The Craziest Cowboys Blog You Might Ever Read

This past Sunday, the Cowboys played against the San Diego Chargers, getting beat besides trying to pull off what could have been one of the greatest comebacks in two seconds. How much a fan can dream, that comeback sadly didn’t happen. You see, if you don’t watch NFL football then you wouldn’t know of the December streak the Cowboys hold. The Cowboys always start the season good, but come December the Cowboys have never won a playoff game since 1996; quite a long time. So come December Cowboys fans are always a little apprehensive, no matter how big of a Cowboys fan you are. But you know what, no matter what the past years behold, this is the year that the Dallas Cowboys can break the record. I’m not saying they will and I’m not saying they will not, I’m saying they CAN.

I’m a big trash-talker when it comes to football. I always have comebacks to strike back. So when the Cowboys played the San Diego Chargers this Sunday with most of my friends being Charger fans I was able to convince them they could lose. It was amazing seeing my friends saying, “yeah I don’t know about this game” and have that doubtful look on their face. They thought their team would lose to a team who is known to do terrible in December! And you know what’s even greater than that? On SportsCenter the Cowboys were picked overall to win the game, yep they were saying that in December! That right there just might have been worth it, even if the Cowboys lost. But as I just said the Cowboys did lose so of course right when the game ended my phone went crazy with calls and text messages of what I think about the Chargers now--- my answer: I still think Phillip Rivers is arrogant and has anger issues. In the fourth quarter just two yards from the goal line the Cowboys got a false start penalty taking them back five yards. Phillip Rivers felt the need, like he does in most games, to tell one of the best tight ends who does charity work and is known for being one of the most liked players in the whole league to tell him he “sucks.” So yeah I think he’s arrogant. By the way, the Cowboys scored that touchdown.

So I needed to give a response to my Charger friends for the loss of my beloved team. I decided I wouldn’t address the Phillip Rivers comment, instead I choose to say the Cowboys lost on purpose, yep I actually said they lost on purpose. Attended as a joke I said the Cowboys lost on purpose because breaking the December record against a team like the Chargers, a team we rarely play, wasn’t good enough. Yep, I actually said this. I continued saying, a game like next week against the unbeatable team like the New Orleans Saints would make a truly awesome game. The Dallas Cowboys like to rise to the occasion when all hope is lost. In the Charger game, the Cowboys received the ball in the last minute down by 10. What the Cowboys did was move down the line like they were playing against a college team. Every pass was made perfectly and first downs were made right after each other. This is the second time this season the Cowboys has done this, even though they pretty much lost the Cowboys suddenly are able to score when they needed to. Which goes to show they Cowboys can indeed, if they wanted to, beat this record and win a playoff game. And if there ever was a season to do it, this season could be the year.

Now, don’t get this wrong in any way, but I’m not saying they will win or lose to the Saints... Its possible, anything is possible. The Saints have gone into overtime three times this season and won only by luck in some of those… one of them being against the Cowboys one-of-many rivals- -the Redskins. But what I am saying is a playoff win is in view. The Cowboys have a hard December, they always do. They do after all play in the hardest division, you have to give them credit for that. However the Cowboys CAN win, I believe they see that too. Although the Cowboys have lost the last two games (both December), they didn’t lose them like the Cowboys usually do. Usually the Cowboys do downright awful, but this year the team is playing good games. When playing against the Giants, another rival, the Cowboys actually technically played better. Quarterback Tony Romo and Tight End Jason Whitten played one of their best games racking records throughout the game, but as we know it wasn’t enough.

The Cowboys have dealt with embarrassment and harassment for too long over December and the no playoff win record. Last year the Cowboys lost a heartbreaking loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the most vicious of rivals just from that game. It hurt the players and brought some to tears. The last game of this season is yet again against the Eagles and any Cowboys fan knows the returning players will not forget that memory. This year the Cowboys CAN, they know they CAN, and they WILL break that record. Against all the odds, you can quote me.

Go get ‘em Cowboys!

Meeting America’s Team

In Texas, they do things big. On May 27, 2009, Jerry Jones, the owner of the NFL football team, the Dallas Cowboys, completed building the biggest football stadium in the world for his team and fans. The stadium isn’t extraordinary just on the fact of its vastness, but once there the sheer grandeur would make any Cowboys fan proud. Being a Cowboys fan my whole life, I made it my goal this year to attend a home field game in the ‘Big D’ rooting on ‘America’s team’ in the biggest stadium in the world and for my 21st birthday I got to do just that…But wait it gets better! Not only did I get to attend the game, I was able to meet and have dinner with some of the players just for being a fan the night before. Has your team done this for you? No, I am not biased at all.

On Monday through Saturday you could most likely find me at some coffee shop, beach, concert, or on some shopping adventure. On Sundays, however, you’ll most likely find me watching football rooting on my team, so when I arrived in Texas on October 31st knowing I would have dinner with 4 players of the Dallas Cowboys. Not just the third or second string but current first string defensive players: pass rusher DeMarcus Ware who lead the league in 2008 with 20 sacks, just three short of setting the NFL’s all-time single-season record, cornerback Orlando Sandrick, cornerback Mike Jenkins, and 3x Superbowl and 2x pro bowler defensive tackle legend Leon Lett. So you could say I was a tad excited. I was able to attend this special dinner by being a part of the Dallas Cowboys True Blue Fan Club which does these kinds of events quite often for their fans.

When I arrived at the diner within a couple minutes DeMarcus Ware, Orlando Sandrick, and Mike Jenkins arrived and opened the evening up with questions from the fans. The first was about Ware’s recent contract extension of six years through 2015 for $78 million with $40 million guaranteed, making him the highest paid defensive player in the NFL. His first reaction was telling the fans he would probably be a Dallas Cowboy his whole life. Jenkins and Sandrick said they looked up to a player like Ware for being patient, staying humble, and working hard every step, or rather sack, of the way.

After the questions I able to meet the players and have them sign autographs. I told Ware since it was my birthday if he could get a good sack and win for me tomorrow, which happened in the last play of the third quarter sacking Seattle Seahawk quarterback Matt Hasselbeck for a seven-yard loss which set up a field goal for the Cowboys in the fourth quarter.

After Ware, Jenkins, and Sandrick left after signing since they had the big game the next day, Leon Lett arrived within minutes afterwards and had dinner and talked to all the fans for a couple of hours. Lett told stories of how he played basketball, baseball, and other sports than just football and of his glory days playing with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin, who is currently on Dancing with the Stars.

The next day I woke early to attend the game, driving over to the stadium which you could see from the massive white roof poking out from the vibrant changing colored leafed trees of Texas. Walking up the stadium the striking features of white and silver stand out as a “huge spaceship” as DeMarcus Ware calls it. With massive glass doors on each side that were retracted for the game, ten levels with field level suites, 3,000 Sony LCD displays throughout the whole stadium, retractable roof that can open so “God can look on his team” as some fans say, 80,000 seats but is expandable to hold up to 111,000 through the use of standing areas, and of course the colossal 160 by 72 ft, 11,520-square-foot, 10,584,064 LEDs, consuming some 635,000 watts, biggest high-definition video screen in the world hung from 20 yard line to 20 yard line which cost just on itself more than the last Cowboys’ previous stadium. In times like these, the coolest part for the fans might be the Party Pass of only $25 dollars located at the standing areas with great views.

With this grand of a stadium, the roar of the fans throughout can make any player make a play with that much enthusiasm and energy. When explaining their loss, Seahawks wide receiver Deion Branch said in an interview “Playing in a stadium like this, their home-field advantage, that momentum swing is hard. Everybody starts making plays.” And indeed the Cowboys did with five touchdowns and a field goal winning the game at 38-17. As a Cowboys fan, I can now say I was part of it.

The Internet Revolution's Spread on Journalism

In the article, “The Reconstruction of American Journalism” by Leonard Downie, Jr. and Michael Schudson, Downie and Schudson report the dilemma at hand of the newspaper industry declining. As the world becomes more internet savvy, the decline paper markets are making it hard for newspapers across America. The paper that gets hit the hardest is the local paper which is quickly on its way of becoming something of the past. With the new age in technology of having information at your fingertips within a few clicks, Journalists have to find new tools in the trade to stay in business. However, with the use of the internet, journalists are taking advantage and changing the news world one step at a time in expanding audiences.


When finding out what is happening in the world, all you have to most likely do is click the internet to open up and pops up yahoo, msn, a.o.l, and etc. and you’ll know what it is going on in the world without a cent. This cuts walking outdoors in the early morning to the local coffee shop to get your coffee and newspaper without spilling the coffee on the first 3 pages in your way home; this being if you don’t pay for a subscription. The world has changed into a technology based world; therefore journalism has to change with it. Downie and Schudson wrote that “journalism changed, sometimes dramatically, as the nation changed” (4), so with this technology revolution the news will need to change like it has done before. It seems as though the problem that is faced however is the loss of income in news online. Online is mostly a free tool so writers wouldn’t be able to make any income. What some have tried to do is charge a fee for news websites, basically the transition of instead of receiving your publication on the front porch you’ll find it in your email. However, most don’t want to pay a fee when it can be accessed for free off other websites. Therefore, it is either the dismissal of newspapers with a new age in online news or newspapers have to think of something quick. The solution is to change, which newspapers are trying to do to succeed.

Most Americans think of why they would buy a newspaper everyday when they have the news with one click; however what most do not know is the source they are reading from came most likely from a newspaper report. Personally, and I do not know all the legal issues, but I think there might be a possibility of instead of charging the consumer, newspapers charge the websites to use their information to make a profit off their work. With this out of mind though, the news still has to change for the world we live in today. Although interviews cannot be replaced, the research at hand can be an extreme advantage in resourcing information that is fresh and precise. There are also the social networks of blogs and etc. being used in the journalism fields. All leading into a tech savvy age and change.

Although some might like the old newspaper, after all in America it does have its history. Nevertheless, like how the world changes, journalism has to change with it and it seems in the article provided and seen through what it is happening within a first glance the change seems to be happening and is indeed on its way of an impacting transformation.


Article found at:
http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1212611716674/page/1212611716651/JRNSimplePage2.htm

Last Year Before Career

As I came into my last year at CBU, I was not excited. For awhile I couldn’t explain why, usually I was always happy about going back to college seeing my friends everyday, even excited about classes, but for some reason this wasn’t one of those years. I took summer school for two months this year so at first I thought I didn’t have enough time off. My senior capstone was coming up, definitely only stress to look forward to in that direction, but that just wasn’t it. Usually my summers aren’t too great. I miss my friends too much, I hate the heat, and it seems like work, work, work! So I thought maybe this feeling is because this summer I actually enjoyed myself a lot. It definitely was a factor but not something to cause this bad feeling towards my college. Starting to think why I felt this way I started having doubts about whether I chose the right major, which one should I get my masters in (the few prospects of a double major), where should I apply for my masters,… my head went spinning like Alice in Wonderland’s wild tea cup ride at Disneyland. Somewhere after I regained my balance after the tea cup ride in my head I starting to see the opposed feeling towards my once loved college. My result: I was giving CBU the cold shoulder for forcing me to leave it.



Now yes I could get my masters at CBU, though the more I look at my options CBU is seeming more and more unlikely from going 90% to 40% chance of me being there next year. It’s not because CBU’s masters program of my choice is anything but satisfactory, trust me CBU’s masters programs are exceptionally something to be proud of if you are a professor, graduate student, or a lucky degree holder. Like I said, there’s still that 40% chance that if you go to CBU you might see me walking around lugging huge literature books around. However, I’m choosing to broaden my horizons, quite literarily. I’ve been looking at options of doing my masters degree overseas, more specifically the country of England. To explain why in short is because I am choosing to get masters in Literature, more specifically British literature and going to school in England experience wise would be great for my career in teaching about a country I would be living in for awhile. It is definitely something to be excited about, if I am given the chance. So I guess this begs the question why this bad feeling. I guess as I look around at my beloved college of three years now I realize how sad it will be to leave, not just my friends (practically now my family), the classes, the professors, or even the beautiful California landscape but what is known as the “CBU Bubble.” Emerging from the CBU bubble of being surrounded by Christians growing with each other in our faith is something I will truly miss. My whole life I went to public schools so when I first attended CBU it was something new to me, and I loved it. Hanging out with people who had the same goals as you, just wanting to hang out in the apartments instead of going to some ragger waking up in Las Vegas with a tiger in your hotel room (who knows that could happen to CBU students). I’ll even miss the chapels, I got to hear and meet some pretty cool speakers. I guess I had the the bad feeling of being scared of what it will be like once out of the “bubble,” but as I look at my past years at CBU I realize now how far I have come, how far I still have to go, and how I will be just fine outside of my much loved college. I came to CBU calling myself a Christian but really wasn’t one, now I can call myself a Christian and know I am devoted to the Lord and ready for the challenges I’ll face with Him ahead. I know that it will be hard surrounded by people who don’t all have the same believes, especially people who will be against me but I know now how much CBU has prepared me for this outside world and I know that as long as I have Him there is nothing to fear in the world, wherever I am.