Mick Shots: Super Perspectives

and Nicky Spagnola. And here we are. It's another edition of mix Shots, and I guess officially this is the start of the National Football League off season, although the Cowboys got a headstart on the National Football League off season, and we are here to bring you up to speed

on all things Cowboys. Bill Jones, Everson Walls, Mickey Spagnola, as we look back at what happened on Sunday evening in Tampa, Florida, and look ahead what's going to happen with your Dallas Cowboys as things start getting very busy leading up to the start of free agency just over a month from now. All right, Everson, since you were the first to join us, you get the first word. Just to pull back the curtain, Everson just joined us.

Until you get the first word, Everson, Well, I must say I was very, very disappointed in the Super Bowl itself. Proud for Tom Brady, but boy, talk about an anti climactic moment. I was really ready for this, this young versus old, you know, the old, the old lion, with the young lion coming up trying to take his pride from him. I thought, that's where this is gonna be, you know, and you're defending Super Bowl champions in the Kansas City Chiefs extremely surprised at their lack of prowess.

They looked like they didn't know what they they were doing. And when it's all said and done, just like Spadge and I have been talking about, with the Dallas Cowboys, offensive lineman might be the most important unit on any field, on any team, on any day in the NFL. The tackles that we saw trying to play and protect the edges for Casey was laughable at best, and it reminded me so much of our practice players that we promoted

with the Dallas Cowboys. That game. There were certain times when I saw it looked as if when Mahomes got the when the ball was being snapped to him, it was almost as if, Okay, when I get this ball, I'm gonna turn around and run the other way to the goal line, and I'm gonna see if you guys can catch me because every snap he was running for his life during the most crucial parts of the game, especially on third down. Todd Bows once again, you guys

realized just how important he is as well. For that Tampa Bay team. Tid Bows dialed up a blitz or sometimes extra pressure on third downs, and they were so bad on Kansasy's offensive line there were times when they did not need an extra Russia. Four men on the line was good enough. And we'll talk about this later. But Jpp, a guy that we thought was done for in after fourth of July when he blasted up his

fingers that this was gonna be done for him. This guy came and showed up, and let's be real, he was Todd Bowls. He was Todd Bows heart and soul for that defense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All right, Mickey, I bet you echoed some of the things Everson says. Well. I think he must have read my column yesterday on Dallas Cover Always dot Com. I don't. I don't read your column, Spad. Sorry, I don't read your cos now

it sounds like you did. Doesn't read your con I think I think he did because the headline was U Cowboys feel Mahomes pain. What so, what's the what's the what's the toughest position in the NFL to find players at the offensive line? And you better not go to tackle offensive tackle a bit more specifically, but the whole

offensive line. You cannot go out into the Super Bowl and play four backups out of five positions, and then one week before the game, you're gonna you had to replace your starting left tackle right Pro Bowl tackle, by the way, and you made you were so short on depth you had to make three changes to fix one. Right. They moved, They moved the right tackle, who was a

backup by the way, to left tackle. They moved the backup guard to right tackle, and then pulled some guy off the bench who hadn't even been with him the entire year and was the third starting right guard to play in the game. And don't you know, Tampa Bay was looking and going, I can't wait to play defense. He was pressured Patrick Mahomes with a bad foot, by the way, that's going to be surgically repaired. On Wednesday. He was pressured on twenty nine of fifty two drops.

Twenty nine of fifty two, that's fifty some percent. And hey, do you have a category for running for your life? Well what about that? And running for your life? That that was a category almost every snap and then his receivers decided, let's let the ball hit us in the face mask or let's drop the ball or fall down. Look, here is the bottom line. On Monday morning when they do their normal uh interview, and of course it was zoomed with the head the winning head coach, and the

and the MVP of the Super Bowl, so Tom Brady. Uh. They asked Tom Brady what he was saying to Pat Mahomes after the game, and he basically paraphrased what he said, but here was his quote. It's almost impossible to play quarterback under durest like that, just the reality of football. Pat was doing as much as he could to make plays last night. He was running around, he was reversing field,

he was doubling back, tripling back. In the end, it's tough to do that consistently when you feel God every play for a six yard game, I got to fire the ball in their thread, the needle between two guys. That's tough to play like that. And to me, that was the bottom line. And how well the Cowboys know with all the injuries and movement they had on the

offensive line all season long. Hey, they could have just called the Cowboys and said, what's it gonna be like to play with two backup offensive tackles and your third your third top tackle basically played the year because he was hurt. And then you had to play with a backup at center because your pro bow center retired. And then he gets hurt, and now you got to play with a rookie who takes over and plays well at center, Tyler Biadish. Oh, by the way, he gets hurt, So

now you got to go back to the backup. And the only guy standing on the offensive line, Zach Martin. He ends up with a concussion, he switches positions, and now he gets hurt and they lose him. So when everybody wonders why the Cowboys finish six and ten, and there's various reasons, you look at what happened on that offensive line and you say, okay, go try to win a game, much less try to do that in the Super Bowl. And by the way, I wore black today.

I thought we were wearing black for Black history. And then you guys come in, No, I said, I said, we were representing black. I have my black colleagues Hall of Fame. Okay, we were representing black but I like the styles bags. You look good, and I thought i'd support the university that's now ranked tenth in the nation in basketball. Okay. Oh see, now you just stepped all over my black stuff. Man. No wait, now wait, it's

a it's not a dual beneficial thing. By the way, and I'm going to propose this from you because last night, when there was nothing on television to watch, somehow we ended up on K E. R A TV and I saw a documentary on the Tulsa race massacre in nineteen

twenty one. Yes, I had heard all about it, but i'd never seen it to the point where they showed video from back in the day when there were one thousand, two hundred and fifty six houses owned by black folks burned to the ground, along with stores, schools, churches in a mass riot in the city of Tulsa. So I did my homework on this black history stuff. By the way, we're going to have a ceremony for you to get your black car. You're gonna get your ghetto cars. Man.

We got you. Man. I'm gonna make sure we know this. I'm gonna go to Black Twitter, okay, and I'm gonna make the announcement, you know. Uh and and so is that you think that to be repeated on k ar A Mickey? Is there a chance we could watch that? Most likely? Probably they probably need programming right. And it was a really good deal because they actually interviewed people who were either part of it or their parents were

part of what had taken place. It was eye opening, to say the least, especially, I gotta say especially when they happened in more than one black city. When I say black city, more than one city where blacks were doing extremely well. There was one incident a young man

was telling the story about. He was in his uh college class his college classroom, and his professor was talking about one of those incidents that happened against black people by whites and the white supremacist and even the law enforcement, how they joined in. And he was hearing the professor tell this story and it was about his own hometown. Now he's younger, you know, he's up this generation. I would say it was around thirty plus years old right now.

So he's hearing about these horrible incidents and about his old hometown, and he had never heard the story before. So he raises his hand to the professor. He goes, I don't think you know what you're talking about. That's where I'm from, and I have never heard this story before. So it's one of those things where as shocked as he was, blacks and whites were complicit in not even repeating what happened. You know, you can't even bring it

up anymore. People have died, You've lost your whole wealth, all your wealth that you have, anything that you own. Hundreds of black families had that happened to them, and they tried to say, don't even repeat it again. It happened over like a hundred years ago. He had no idea that this had happened in his hometown. So that

is amazing. That's an amazing dynamic to me that blacks don't even want to talk about what happened to them because of fear of retribution, and whites don't want to even repeat it, of course because of their complexenness in it. So that was just a very interesting dynamic that may I'm sure it's happened more than we know, and of course fees will probably come out more in the future. But that isn't an amazing, like I said, an amazing dynamic. For no one to speak of it as bad as

it was. It was almost like the Capitol and the Insurrection, you know, trying to act like it didn't happen, and then one hundred years from now we wouldn't even know that this happened. That's how much it was covered up. Sad stuff. Sad stuff, Mickey Uh and for you ever since as well, the rush to the super Bowl? What was your favorite part of the Super Bowl? Go ahead, I'm gonna have to think about that. I just didn't have a favorite part I was. I was, you know,

I thought the Chiefs would do better. As I saw things uh developing, It just you could just see that was gonna happen. It was like watching the Cowboy game back before they even started getting their feet on them, their legs under them. I think the most h telling part of the game was when Winfield Junior he put the two fingers up in Tyriek Hill's face. That was something that was extremely telling because that means he took their heart. When he did that, He's taking he took

his brand away from him. At that point, he took his whatever self esteem that he had at that moment as a defensive back. I've never been a guy to to to shove him in someone's face. But as much as he was being u beaten in the first meeting this season, that little instant of payback retribution, it can hurt sometimes when you're on the other end of it,

you know. Uh, other than seeing Bruce arians able to celebrate afterwards for a guy that's been in the league as long as as he's been, to see that, to see Todd Bowles have the success he did, uh, basically, you know what, basically understanding with his front four that

against the Scrubs, we probably don't need the blitz. We're gonna play our little cover two and cover deep by the way to make sure they don't get behind us, and we're just gonna rush with our front four to put pressure on Mahomes and then cover the middle with two linebackers that can play awfully well and basically shut down an offense that was supposedly not able to be

shut down. But maybe my favorite part was seeing a guy like Leonard Fournette, who had a wonderful career in college and was just being laid to waste in Jacksonville and ended up on the waiver wire at the start of the season. That Tampa Bay picked him up to run for a touchdown and not only run for a touchdown, but put it in a gear. Were guys that had the angle on him, could not catch him till he got to the end zone. And I felt so good for him. Always thought he was a good guy and

for him to have that success. What were they calling him playoff Lenny? Well, now they can call him super Bowl Lenny. Good stuff. And you know, for me, well for me, you know, ever since you talk about Antoine Winfield, and I thought that one of the most compelling parts of the aside from the quarterback talk, when you break down the two teams and when you apply it to

what the Cowboys could use on their team. One of the most compelling aspects of watching these two defenses is to see Antoine Winfield, the playmaking safety who is sort of a Tyrann Matthew clone. And it's not a coincidence that Todd Bowles has him on that Tampa Bay team, that he targeted him in the draft, that this is a guy that I want in my secondary And I says, I think also ever said it says a lot about

him what you're talking about as a rookie. He's got the confidence in his own abilities that he stands up to a Tyree Hill or whatever. But aside from that, you know, Bowles was at Arizona when Tyron Matthew was drafted by the Cardinals. I think Bowles when he saw Winfield in this draft he could have a Tyrn Matthew type player in his secondary and he showed it. I mean, he played at a level this season where he along with Chase Young with Washington or Neck and Neck NFL

defensive Rookies of the Year. I believe, all right, But then the one sequence in this game, with all the talk about Tom Brady and everything, got the end of the first half when Brady's thrown for the end zone, gets PI call, and then he's got it right on the goal line with precious seconds left, and it's Tyrn Matthew and Antonio Brown, and Antonio Brown runs a little

pivot move in the end zone on Tyron Matthew. Brady Brady fires a missile into his gut for the touchdown that that gave them a lead that turned out to be insurmountable. And then when Brady, you know the you see the offensive lineman go up to Brown in the end zone and Matthew's right there, and Brady goes up there and he is shouting something in Tyron Matthew's ear. And then we had to piece it together later to see exactly what happened there. And then Matthew comes at Brady.

Matthew winds up getting a unsports flight conduct penalty. But that whole sequence there, when you break it down to one little sequence in the game, and you've got the star power on both sides, Brady Honey, Badger, Antonio Brown and his story scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl, I just think that all came together there. That was my favorite moment of the entire game right there. Well, I have to say and two things about that, by the way. Number one, to me, that was a BS

interference call in the end zone. If a dB, if the dB can't hold his ground when the wide receiver runs into him, uh, and then you get called for interference? Are you serious? And then number two, so not to mention the fact that probably was an uncatchable. Yeah, that's the entire thing. And that also and that also right, and then on top of it, and and I kind of liked the byplay between between Tom Brady and Tyrant Matthew.

But Brady got his saying, and then when Matthew got his saying, maybe what he said was it as as cordial and he gets the fifteen yard penalty, not Tom, you know who kind of instigated a little bit. I have a feeling that what Brady said wasn't very cordial either by an apology, So how do you how do you he wasn't saying good coverage on that play? I'm pretty sure that wasn't a message. How does that? How does that? You know? Where's the equitable in that? You know?

It's like, come on, you know, it was like it was like that early it was like that early personal fill on was it Chris Jones where the offensive lineman uh shoved the Tampa Bay offensive linemen shoved him and he shoved him back, and then he got the fifteen It's like, hey, watched the game, and you know that that's the kind of thing that I was. I was not happy about when I think that kind of started to ruin it for me from the get they were

too involved in the game. Itself. You know, this is a game to where as Bill said, all these stars, the star polo, You've got the storyline, Uh, just everything coming together. You've got the coaches with their own stories. This is a team coming back to the Super Bowl getting handled that the offending champions. They're getting handled. They looked like they didn't even want to play the moment they came out of the shoot. They didn't look ready

to play. So yes, all of that dynamic. Referee should let that play out, especially when you're talking about that law plant. It's almost as if the referee it was a late flag. It's almost as if he was considering should I put my inject myself into the situation or not, and he decided to do that. That was a bad call.

It may not have had anything to do with the overall result of the game, but it probably would have made it a little bit more exciting because once they got down there, Once Tampa Bay was recipient of these flags, you could see Kansas City's defense realizing we don't play well from behind, and they never have played well from behind because you're dealing with a defense that has always

had the luxury of playing from ahead because of Kansas City. Now, the other thing that let me say this bill before we go, I talked about how the offensive lineman was so critical for Kansas City's offense as you finally realize they have extremely long developing plays. And when you're talking about bringing Tywree Hill from one sideline bringing motion and you got them running all the way through the secondary somehow ending up way over there on I twenty somewhere,

it takes time for that to happen. And when you see that, you have no time for that. Every time my homes was to drop back, they didn't make the adjustment to go to quicker hitting plays. They wanted to go with the big play over and over again. I think they start to read their whole news clippings and thinking that that is the way you're supposed to only win games, and they decide to go with the phenomenal as opposed to going with the consistent, safe, conservative route

and drive it down the field. So what does what does that remind you of? By the way the Cowboys play Atlanta in twenty seventeen when they refused to put a tight end next to the poor tackle who couldn't stand up there, or early this season, when they were having trouble with these young tackles to not go to tight end more often and call shorter plays that they finally figured out down the line, but not immediately. I was sit there to go, why aren't you going too

tight ends? These tackles are terrible. They cannot hold up against this defensive line. Why don't you flags They had to know that they would have issues because your tackles are down, so you would think that they would have that in the back pocket ready for the adjustment. Well, and I read a quote from Andy Reid early in the week and he basically said, yeah, you know what we got on our offensive line isn't pretty. It's like, no kidding, it's not pretty. But you didn't have to

have them prove it to you. Goodness great, all right, we need to take a break here. When we come back. You think you want to talk about Drew Pierson sounds when we come back here on mix shots in just a moment. Hey, they're cowboys fans with ty cleaners at home pickup and delivery. Cleaning your clothes has never been more convenient. Simply sign up at your local store, set out your dirty clothes, and one of our Ti Cleaner professionals will come directly to your home for a totally

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Star in Frisco. There have been at times Mickey and Everson youth football teams who have conducted their workouts there on the football field there and uh with parents socially distanced and so forth, there's been activity throughout the season. Last night, I was at the Mavericks game and in Victory Park in downtown Dallas. Uh, they actually had fifteen hundred fans that the first fans in attendance at an NBA game in Dallas since March eleventh, when the pandemic began.

The Mavericks invited fifteen fifteen hundred vaccinated essential workers, gave them free tickets to the game. But it was it was like a ghost town down there in Victory Park, still in downtown Dallas yesterday. You know, you don't have

the fans. When when you don't have the fans around an event, you really realize how much you miss fans at at games and taking it to the National Football League, and it's remarkable to see what the NFL has been able to pull off and having a season, and obviously in Dallas with up to thirty thousand fans in the stands, and being able to do it safely and get all

the way through the Super Bowl. You know, there's not a lot of people Mickey six months ago who thought it was possible that everything would come off, and there were hiccups along the way, bumps in the road, obviously along the way, but to be able to play the Super Bowl on time was pretty remarkable considering where we were six months ago. Not to say we're out of

it by any means. Yeah, and you're absolutely right. And you know, I had written last week on Dallas Cowboys dot com about the accomplishment of the NFL having getting ready to play a Super Bowl on time, that no

games were canceled. Now they one or two what postponed along the way, and it wasn't perfect, But if you looked at what took place over the course of the season to get to that point where other leagues you know, had to either go in a bubble or they had to you know, cancel games once they started up again,

uh and postpone them. To the fact that they got there on time, I thought not only was remarkable about what the league did, but I think a tribute to the players uh for keeping themselves uh basically for the majority uh you know, quarantine and themselves, and for their families, the families and the medical staffs too. By the way, and and since I mentioned that, also should point out that this year's ed Block NFL Athletic Training Staff UH

of the Year was the Dallas Cowboys. Uh So, kudos to Jim Mauer and britt Brown Gaither and Hanson Yang for the job they did with this team right with the amount of injuries that they had to deal with, dealing with the pandemic, and Jim was the guy that was the lead of their COVID nineteen response team. For them to get this team to the end of the season, and I think they only had what two three guys miss a game or having to go into quarantine. I

thought was quite remarkable that that took place. But yeah, just to see this come off the way it did, it was I thought, uh, quite quite an accomplishment. I don't have to say, Guys, looking at this situation and looking like where we are right now sports trying to play sports in the pandemic, that ed Block award, that's probably the most important ed Block award ever issued. We have never had a situation like this, and the teams that handled it better ended up being in the Super Bowl.

But you have to look at the other way, the teams that were presented with unusual circumstances and for the Cowboys to be able to come out of the head on that and be recognized that's pretty good, Spags. I mean you, I'm sure they take credit all the time. Any ed Block Award recipients take credit, take they really take a lot of pride in that. I would think this particular time you would have to take even more

pride because of the situation that's going on. Should have been part of the Saturday Night NFL Honors show they gave out all the awards, along with introducing the new guys elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you know, Man of the Year, MVP Offensive Defense, the whole thing, right, this should have been in their because of just what

all right? And one other note on that. The other thing that that's amazing about it from the from a football standpoint in the NFL is just from a scheduling standpoint, you don't have the same wiggle room that as far as postponing games as what you do in other sports. I mean, in basketball, you can you can play three or four games in a week two months from now

if you need to postpone games. In the NFL, you had bye weeks that you could play around with, but other than that, there wasn't any wiggle room to get the calendar done in advance. We saw it throughout college football. So many teams had to not just postpone games, they

had to cancel games and play shortened seasons. And for all teams to be able to play sixteen games and then to have the playoffs come off without a hitch is something else, all right, as far as the Hall of Fame goes, that Saturday Night Show Drew Pearson discovers as he was called to a meeting, a business meeting, talking real estate with Jerry Jones and Roger Staboch and then lo and behold who shows up David Baker? How

about that knocking at the door. So here here is the greatest this might be the greatest upset in NFL history, That this secret was kept for nearly two weeks, right, two weeks because these guys knew, right, and not even the people on the forty eight members and the Seniors Committee member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting committee, they didn't know what the results were, but they had voted the middle of January, but they didn't know who

made it. Well, the NFL, the Pro Football Hall of Fame knew, and they went to all these spots, right, and they they basically told everybody who made it at least a week or two before the announcement, and the secret was kept. No one let the cat out of the bag. And I'll tell you what. I talked to Drew Pearson on Thursday and not knowing how the whole thing was gonna work, and I said, Hey, I'm gonna write this. I'm not going to ask you anything about

you know, you know your thoughts. I said, I don't want to jinx you. I said, are you going? Will you be in Tampa? And he goes, yeah, I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Tampa. And I go, do you know how they're gonna tell you? And he goes, no, they haven't said how they're gonna let us know. It's it's a zoom call or if they're knock on the door. But I found out. I said, Oh, Drew played it pretty well because he already knew and and good for him,

you know that was that was just side story. But God, long, long, long overdue for a guy that played the level he did the things that he did. Finished his career in nineteen eighty three, so eighty four on he had to wait his five years and then thirty three years in the making to get in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was a big mystery why it took so long. But as he told me before he went, he goes, you know what, he goes. As long as you get in he goes, you won't think about the weight he goes.

This was this would be big to me, and he said this would be big to my family, and I'm sure it was on both cases. I think t might be the only one that might disagree with you on Nett. Well, you know what, And if you remember, one of your teammates with the Giants, Harry Carson, was you know, kind of butt hurt because it took him so long to go in. But at least when it was time to go in, he went in graciously. He didn't you know, yes he did. It sounded like he might not show up,

but he did. I mean, it's a once in a lifetime thing. You know, you can't hold that grudge because you know now you're gonna be in and people will be able. And this is what I've always said, guys about the Pro Football Hall of Fame, any Hall of Fame, it's their job to preserve the top stories in the National Football League because They're gonna be a point where none of us are going to be around to let

anybody know about the Hall Mary. There's none of us gonna be around to know about some of the other big plays. So stats are one thing, but the history of the league and the stories need to be preserved, and the job of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to do that. So you know, fifty years from now, somebody's gonna walk in there and go, oh, so this is how this Hall Mary started. Right, those are the

things that need to preserve. And I'm not trying to blow smoke up ever since here, but there's stories that of his career that need to be preserved, right, There's stories of Darren Woodson's career that need to be preserved, and and let's do let's get it going. Let's let's

get this thing done. So when I go into the Hall of Fame like I did, gosh more than probably twenty twenty three, twenty four years ago, when I went into the Olympic Hall of Fame in Switzerland, and I got to go to a video board and punch Bob Hayes, and up came his winning one hundred meter dash in the Olympics. Right, Those are the things that need to be preserved, not you know, not just because he won a gold medal or two gold medals, but you got

to preserve that story. I had never I've heard of it, I'd never seen it, and I've rarely seen a hundred yard dash or one hundred meter dash where the guy that won was not hanging on at the end. He was continuing to pull away from the field. That's how impressive Bob hayes hundred meter victory was. I told you

a long time, agost Bags. My first memory of football professional football was Don Meredith to Bob Hayes, and they tried it almost every week, more than once, because it took Bob a little while to learn how to catch the ball. He was so busy running. He wasn't really that good of a receiver, and eventually he ended up being a serious threat to where he when he talked about stories, he actually changed the game. He was like Kareem or will chamber him when they stopped him from

duncing the ball. You know, they had to change the rules, and with Bob they had to start playing zone. Zone didn't even it didn't even there was no zone word. It wasn't used in that manner until Bob Hayes came a yes, you're right about those story spects, you know, and one that one that and I know we're getting off, but one that he told me, and what the meredith passed the It was the record long nineties some yards?

Was it ninety? Whatever? It was. So I remember interviewing him and I asked him, I said, so, how did all that? I mean, what was the play? How did all that work? He goes, well, we got in the huddle and and and it was cold. I think it Cleveland, Pittsburgh, something like that. The Cowboys were winning, and and and he basically said, he said, I got in the huddle and he said. Don looked at me and he goes, hey, Bobby,

it's cold. We've got this thing sewed up. He goes, I need to get to the bench and have a cigarette. He goes, so, why don't you just run down the field as fast as you can and I'll throw it too. That's how that play was designed. And they're real. That's a real man. Let me let me those of the bench that have a s I don't need to be out here any longer. But those are the things. That's that's part of the Hall of Fame. It's not all statistics.

And unfortunately, I think in this day and age, in our analytical day and age, we worry more about numbers than we worry about the stories of the league. I gotta disagree with you in regards to numbers, Spags. If it was numbers, Ben Drew would have already been in before len Swan. If there was numbers, then I'd already been before Brian Dawkins. And if it was numbers, Cornell

Green would have been in before Lynch. So you know, you look at these newly voted in guys, and as we get older, the seniors are falling further and further behind. I mean, when I had my opportunity a few years ago, and that was my last modern day opportunity. After that, I went into the senior So they say, what happens next evers? I said, well, now I have to go back and get in line behind all those guys, you know, all the dead people, guys in wheelchairs, the guys who

you know older than me that still deserve recognition. Ken Riley, Ken Riley, that's the story playing for the lowly Cincinnati Bengals. His entire career. You're know how difficult it is to play defensive back well on a team that sucks your entire career. I don't know how he played, how long he played. I think it was around fifteen years. The guy ended up with sixty five interceptions of whatever. He has never I don't think ever even been considered for Hall of Fame. So to me, if it was numbers,

these guys would already be in. What it is now, it's facts, It's all about exposure, it's all about noted riety. It's all about Okay, how many TV shows are you on? You know your buddies, you know with your particulars city, or how good your Hall of Fame voter is, and how much juice he has. So to me, your numbers are not it. It has gone into a total other realm when he comes to social media and exposure and people on TV. There's no way Howey Long should be

in the Hall of Fame before Harvey Martin. So if there was about numbers, then we'd be talking about a whole different thing. I think they need many more senior writers, or at least writers, regardless of how old they are, to have some type of empathy towards the guys that played before me and some of the guys that played after me, who are now pretty much forgotten about because now we're into the now. Everything's into the now, everything's

into the new. No one wants to talk about when we used to run the ball on first and second down, dent thow on third down. But yet Ken Riley still ends up with sixty plus interceptions, So that just lets you know how good he was and what a ball hawk he was. Guys himself, Cornell Green, people that really need to be in there as Dallas Cowboys. They need to have someone devoted to not just of course old cowboys, all those players back in the day that we are

trying so quickly to forget about. I still remember those guys because of my age, and they inspired me. So when they're to the day I die, I'm going I'm going down fighting for them as well as myself. You know, you think it impacted John Lynch's chances to get in this year that Tony Dungee got added to the selection committee. How does he get in ahead of Darren Woodson If you're talking safety, that's what I'm saying. Well, Tony Dungee was on the selection committee this year. He coached him,

you know. And and the one thing they have done ever since is with the senior committee. Uh, they have these older writers there that have seen these things. And I borrowed these stats from Rick Goslin, who had been here at the Dallas Morning News and he's on the senior committee that nominate these senior deals. He pointed out, and this was back when they first started thinking about

this year and who was gonna be nominated. There's twenty two NFL First Team All Decade selections in the seventies. Twenty one of them have butts busts in Canton. The only one that didn't it was Drew Pearson. They're ten wide receivers who caught passes in the nineteen seventies in Canton, and he listed all of them, No, Drew Pearson. And from nineteen thirty, get this, from nineteen thirty through twenty ten, a span of eight decades, there were seventeen wide receivers

selected First Team All decade. Sixteen of them are in Canton, the loan exception Drew Pearson. So how do you figure

that this thing continued to go this long before? And not only you know, till he got in, but the fact that when they came up with last year's deal with they were going to have the centennial celebration and they were gonna put in twenty guys to make up for what they missed, and Drew was one of the selections to be voted into the twenty and he got denied, and it was like, gosh, how cruel can it be?

And the guy that was the second team ya all decades in the seventies was voted ahead of him, and Harold Carmich, Harold Carmichael right, who finished his finished his career with you right, that was my buddy. That we're both of our Black Cottars Hall of famers. So I was great about that. But when it was all said and done, I called him and told him, look, I'm glad, I'm proud of you, brother. But man, he even he felt guilty. Even he felt guilty. So that's just how

bad it was. All Right, we gotta take a break, and we've got much more to get to. We need to look ahead to what the Cowboys need to do. Just a little brief, little preview of what the things to do this off season when we come back here on mix shots. In just a moment, we're batting the tasty treat that's sweeping air waves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and Cream Soda. Let's take a listen. Doctor Peppett and Cream SODA's heat a new combone. Let's

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Cowboys and the Jones family. Enjoy custom business events develop exclusively by Cowboys, front office staff, exclusive amenities, and so much more. Join our community and join the home filled advantage of having your business address on Cowboys Way get more details or book a tour at formation at the Star dot Com. All right, we've got twelve minutes or so to go here on this edition of Mix Shots. Want to mention this before we go further. The NFL

is mourning the passing of Marty Schottenheimer today. Coach Schattenheimer passed away at the age of seventy seven, and we should point out that how what kind of impact that Marty Schottenheimer had on Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy's career. Of course, McCarthy got his first NFL job working for the fellow Pittsburgh native, Marty Schottenheimer with the Kansas City Chiefs. He he McCarthy came to the University of Pittsburgh where he was an assistant coach, and was hired by the Chiefs.

Did quality control for him first and worked up the ranks with Schottenheimer and the Chiefs throughout his time there, which was through nineteen ninety eight, so I believe McCarthy would have been with him for six years or so. McCarthy spoke with Rick Goslin, of course, Goslin was in Kansas City covering the Chiefs at the time. Was very

close to Schottenheimer. He tweeted about him a little while ago, but he had this quote from McCarthy on Schottenheimer saying, if it wasn't for Marty Schottenheimer, I wouldn't be saying this because I wouldn't be where I am today. Marty gave me my first NFL opportunity in nineteen ninety three, but it was so much more than that. He gave this young coach a roadmap for life. Marty's fingerprints can still be felt all over so many things I do every day as a coach, but it is what he

taught me as a man that I'll be forever grateful for. Professionally, Marty was the first man I saw open his heart and emotionally reveal himself. He was Pittsburgh Proud and the definition of authenticity and genuineness. The six years I spent with him were the most important and impactful years of my coaching career. He was always teaching and emphasizing. Even in my first game as a head coach in two thousand and six, which happened to be against Marty, it

was ugly. After the game. When we shook hands, he patted me on the back said, kid, trust me, it'll get better, but don't ever forget. Make sure to do it your own way. Almost fifteen years later, I still lean on those words anyway. I think I think the impact that Marty Schottenheimer had on Mike McCarthy was profound. And if you look at coaches around the league and players around the league ever since, you probably have stories of coaches that are people that impacted you. And Schottenheimer

is that guy for Mike McCarthy. Yeah, I was. I was never Uh we didn't play Cincinnati much when Schottenheimer was there, but I do recall how that he was part of that that chain of coaches that really brought in that West Coast offense, and that's where it became a problem for me because the West Coast offense was had. We never had the same rhythm playing against a West Coast offense. It was something I had to adjust to with forty nine ers and of course, uh with Bill

Walsh and I think Shottenhammer they have a connection as well. So, yeah, the coaches that that really had an impact on me, most of them are gone. Most of them are gone, and uh, I think as you look at it, Jane Stallings was the one that had the biggest impact. Not necessarily so positive, but you know we ended up, you know, really respecting each other, and uh, you know, first meeting

wasn't that great. But you know, coaches just have to realize and I think they do as much as they're trying to, you know, keep their own feed, their own family and things of that nature. You know, there's a there's a trust that has to be there between player and coach, and and when that trust is there, it can change friendships. You know. To this Hey, Jene calls me Edvy, not Everson. You know, that's his term of endearment for me, because when he first met me he

called me boy. So that was an improvement. Heck, he had it, all right, he had our attention. He had it impact on me. The first time I tried to ask him a question and he didn't like the question. And I said, oh, okay, he gives you that look. He gives you that Bear Bryant look. You don't like it too much, Okay, voice like Bear Bryant. I think it's time to go. Somebody's hungry. That ever, ever from

your house. It's not from my house, all right, Well, maybe that you know what that was that was a tribute to Marty Schottenheimer Brown's He had out to Brown's head coach when the dog Pound got started. The dog bound at Everson's house with a shout out to praise for Marty Schadenheimer right there. All right, let's turn our attention to what the Cowboys they're going to be doing here as the we're a little over a month away from the start of the new year in the NFL

free agency. There's a there's some things that the Cowboys are going to be doing preparing for the draft as well. We've got don't have the combine, but it's going to be very interesting how they scout players this year. And we we're turning the calendar the page to officially now Mickey to twenty twenty one. Yes, and first point of business for the Cowboys will be to um to try to get together with Dak Prescott and both parties knock out a long term deal that are very delicate we

see for these quarterbacks right now. So I think that's probably their first line of business. And by the way, we found out over the weekend that Dak had a clean up surgery on his ankle that he broke and fractured. So from a physical standpoint, it sounds like that was a good thing to take place. He needed it, so

that's got to get done. And then to me, the second line of business is this is going to go back where we started the show, is to figure out the future health of their offensive tackles, because there's a lot of offensive tackles available in this draft, and I don't know that you need to use another first round pick on an offensive lineman, but they've got to figure out from a medical standpoint, well, Powans, how's the hip?

Is it ready to go? With Tyrn Smith having had the surgery disurgery in his neck, U did it clear up all those things that have been bothering him for the last couple of years and is he ready to go? Because if that's the case, then to me, you don't take an offensive lineman with that first round pick. You got other things that you need to take care of defensively.

But by the third round, to me, I think you've just got a template right there of you better have a credible backup offensive tackle to to be able to step in and bail you out and not get in the situation they've been at that situation at that position for the last four or five years. Well, I am a different I am under a different mindset, Spags. We just talked about how important it was for your defense to play well, and how Todd Bows was blessed with

some of the best active linebackers in the NFL. I was a product of that. In regards to the New York Giants, Pepper Johnson Lt. Gary Reasons, you know Steve Dice, when Dic went up there and playing with the three two, I mean, he was just blew it up. I think we need some very active linebackers, or at least somehow take the ones you have and try and create a space for them to be active and get them more contact with the ball, because that is one of our

weakest points on our team. I think it's the most the second most important union on our squad behind the offensive line. And I said this the other day, and I hope I'm wrong, Spats, please rebuke me if you feel like it. There is a chance, and I'm afraid there may be a chance that Dak Prescott will not be here with the Dallas Cowboys if negotiations continue with the same attitude, because it seems like that they are

still so far apart, and the injury itself. I think that is an X factor that is going to determine whether the Cowboys go into this negotiation with more vigor, go into it kind of looking over their shoulder and seeing what they got already. Please tell me I'm wrong. No, I think he will be here. But here's the deal, and and and when anybody talks about this is like, well, why don't the Cowboys have him signed? You know he

deserves this, he deserves that. Okay, fine, But from his camp, does he want to bet on himself again, knowing that he had an injury that could have ended his career and he turned his back on fifty five million dollars in signing bonus and one hundred and ten guaranteed? Does

he want to play that game again. I'm not a big gambler on financial stuff, right, but boy, if I got that sitting in front of me and I just had that surgery, I don't know if I want to roll the dice again that, oh yeah, I'll just take a one year deal and then I'll be a free agent the next year. So I think there's two sides to that, but it has to get settled because we see the quarterback position is pretty important. But I agree with you on the linebacker thing. I agree with you

on the linebacker thing. And I've only seen I think only one like, not edge player, but a linebacker, linebacker to being mocked to be drafted in the first round. And it's the kid from You're gonna have to help me here, Bill from Penn State. Part is a parson. Uh he's He's the only linebacker I've seen mocked in the first round. You know what, I'll help you next week with that, because now that the Super Bowl is over, it's time for me to dive into my big green

NFL draft scouting notebook. It's that time of year again, Mickey Well and and I just think linebacker, you know, And it doesn't have to be the first round, but maybe the second round round. It does not have to be the first but you just have to hit because that linebacker position needs to be you know, you need three of them if you're gonna play a four to three. And it sounds like Dan Quinn wants a play a four to three, then you need three like it. You

like that. Anthony Hitchins for the Chiefs heck, Damian Wilson started him and they were both fourth round draft picks. Yeah, there, there you go. So you just need exactly and and you know, and I understand the cornerback thing. What scares me on the cornerbacks that are talked highly of, they didn't play this last year, right, you know that. I worry about your ability to evaluate guys that did not play this last year. And I understand the opt out.

I get it. I thoroughly get it. But to me, when I'm evaluating those guys, I would be a little bit hesitant to say, Okay, I've seen this guy play two years now, he's good. You know, I'm good to go. So you got to be careful there. So I just think this is your right Bill. This this offseason is going to be very very important for the Cowboys to make good decisions. And ever since, you might be right there too. I just saw a little t s on

the NFL network. They showed a picture a video of Dak Prescott and the caption at the bottom of it was on the move question mark. Oh Yeah, that's what I love about the That's is what I love about the offseason. Just throw something out there. We can talk about right. Oh yeah, we're gonna stay it up. Bill. We're gonna stay it up the SPADs. Bill. We're gonna stay it up that right, So we'll stir it up

next week. Will Dak Prescott be on the move? Will he still be with the Dallas Cowboys by next Tuesday when we reconvene here on mix shots. We'll see you next week. Oh Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.