ESPN analyst Cris Carter has made his dislike for Terrell Owens quite clear all season. But while it’s one thing to say T.O. isn’t a team player, or that he’s a locker room cancer, it’s another thing altogether to suggest that, if you ran the Cowboys, you would take one bullet, load it in your gun and shoot Owens. Listen to Carter yesterday on Mike and Mike in the Morning:

One might think this was just a little slip of the tongue; he got a carried away and made an honest mistake. More likely, however, it was a premeditated line of attack, seeing as Carter said virtually the same exact thing later in the day on the Tirico and Van Pelt Show:

"If I got a gun I got one bullet in it, I shoot T.O. right now. Right on the spot. I have a press conference my first day they hire me, I have him come, I put a bullet right there sitting in him."

Certainly, Carter is referring to metaphorical bullets and would never actually shoot T.O. But if he’s going to, might we suggest not calling a press conference for the occasion.

(Via Pro Football Talk)

When
the Philadelphia Eagles finally decided yesterday that they were finished
slapping the Cowboys around, the Cowboys boarded the team plane to head home to
Dallas. But the mood on the team plane maybe wasn’t as somber as you’d imagine.

DallasSportsFans.com
heard a radio report from Mark "Friedo" Friedman on 1310 The Ticket
saying that the mood on the Cowboys team plane was pretty damn festive. I’ll
pass along a snippet of their report:

[Friedman] described the scene as “like the last day of school”, with dominoes being played in the back and lots of laughing and carrying on. He said that he was reluctant to say anything, seeing as how the Cowboys are nice enough to allow media members on the charter, and that only leads me to believe that he may have muted the reality of what was actually going on. Friedo did not mention any specific names, nor did he say if alcohol was flowing, but he made it pretty clear that if you did not know who won the Cowboys-Eagles game, you just might assume it was the Cowboys from their conduct on the plane.

Interesting. If you’re a Cowboys fan, do you care? Would it bother you if
your team was laughing and smiling after getting beaten down in a do-or-die
game? It’s not like this was the Pro Bowl. This was essentially a playoff game
against a hated rival who some would argue that the Cowboys should beat.
This is occasion for a frown.

My own thought is that there are occasions where stuff like this can happen,
and it doesn’t necessarily mean that someone doesn’t care.

Tony Romo is a competitor. Terrell Owens is a competitor. Marion Barber is a
competitor. Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten … all
competitors. I think very few athletes ever reach an elite level like the NFL
without being extremely competitive people.

What can happen, though, is that in a game like yesterday’s, when the outcome
gets determined very quickly, the guys have plenty of time during the game to
digest the sadness. The game started at 4:15 EST. By about 5:15, everyone knew
that the Eagles were going to win. Say the team plane boards at around 8:15 …
that’s three hours there for the initial sadness to wear off.

Or maybe they’re all just very Zen people, and they believe that right now is
the only thing that exists. I don’t know.

I just won’t believe that the Cowboys players, as a whole, didn’t care about
the outcome of that game. I won’t believe that they weren’t upset about missing
the playoffs. I don’t buy it. Some people just get over things quickly, or find
a way to pass the time on a team flight. Who knows?

Now, maybe it’s an indication that this isn’t the most cohesive,
right-minded, focused-on-winning team that’s ever existed. That, I could
believe. But I absolutely couldn’t be convinced that the players didn’t care
about losing yesterday.

If you’re a Cowboys fan, you were likely really, really upset last night. And rightfully so — that game against the Eagles was pretty embarrassing. But then you probably drank and/or slept it off, woke up a little depressed, made it into work on time and were pretty much over it sometime before lunch. This is because you’re a reasonable human being with a fully functioning brain which allows you to realize football is just a game and should be somewhere around the 24-28th most important thing in your life.

But not superfan Alan Lowe, who showed up at Valley Ranch today wearing a sandwich board sign. On the front, it read “The Cowboys have no heart” with "Wade Phillips is an embarrassment to the Star” on the back.

Now, Lowe has every right to act a fool and spend half his day letting the Cowboys know the star is embarrassed. He also has a right not to be a complete jackass and to fully expect the reaction he received from linebacker Bradie James:

The man ended up calling Irving police after a confrontation with James.

James said the fan was blocking his way out of the parking lot, leading him to tell the man he needed to get out of the way or get hit by the linebacker’s luxury SUV.

"He said, ‘Why you guys didn’t show that fire last night? You should have showed that heart last night!’" James recalled to reporters. "So next thing you know, I’m just ripping his sign off him. So I ripped the sign off him. He said I broke his glasses, so I went and gift-wrapped some Oakleys. He got something out the deal."

"I told him, ‘I share your frustrations. But where we differ is I wouldn’t go to anybody’s job, especially not with 300-pound guys, trying to tell them what they didn’t do right,’" James said. "But that’s it. It’s over."

Lowe ended up not pressing charges and later returned to work in time for his afternoon shift.

The excitable story in Dallas Saturday morning came from Jerry Jones’ comments that, win or lose, the Cowboys felt comfortable with its coaching staff in terms of next season. But could Jones have predicted a pathetic effort like this?

The survivalist Eagles took a 27-3 lead over Dallas in the locker room at the half. The Cowboys offense, led by the flu-like symptomed Tony Romo, has been atrocious. The Dallas secondary has been its usual self, which is to say it has been awful. Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook have been stellar and the Eagles have had a number of big plays.

To these eyes, Jones’ endorsement of Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett seemed vague and soft. Add the less-than-certain sentiment to an absolute embarrassment in the making, and there’s no way the staff survives the week. Polish those resumés, prospective coaches.

UPDATE: It gets worse: Romo fumbles inside the red zone, and Philly’s Chris Clemons took it back for a score. 34-3.

UPDATE #2: Oh my flipping goodness. Next drive, Dallas gets down to the Philly four. Marion Barber fumbles it, Eagle Joselio Hanson grabs it and takes it 96 yards for another score. 41-3. Jones might sell the franchise.

UPDATE #3: Would you believe that Romo fumbled again on the Cowboys’ next possession, setting up a David Akers field goal which gave the Eagles a 44-3 lead? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

We
wanted to know the craziest things you’d done for tickets … and once again,
you guys came through with flying colors.

Again, we start with the honorable mentions …

Michael G. was using the computer in his boss’s office to try to buy tickets for the Music City Miracle game. The boss caught him and ordered him to leave, but then his boss left the room first. Michael G. locked the door behind him, went back to the computer, and bought two tickets for $36. His boss, meanwhile, called the police, had Michael G. thrown into the street, and fired him.

Matthew W. was one of five people who wanted one playoff ticket in the possession of a friend. To determine who get the ticket, the friend staged a Beer Olympics. Near the end of the competition, Matthew W. raised a near-empty keg above his head and jumped off of a two-story porch. He crashed landed, the keg landed on him, he rolled down a hill, broke his arm, cracked his head open, and then had the keg roll into his head. He used his good arm to pump more beer from the keg, drink that with a combination of blood and win the competition.

Mondo used to go to Raiders games in the ’70s, and he and twenty like-minded acquaintances would all decide to jump the fence at the same time to get into the game. Two or three would always get caught. Mondo took a few beatings from police, but says it was worth it for all the free games he attended.

atl654 ran into a scalper who wanted $350 for a ticket. atl654 instead handed the man $100 and a few bills leftover from a trip to Ecuador. The scalper never checked. Note: I do not recommend trying this at home. Most scalpers check, and would not appreciate such a move.

BigBlue, a Giants fan, was promised two Eagles/Giants tickets if he got an Eagles tattoo on one arm, and a Cowboys star on the other. He did it. BigBlue has since had them altered and/or covered up.

Adam L. wanted to go to a Chiefs/Broncos showdown when both teams were 4-0. In line for the bathroom at a bar, he yelled out, "Anyone have a ticket to the game this weekend?" And he found a group of four Canadians that used to be a group of five Canadians, with one of them being stopped at the border because of previous drug charges. The next morning, one of the Canadians in question was wearing only tighty
whities, and another was wearing a Steve Bono jersey.

Sean M. drove 28 hours in a period of 48 hours to see a Bears game.

trojan37’s friend, for some reason, told trojan37 that if he got a vasectomy, he’d give him a ticket to the NFC Championship game between the Packers and Giants. He did. I think that’s probably best for all of us.

And your winners …

Raider Fan’s friend won a limo ride and two tickets to a game, and even though he didn’t get one of those tickets, Raider Fan did partake in the limo ride to the stadium. Once there, he drank. Drank to the point of vomiting. He begged for tickets. A couple told him that if he’d eat a handful of his own puke, they’d give him a ticket. He did. They did. Raider Fan, everybody.

Steve Patriot’s not-so-nice Uncle Jim had three tickets to a Rams game, and four people who wanted to go: Steve, Steve’s dad, Uncle Jim, and Uncle Jim’s son, who has mental retardation. Steve was originally the odd man out, until he played on his cousin’s love for Superman, and convinced the child that playing Superman 64 was a better way to spend his time than going to a Rams/Seahawks playoff game. To quote Steve himself, "I successfully manipulated my mentally retarded cousin into giving up his playoffs tickets." Congratulations. Enjoy Hell.

I am well aware that I am not honoring good people here. But I think Steve Patriot deserves something for even admitting to what he did. And as for Raider Fan … I don’t know. I just feel bad, because I doubt there are many people in life who are ever going to give you anything.

Winners, please e-mail me with your favorite team, shoe size, and mailing
address. Please do so from the Yahoo! ID with which you used to post.

Oh, and Danielle - No, I never did get your information from the last Crocs giveaway. Please send it again.
shutdown.corner@yahoo.com.