Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …
• Not saying the Cowboys are headed to 16-0 or to the Super Bowl or anywhere beyond 3-0, but I am saying through one month it’s lining up to be one of those magical seasons. As in, in their first four games they will face one quarterback that was benched (Eli Manning) and three others (Case Keenum, Josh Rosen and Teddy Bridgewater) that are extremely familiar with clipboards. No excuse for Cowboys not to go 4-0 against that heap of JV quarterbacks.
• Biggest story in Dallas is the trial of former police officer Amber Guyger, charged with murdering a man in his own apartment in 2018. Guyger claims she thought she was in her apartment. I’m calling bull-loney. Unless, that is, she was under the influence of … something. Cops are trained to observe, to notice details and to make snap decisions based on their educated, experienced awareness. So, you’re telling me that Guyger thought she was in her own apartment (which was on the floor below), even though there was a bright red mat in front of the door? On the 911 call, Guyger said, “I thought it was my apartment” 19 times. Nope. Not buying it. Guyger is white; the victim black. Something tells me the reaction to the verdict will be split along racial lines. Unfortunately.
• Rangers forever beat reporter T.R. Sullivan reminded us this week on our Press Box DFW Live! podcast that, for better or worse, we’re stuck with Rougned Odor. He has three years remaining on his contract, and his .202 average makes him wholly untradable. I’m certainly not a geeky stats guy, but I’m willing to wager that his hits-to-RBI ratio is near the best in baseball. Yeah, he’s struck out a gaudy 170 times, but his 102 hits have somehow driven in 84 runs.
• Keep seeing DFW media types gloating at how the Mavs’ Kristaps Porzingis has added muscle over the summer. “He’s swole!” their cutesy refrain goes. But, um, so what? Unless the Mavs are ditching the NBA for a CrossFit league, their success will remain more about skill than size. Right, Steph Curry?
• Toldja. When KAABOO Texas screamed into town in May – boasting about its unprecedented lineup of music, art and comedy – I predicted it would be a one-hit wonder. Tickets too expensive. And, in case you haven’t noticed, our attention spans are shrinking. Narrowcasting has superseded broadcasting. Sure enough, the festival isn’t coming back. KAABOO, we hardly knew ya. RIP (2019-2019).
• Couple weeks ago I took a lot of heat from College Station for predicting – okay, to be fair it was more like ridiculing – that Texas A&M’s move to the SEC would be further proven a mistake after a 2019 of existing as nothing more than fodder for the conference’s big boys. Auburn 28, A&M 20 wasn’t nearly as close as that score.
• Hot.
• Not.
• Good to see SMU back on the national college football map, and even better to see them doing it with the classic City of Dallas “D” on their helmets and “Dallas” emblazoned on their uniforms. Pretty strong start to the football season for DFW, which boasts the 3-0 Cowboys, the 4-0 Mustangs and the 3-0 Duncanville High School Panthers, ranked No. 1 in the state.
• Brad Pitt, 55, has a new girlfriend, who is 50. Not sure why this struck me as odd. But it did. It does. Shouldn’t she be more like 20?
• Drive around Dallas, Fort Worth or really any major city in the U.S. and be confronted by the sad sight of homelessness. Good people down on their bad luck. They sleep in boxes. They beg on corners. They … live in a country with an embarrassing surplus of disposable income. No? 24-year-old Iowa football fan Carson King showed up at ESPN’s College GameDay on Sept. 14 holding a sign that read: “Busch Light Supply Needs Replenished”. He provided his Venmo account, and – I kid you not – eventually received more than $1 million in donations including several corporations matching initial funds. But – you knew that was coming – just as King was preparing to give a large chunk of the money to a children’s hospital, the Des Moines Register newspaper dug into his social media history and found racially insensitive Tweets that have cause the likes of Busch to drop him and his cause. Feel-good story, kaput. But still, $1 million? For beer money?!
• Someday Dirk Nowitzki will have a statue at American Airlines Center. He’s already got a nearby street named after him. Goodbye Olive Street, hello Nowitzki Way.
• Eye of the beholder and whatnot. Sports Illustrated and ESPN released their lists of Top 100 NBA Players this week. Depending on who you choose to believe, Luka Doncic is either No. 16 (ESPN) or 30 (SI).
• If, like me, you are more amazed by simplicity than intricacy, check out the Netflix documentary, Free Solo. The plot: Dude scales a 7,500-rock face in Yosemite National Park … with zero assistance. Not from fellow climbers. Nor even a rope. Just up and climbs, using only his feet, hands and indomitable mind. Simply stunning. I wouldn’t make it 7 feet without getting freaked out and falling. Can’t fathom 75 feet, much less 7,500.
• I’ve said for years the two most overrated aspects of sports are 1) coaching; 2) home-field advantage. So far in 2019, Jim Harbaugh is helpless with a bare cupboard at Michigan and NFL road teams are 32-16 against the spread.
• Too bad Drew Brees is injured, because I could have rooted even harder against the Saints Sunday night. Why? Because Brees recently teamed up and shot videos for wack-job group known as Focus on the Family. Promoting “Bring Your Bible To School Day” is legally wrong, re: Separation of Church and State and all that. But whatever. I grew up in Texas. Used to it. The real hideousness of the group is its anti-gay message which vehemently opposes same-sex marriage, same-sex adoptions and, yep, conversion therapy aimed at praying away the gay. Brees is a great quarterback and a good guy, but his endorsement of this hate group is sickening.
• How do you know you’re old? When you’ve lived to see the Cowboys (from the Cotton Bowl to Texas Stadium to AT&T Stadium), Mavericks (from Reunion Arena to American Airlines Center) and Rangers (from Arlington Stadium to Globe Life Park to Globe Life Field) all switch addresses.
• Sunday night in ’Nawlins: Who Dak 24, Who Dat 17.
• This weekend? After Ireland and then the Tough Mudder, let’s chill this weekend, what’dya say? Maybe a little tennis Saturday, then on Sunday let’s bid Globe Life Park farewell before lounging into Cowboys-Saints. As always, don’t be a stranger.
