In 1997, an insurance company called Rushmore sued Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in federal court, insisting that Jones owed close to $1 million in workers comp claims filed by former players — among them Harvey Martin, Tony Dorsett, Billy Joe DuPree, Randy White and Bob Breunig. The suit…
Doesn’t seem like that long ago we were just here: trying to work and watch a Rangers post-season game. Today’s extended dance remix of the 2011 major league season starts at 4:07 this afternoon at the Ballpark in Arlington, with Texas, for the first time ever, facing Rays rookie Matt…
It’s creepy to write your own obituary. Nonetheless, I’m dead. This truly is Whitt’s End, my final column at the Dallas Observer. While I’m actually alive and relatively well, budget cuts — you’ve heard of those? — have forced the Observer to eliminate its full-time sportswriting position, one of the…
Thanks to my 8-year-old son’s intense but not at all unpleasant love affair with baseball, I’ve spent way too many evenings in recent days glued to the MLB Network watching Tampa Bay and/or Boston slug it out to see which team lands the American League wild-card spot. Because if the…
I could have sworn I watched the game last night. I had it on, anyway. But nowhere did I see Tony Romo running around with bloody rib bone sticking out of his jersey, making impossible touchdown throws, suffering through some unknowable agony to lead his team, his city, his fellow…
Mike Modano, the highest-scoring American-born player in the history of the National Hockey League and the face of the Dallas Stars even after he signed to Detroit for a final season, stifled a sob as he bade farewell to those who shaped his legendary career, which included 12 70-point seasons,…
Yesterday, upon the occasion of Mike Modano’s retirement announcement, several Friends of Unfair Park asked if the Dallas Stars would sign him to a short-lived contract so the single-season Detroit Red Wing could exit the National Hockey League with the team that first signed him. When I asked Stars spokesman…
Mike Modano is on Facebook. And out of hockey. The legendary Dallas Star used social media to announce his retirement from the NHL yesterday, ending a 21-year career as one of the sport’s all-time greatest skaters and its most prolific American-born scorer. Feels like we’ve delivered these eulogies before — remember…
Let’s see: There have been the firing of the hitting coach, the TV play-by-play voice and even the co-owner. A loyal father and fan leaned over a railing in left field and fell to his death. Every time you turn around a player is taking paternity leave. Last week the…
In April 2010, Mike Modano told us he wasn’t sure if he was ready to retire. He sure felt like it, he said: “At this point, on this day, I can make the decision: I’m done.” But, of course, he wasn’t: After a tear-stained farewell to the American Airlines Center…
Call it the Pat 12. As in, no thanks to expansion, we’ll stand. As in, the Big 12 — all but buried by a lot of us dorks — remains alive, like the muddy, bony, cob-webbed hand reaching up from the grave to snatch onto life. Again. Because it couldn’t get…
[jump] Underwhelming. Kevin Ogletree — Undrafted free agent. 14 catches in 3 years. Jesse Holley — Reality-show winner. 3 catches in 2 years. Dwayne Harris — 6th-round draft pick. 0 catches in 2 games as a rookie. Laurent Robinson — Cut by Chargers in training camp. 89 catches (4 TDs) in…
10. Only thing funnier than Oakland trusting Rich Harden is Comedy Central’s Tosh.0. 9. Michael Young countdown to 3,000 hits is at 953 … 952 … 951. 25 3-hit games most ever by a Ranger in a single season and the guy most of us thought wouldn’t be a Ranger…
Tony Romo was gutsy last Sunday in San Francisco, but because the Cowboys lost he wasn’t heroic. Jason Garrett should be fired for his insane 3rd-and-2 play call in the final minute that led to the loss to the 49ers. Dan Bailey might be a former NFL kicker. Jesse Holley is just…
It’s not a matter of if, but merely when. The Big 12 is kaput. When the Board of Regents at OU and Texas yesterday empowered their respective school presidents (David Boren and Williams Powers) to explore new conference affiliations, it officially signaled the beginning of the end for the Irving-based…
Nothing like a good baseball pennant race. Too bad this year there ain’t one. No divisional “race” is closer than 5 games in the season’s last week and even the Wild Card is producing nothing more dramatic than a two-game edge. With another Angels’ loss Monday the Rangers inched closer…
Jerry Jones said he was “outstanding” despite last week’s loss to the Jets. Sunday afternoon in San Francisco the owner almost shed a tear in talking about the quarterback’s gutsy performance in a 27-24 overtime victory over the 49ers. It’s already been a controversial, mesmerizing, fluctuating season for Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo. And…
10. Like me, were you scared to death that Jesse Holley was going to fumble while holding the ball up in premature exclamation at the end of his 77-yard overtime catch? 9. Rob Ryan may be a defensive genius, but it doesn’t show when he has Anthony Spencer trying to cover tight…
Editor’s note: Observer.com contributor Justin Bitner got drunk and admitted to being a soccer fan, so we made him attend Wednesday’s FC Dallas match against Tauro FC of Panama, FCD’s fifth game of CONCACAF Champions League play. Yes, soccer still has ties. After a battle that sportscasters would definitely call…
A Friend of Unfair Park asks this morning if we’ve gotten our hands on the Dallas Stars bankruptcy docs, which were filed, as expected, in a Delaware court at the end of the day yesterday. Why, as a matter of fact: On the other side you’ll find a Tom Wolfe…
What you see here, courtesy his Twitter account, is Jonah Hill throwing out the first pitch at yesterday’s Chicago White Sox game at US Cellular Field. When we spoke a little while ago at his Uptown hotel, he insisted: The stands were empty because it was a day game, and…
Got this letter the other day, from “The Desk of Leon Lett”: Even though I have three Super Bowl rings, made two Pro Bowl appearances and recorded 22 sacks during my 10-year NFL career, I’m only remembered for two mistakes. Including one monumental mistake I committed on an icy Thanksgiving…
