride in on Friday. "It was very encouraging to hear the players that other teams had interest in. It was third party reinforcement that we do have quality on the way."
8:19PM | July 31, 2009 | posted by Dave Crome | comments: 0
Jerry Jones wants a party atmosphere at the new Cowboys Stadium
Jerry Jones spent the better part of 20 minutes at Cowboys Training
Camp trying to paint the picture of the kind of party atmosphere the
new Cowboys Stadium will be."Picture the experience of the Pavilion at the Nelson, or the infield at the Kentucky Derby, open completely to the event" said the Cowboys Owner/GM. "We want fans to enjoy a party atmosphere, collegiate, very loose and we want for them to enjoy the participation of the game."
To accomplish that vision, the Cowboys have created a Party Pass ticket for $29 which will allow the fans to stand on the tall ramps in the end zone of the stadium. "We sold 10-thousand of them for event with our soccer, Gold Cup" said Jones. "Those people came through with the Party Pass, migrated down to club areas, stood at some of our rail areas where you can hold your drinks. Several people deep watched the game, or stepped back and watched on the video board. It's a big part of what we want our stadium to be" Jones said.
Right now, the Party Pass will be available for the inaugural regular season game against the New York Giants on September 20th.
Jones said it's not just about having a ticket to the first ever game at the stadium, but to help create an atmosphere that fans haven't experienced around here before. "We want to make this stadium one of the real amazing venues of sports" Jones said. "To have that kind of electricity in the end zone, people at other parts of the stadium will gain energy. We hope to have a loud stadium when the Cowboys are at home."
