The Daily Six Shooter January 27, 2012
By Javi Perez at January 27, 2012 | 1:49 pm | Print
Photo courtesy Phil Sears/US PresswireFollow Javi on Twitter: @PlaymakerJavi
1. The Pro Bowl is starting to resemble Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in that it feels like just about everyone who was halfway decent this year is going. Players used to use the excuse of being injured or just plain not going to open up roster spots, but now that members of both Super Bowl teams can’t participate since the game is now the weekend BEFORE the championship, there are even more players that can play in the featured game in Hawaii.
And yet somehow a guy like Brian Cushing still isn’t playing in this game?
To me it’s the most baffling snub. Cushing was the leader of a defense that ranked among the best in the NFL all season. He only had four sacks and two interceptions and ranked 16th in the NFL in total tackles, but he was a force that had to be accounted for every time an offense made a game plan.
He’ll be the most glaring absence when the AFC is on defense this Sunday. Although the Houston Texans will have two defense representatives at this game: Antonio Smith and Johnathan Joseph. Smith finished the season with 6.5 sacks while Joseph was arguably the best addition that Houston made in the offseason as he became the team’s best shutdown corner, grabbing four interceptions and batting down 15 more attempts.
Of course, Arian Foster will also see action and he’ll likely be in peak form considering he didn’t play the full season and had over 280 yards combined in his two playoff games. He’ll likely get some help from his center Chris Myers at some point, who was a late addition to the roster.
As for the Dallas Cowboys, they’ll have two players at the Pro Bowl: Jay Ratliff and DeMarcus Ware. It used to be that the team’s popularity would have more players on the roster than they deserved, but it looks like their record combined with their disappointing performances late in the season year after year have resulted in decreased numbers among NFL fans, even their own fans.
While Dallas finished the season 8-8, they at least showed some promise in certain aspects on both offense and defense. If they can make some improvements and stay relatively healthy, they should have far more than two members playing in the Pro Bowl next season.
2. Dirk Nowitzki wil sit out tonight’s game against the Utah Jazz as he’s still working hard on getting back into shape and healing that sore right knee.
Dallas is 2-1 without him and a win over Utah tonight would make them feel pretty good as he’s targeted his return for Sunday’s home game against the San Antonio Spurs. It’ll be a big game for the Mavericks as, right now, the Spurs have the best record in the division and Dallas trails them by one game.
The two teams played once already this season and the Spurs dominated that game, even without Manu Ginobili. But a lot has changed about the dynamics for both teams, so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in Dallas on Sunday.
Photo courtesy Manny Millan/
Sports Illustrated
3. Speaking of Dallas, not many people know that the San Antonio Spurs franchise originated in Dallas back in the ABA. The team back then was actually known as the Dallas Chapparals and so when the NBA honors the old ABA franchises the next couple of months, San Antonio will wear Chaps jerseys even though the Spurs existed as an ABA franchise in San Antonio.
The NBA is trying to honor the franchise, but it clearly has no feel for how Spurs fans feel about anything that comes out of Dallas. I doubt that I’ll ever see any Chaps gear from Spurs fans… at any time, let alone on the nights that San Antonio is playing in those games.
If you’re going to buy Spurs gear from the NBA days, you’re way more likely to buy something with the silver and black and with the words “San Antonio” or “Spurs” on it. Spurs fans don’t have any connection to the Dallas Chaparral days, and considering how intense the rivalry between the Mavericks and Spurs has gotten over the years, the fact that the Spurs originated in Dallas is merely an interesting bit of trivia and not something that Spurs fans acknowledge with pride.
It’s going to just be weird when the Spurs wear their Chaps jerseys. Nothing more.
4. When you think of the Winter X Games, you don’t really think of athletes from the state of Texas. When does it ever snow enough or even get cold enough to get used to the kinds of conditions. Remember last year’s Super Bowl? It was snowing and freezing in the metroplex. It nearly shut down the city and the Dallas and Fort Worth areas would have been one big ghost town if there hadn’t been a huge, week-long event going on that weekend.
Ironically, two extreme sports athletes hail from the metroplex: brothers Colten and Caleb Moore. The two are from Krum, Texas which is up north right next to Denton. And everyone’s talking about Caleb because he had an epic crash in the snow mobile freestyle event last night at the Winter X Games.
Not only was he ok, he went on to win the gold medal in that event! He and his brother also spend a lot of time on ATV’s doing tricks out in the woods as well. Do yourself a favor and look them up on YouTube. They’re pretty amazing to watch.
5. I’m a huge Monty Python fan. I own every movie and every episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I own all the documentaries made about the group. I’m a big fan of all of their individual works as actors, writers and directors (Terry Gilliam is among my favorites). I’ve even seen Spamalot on Broadway.
Needless to say I’m really excited about the announcement that most of Monty Python is getting back together to make a movie tentatively titled “Absolutely Anything.”
Interestingly, Gilliam will not direct, he’ll perform as the voice of an alien along with John Cleese and Michael Palin. Terry Jones, who directed The Life of Brian, will be at the helm for this movie. The only Python not attached to the project yet is Eric Idle, who wrote the music, lyrics, and book for Spamalot which won the Tony for Best Musical.
It won’t be a Monty Python-esque film, it’ll be more of a science fiction comedy. That’s sort of reminiscent of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which starred John Neville and featured Eric Idle, with a small role for Robin Williams (who will also star in Absolutely Anything). Munchausen wasn’t really a science fiction movie, or even necessarily a comedy, it’s a mix of everything from the crazy mind of Gilliam as evidenced by his other great works like 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Whatever it turns out to be, you’ll definitely find me waiting in line for the midnight showing when it premieres… along with a bunch of other people carrying coconuts.
6. Finally, we’ll finish with yet another comeback. It won’t be for a movie nor for a television show. It’ll just be a Super Bowl commercial for a product that will be revealed to us when we finally see the commercial. My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw this YouTube clip. So I figured I’d share it with you.
I’m excited about the comeback. Are you? Anyone? Anyone?
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