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This is Mick Shots streaming live on dallascowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys APT now Here are Bill Jones, Everson Wolves, and Mickey Spagnola.
Well two out of three ain't bad. No Everson Walls today, but we will be joined in just a little bit by someone from his era, the great Danny White on this edition of mix Shots. As we are now less than three weeks, in fact, two and a half weeks away from NFL Draft Day, and Mickey, you would not leave how much I have filled up my big green NFL Draft scouting notebook in the last week. There's all sorts of scribbles all over this book right now.
So do you have like five pages of potential backup core?
That's where I started, That's at the very beginning.
All right.
In fact, I've been pages are coming out on the notebook. I've been perusing these backup quarterback prospects.
Very nice.
Yeah, but wait a second, I thought the Cowboys had their backup quarterback since the last time we convened they acquired Joe Milton.
Did they acquire them before. Last time we talked about him last night, I can't remember.
It was like Tuesday or Wednesday.
Well, but we did Monday.
That's what I'm saying. We haven't talked about Joe Milton.
I thought you said we talked.
About No, we haven't talked about Joe Milton. By the way, before we get into Joe Milton any White, we're going to have him on in the second segment, and he and his daughter, Heather, Joe have written a book called Spotlights and Shadows, and I read it last night late after I got home from work.
I love the book.
I can't wait to talk to him and it's it's not there is football in it, but it's basically a book of life lessons and I can't wait to hear Danny talking about it.
Yeah. Absolutely.
As a matter of fact, when I ran into him a year ago when he was the it was the Quarterback Award in fort Worthvy O'Brien award. He was the I guess they bring in a form of legend, relegend or whatever, and he was there and his daughter was with him, and they were talking to me about it and they asked, they said, can we send you kind of a pre publishing book to read and let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
And so I hurried up and read it, and you know, it was fine, and I kind of congratulated him on what they did, gave him a few suggestions, and then I had already read it, and I said, all right, well when it comes out when we're in training camp.
Then we'll get him on.
Well, one thing leads to another and we get busy doing what we do, and I never got around to doing it, so I thought, Okay, now's a good time. So yeah, it'll be interesting to hear why he did it and how they did it.
Too, and really good stuff, especially for those of us who followed the Cowboys Cowboys fans back in the seventies and eighties and have had a ton of respect for Danny White over the years.
All Right, speaking of quarterbacks.
Okay, so we jump right in on Joe Milton.
What do you make of the acquisition of Joe Milton, a Cowboys roster that of course has Dak Prescott. It's out there on the practice field in the rehab group throughout this offseason and looks good. And you got Will Greer who was acquired reacquired late season, and now you add Joe Milton to the mix.
So here's the way I look at it. The Cowboys were going to use, or at least we were projecting that they would use a third day draft choice on a young quarterback that they could groom to potentially be a backup of the future, sort of in the vein of when they drafted Dak Prescott in twenty sixteen. Their idea was, Okay, we're going to use our second fourth round pick on maybe the backup of the future, not immediately,
but the backup of the future to Tony Romo. And so basically what they did this year was, instead of using a fifth, sixth, or seventh round pick on a quarterback, they used the fifth to trade for Joe Milton, the third, a former sixth round pick of the Patriots. And so that's what they That's how they drafted their quarterback with a year of experience. Now I thought everybody needed to ap breaks a little bit, because immediately the Cowboys have
acquired their backup quarterback for this season. I don't think they look at it that way necessarily.
Right, he can come in and compete for it.
He can compete for it.
He's got to compete with Will Greer, so he could compete for the backup job.
He could be competing.
For the third quarterback position on the roster. And I was told this does not preclude them signing a veteran quarterback who's out there.
I think it's likely right they will, and I don't in as far, I don't think it changes anything as far as the acquisition of a quarterback, whether it's in the draft and or free agency. The Patriots gave him away, right basically. I mean, that's what I don't understand about it, especially with the potential that Joe Milton showed in the one game that he did play, which was against a lot of Bills backups in the last week of the regular season because the Bills did not need to win
that game. I went back and watch the game Drake May played the first series. It was very, very cold, it appeared that day when they played Buffalo.
So the Bills were less than enthused to play.
There, and they were protecting players because everything was locked up for them as far as the division and their seating goes. And he looked in Milton, you've seen the stats. He looked good. Okay. The issue with Joe Milton is that he when you look at his stats going back to college, over the last seven years, he has not played a lot of football. This is going back to his first year at Michigan in twenty eighteen.
I mean he familiar.
Yes, it's he has literally thrown over the last seven years out one hundred and fifty two hundred more passes in games than what Trey Lance has the last seven years. And so that's I agree, tap the brakes on that now. I think it's a great move for the Cowboys to bring him in, but I just I'm just scratching my head with the Patriots. This is a guy with three years left on a contract that pays him nothing a million dollars a year, not.
Even I think what he's costing the Cowboys base salary is nine hundred and sixty ten thousand.
You're giving him up to move up forty six spots on the last half of the third day of the draft. You're giving him up to move up from number two seventeen to one seventy one because they they're getting the Cowboys are getting the Patriots' first seventh round pick as well. As and the Cowboys are giving up a fifth You're they're moving the Cowboys are moving down forty six spots and get Joe Milton. Yes, well that's a no brain,
but it doesn't change anything else. In fact, I would take it a step further on this draft, and I think that the only way that the Cowboys would take a quarterback in the top one hundred picks is if they trade down and pick up an extra pick, like trade down in the first round and pick up at least I'm saying you could if you really like a quarterback who's still there even in the second or third round, if you really like him, okay, and you think he
can be an eventual starter four years from now for you and in the meantime back up Dak Prescott, you can do that if you acquire another top one hundred pick, right, And that's the only scenario I can think of that the Cowboys would would pull the trigger on something like that, and they would really have to like that quarterback. But they're still in the market definitely for a third day quarterback regardless, and without a fourth round pick, that would
be fifth round, sixth round, whatever. But that's no knock on Joe Milton. I mean the Patriots were giving him away. And what the Patriots did. They have Drake May obviously, but they signed Joshua Dobbs, who has a history with Mike Vrabel at Tennessee and he might, you know, Joshua Dobbs might be the brightest person in the league.
He's a rocket scientist.
So he was going to be their backup quarterback. But the problem with Joe Milton is he does not have enough snaps. He has not played enough football for him to say, if Dak Prescott got hurt the first.
Game of the season, Joe Milton's going.
To be be able to go in there with that limited experience and do what Cooper Rush did.
You caught lightning in a bottle with Dak that same scenario, because that was not the plan.
But Dak had so much more experience in college. Joe Milton starting starting experience in college at Mississippi State. I mean, he got Mississippi State all the way to number one in the country playing in the SEC. Joe Milton spent three years at Michigan as a backup, two years at Tennessee as a backup, and finally, in his sixty year of college, got on the field and look decent enough to be a sixth round draft pick.
So that was my point, because if I had heard it one more time or seen it written, the Cowboys just traded for their backup quarterback. No, they traded for a candidate to possibly become because, as Bill said, the day tomorrow Dack's out, you're going to put this guy in there with one game of NFL experience and say, okay, save the season.
And having said all of that, Joe Milton might come in here next week when they start off season, brokouts and hit the ground running. And there's no quote he could pull a Dak Prescott and be the backup quarterback without and when over whoever else they bring in here, and the Cowboys hope that happens. But there's a reason that the Patriots gave up on him after one year, with where they could have had him as a backup to Drake May for the next three years, and the
fact that no other team in the league. Now apparently the Patriots are saying that they did Milton a solid and send him to a place that he wanted to go and had better offers on the table. But even yeah, I rolled my eyes at that too. But clearly the market was not great for Joe Milton looking at what the Patriots got back for.
You know, it was funny because when this happened, I made a list, like I think it was maybe on Thursday of veteran quarterback that are backup types.
That were available still in free agency.
By Friday afternoon, I had to scratch two of them off the list already because the Chargers ended up signing Trey Lance to a one year deal.
How about that? Up to six point two million?
Okay? How about that? How about this? What would the reaction have been? Okay?
You you talked about the reaction by the Cowboys trade Joe Milton. Yeah, okay, and there's excitement, Okay, what would the reaction have been from most of the fans out there if the Cowboys had re signed Tree Lance?
Right? Oh? What are we doing?
Right?
And a lot of that already wasted six million dollars.
And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Trey Lance was the third pick in the draft and is considered a draft bust and this guy and Joe Milton is a sixth rounder. And but if you look at their resumes, there's no In fact, the game, the one game that both of them played last year, in the final game of the regular season, it is very similar what both of them did statistically in that in those games against playoff boundte right exactly.
So I had to I scratched Trey lance Off. I had to sketch scratch off case Keenum because he ended up signing. So my list ended up with Josh Johnson, c J. Bethard Ian Book, Desmond Ritter, Joe Flacco, Easton Stick, Carson Wentz.
And my favorite one true.
Locke And we're talking a guy that was very successful in college. Uh, never really got a clear shot at a chance to start in the NFL, not with Denver, not with Seattle. He was the backup what last year in with the Giants, believe, and he's available. And I think what the Cowboys are doing with this kind of list of veteran backups is they're waiting for the price to.
Come down, or they're also or they're waiting for after the.
Draft, right and see what they can do in the draft.
And say what they can do in the draft. The other thing that happens after the draft, and the same thing happened with the Zeke Elliot signing last year. Then you sign an unrestricted free agent and it doesn't count against your compensatory picks for the following year exactly.
And these guys who are probably looking for the best deal available will wake up on May first and go, huh, many camps are starting and I don't have a job, so I better sign somewhere.
Now.
I'll throw another name out there. I don't know if you mentioned CJ. Bethard, Yes, I did, okay, And Bethard has a history with Shot with Shottheimer, and he could be a veteran guy that comes in here and that would be competition.
Whatever.
Here's a guy who has started games in the league, and then we see how it pans out throughout the offseason and training camp.
Now and then there were I heard and then the people that, you know, whatever the Cowboys do, there's going to be a negative reaction like they don't know what they're doing. So this is well, this is the same thing with Trey Lance. They brought Trey Lance in Da DA. This guy has has an advantage because he's going to be here for the off season for the OTAs. He's going to be here for training camp, and he's going
to be here for preseason games. If you remember, Trey Lance got here the week before the season started and had none of that pre experience with the team, with the offense, with the offensive system.
So at least this.
Guy doesn't have one hand tied behind his back learning things in the off season.
All right, very good. Now, what time was we're gonna hear from Danny?
Well you're hoping that about eleven twenty, okay, all right, so take a break here.
Four minutes away.
Anything else on your legal pad that you would like to get to. And again, the Cowboys are other teams in the league. If you have changed head coaches this year, today is the day you can start off season voluntary off season workouts.
Teams like the.
Bears, Patriots, a couple of other teams a believer starting today. Cowboys are not starting that until next month.
Right The Jets are in there two and one of whenever they end up starting.
So it looks like the Cowboys.
So right now, if guys come in and want to rehab or do some strength and conditioning, they can do it with the strength and conditioning coaches.
But the regular coaches.
Can't have meetings or anything like that can make a phone call.
I think it seems like even though the Cowboys aren't starting THEIRS until next week, they officially starting it until next week, that the coaches should be able to have interactions starting today even though they weren't on the list, because they do have a new head coach, right, Yeah, And I'm not sure we need to check into how that works. Are the Cowboys then extending into June an extra week in June their voluntary program and that's why they're not starting a week early.
I know.
The other thing that's happening behind the scenes here at the Star this week, I assume it is happening, is there's a lot of draft meetings going on. Yeah, and because we're now two and a half weeks out from that draft.
And they had I want to say three three days worth of thirty visits last week.
That was a big week, and especially the end of the week and on bleeding on into Saturday of guys coming in here in dallasdowna also.
And there were some significant names that are being reported that came in for those visits. So yeah, they were pretty and they were busy on Saturday too. By the way, with more visits taking place.
And with the Cowboys looking for a veteran backup quarterback, maybe we'll ask Danny White if he has some interest.
What you got left, buddy, and he will join us when we come back here On a Monday edition, the Mix.
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All right, we continue with mix shots.
And we'll be joined by Danny White, former Cowboys great here in just a moment. He's got a book out he wrote with his daughter, Heather Joe Kennedy, and the name.
Is Spotlights and Shadows.
And so we'll be joined by Danny here in just a moment. Anything on your legal pad there, Mickey, you want to get to before that?
Well, I had some names that.
Reportedly since the Cowboys don't confirm visits that came in for either the thirty visits or coming in or have come in for Dallas Day when they bring guys in, and interesting that I see a bunch of running backs.
We're going to come in for visits.
Some of these guys are local guys like Ashton Genti.
Damian Martinez is another local guy.
Collie Gordon Ye another local running back, and one of my favorite guys Ohio State running back Quincheon Judkins. I
think that this guy's got something. And I think when people ask me what position do you think they'll draft, and I said, they've got so many choices between running back, wide receiver, defensive end, cornerback that I think you look at the draft and say, okay, which of those positions has the least amount of depth in the draft, Because if I can get somebody that I need in the second round, then in the first round, unless this guy's just got the blinking light, I'll take the position that
has the least amount of depth. Because I probably can't get a good one in the second round.
Okay, Well, we started the show talking about the quarterback situation with this team, and of course Dak Prescott on the roster, Will Greer on the roster, Joe Milton acquired Nicky Spagnola. I'm thinking the Cowboys need a veteran backup quarterback on this team, right. I think I would go to Arizona State University to acquire this backup quarterback. Let's see if there's anything left in the tank. As the Great Danny White joins us on mix shots, Danny, you
got Bill Jones and Mickey here. We appreciate for some reason, Everson didn't show up today for this podcast, but you'll take Everson spot here, Danny.
Great to hear from it.
Hey, I'm good. How you guys doing, Bill, Nicky, good to be with you.
Great to have you with us, Danny, And you got anything left in the tank about how about it?
Come on? Come out of retirement here you go.
The mind is willing, but the body is weak. Something like that, something something something like that. You know what. It's a funny feeling because in my really, in my mind, I'm I'm twenty five years old, and I go out and I think I can still throw the ball, and it just doesn't happen. I don't know, I don't know what happened.
Well, I'll tell you a funny thing happened. I think it was yesterday.
I had gone skiing, and I had a beard for the last month, and only one or two people noticed that I shaved it on Friday, right And I said something to my wife and she goes, oh, yeah, you shaved it. And I'm going huh, and she goes, why'd.
You do it?
I said it was starting to make me look old, and she goes, you are old.
It's like, okay, thanks a lot, appreciate it.
Oh funny, how that works?
All right? Well, Danny, let me tell you this.
I worked at CBS eleven yesterday and I worked late. I had a show at ten thirty at night. I get home last night close to midnight. I picked up a book that Mickey gave me called Danny White, Spotlights and Shadows with daughter HJ.
Kennedy. Right here. I was up to two o'clock.
This morning reading your book. And I absolutely love this book. I read it back from front cover to back cover. Now, I didn't have to skip through because I needed to go to bed at some point. I had to skip through some of it. But I just absolutely love this book.
Danny.
Well, thank you, Bill. I appreciate it. It was a lot of fun. I never I swore I would never write a book, because it's just to me, writing a book is just being presumptuous, you know, like I got to say, and you need to hear it. And and you know, but my kids, especially my daughter Heather, she they talked me into it is mostly for her. She's a certified life coach and she's written a book of her own now and uh so and and they just convinced me that, you know, I've lived kind of a
charmed life. I've had a lot of things go my way and had some opportunities that most people don't get to have and and would love to have, you know, to be the quarterback of America's team and what and and maybe there's some things that I ow to share. And the stories started coming back, you know, and and uh some of that stuff about coach Landry and and coach Cush in college were we're just priceless and they've
all they've all got a real moral to them. Uh, And that's what I was trying to do, was was make it somehow make it apply to everyday life so people could get something out of it. And that's what I was hoping. I didn't want to write a sports book. I wanted to write a self help or a motivational book at least a little bit. And that's why all the poetry and all that stuff. But I loved ended up. When it was done, I was so glad I did it, and so I hope people enjoy it.
Yeah, Danny that I was going to ask you that that was the unique thing about this book because normally when former players write a book, it's memory of this game and this game and this story and all that kind of stuff. But yours was more in depth about kind of emotional feelings you had about playing, Heather's thoughts on growing up with a celebrity dad and what that was like.
A celebrity dad who didn't ever want to be a celebrity, right exactly.
And thus, thank you, thank you, thus.
The title of the book, right, And it was so unique and and and you gave us some more of the background kind of feelings you had about doing this job. But being able to juggle raising a family at the same time.
Well, it's about it's about priorities, mickey, you know, and I think, and I hope, I hope. If nothing else, the one thing people get out of it is that, you know, we we all develop talents and have gifts, and some are permanent and some are temporary, and unfortunately, most of us spend a large amount of time most of our life developing temporary talents. And by that I mean stuff things you can't take with you, things that are you know, I learned two skills in my life,
throwing a football and playing the piano. Well, thanks to my mom, I spent eight years learning taking formal piano lessons. I don't throw footballs anymore, you know, but I played the piano every day and it's brought me so much enjoyment and relaxation and all that and and so it's it's it's developing things that are going to be around your entire life and even beyond your life, you know, family, friends, faith.
Those are the things that I hope people got out of it, That to me, at least, are the most important things we can we can develop in our lives.
All right, let's talk about playing the piano, yes, and how it affected your football career, you know, and for most of us, Okay, I know myself. We had a piano and I never my parents never made me take piano lessons, but the piano sitting there, and I would
get on it occasionally and bang on it. And now, after reading your book, I'm sitting there going And I had a great friend growing up who could play the piano, and then I was envious of him once we got into high school in college because all the girls flocked to him because at parties he could play the piano. But you told a great story in here, how the piano lessons and the discipline of every single day a half hour on the piano, how it affected you as a football player.
Yeah. That And never had any clue, nor did my mom that I was developing skills that would help me as a as a quarterback. But the discipline of practicing every day, her coming out and getting me off the street a few times and dragging me in by the
here and slamming me down practiced the piano. But not only that, but then you know, I got to the cowboy, said Bob Ward sat me down in front of a computer and said, take this test, and they started flashing right hand, left foot, and I had these paddles and I had to hit them and see how many you can do in thirty seconds. And when I got done, he just was standing there with his mouth open. He said, do you happen to play the piano? And I said, well, yeah,
I do. What's that got to do with this? He said, well, you look at notes on a page. Your eyes send a message to your brain. Your brain sends a message to your body, and you do what you see. And the faster you can make that process work, the better piano player you are. And I could just tell by the way you take this now. So well, what's that got to do with football? And he said, well, what do you do as a quarterback? You look down the field,
you see an open receiver. Your eyes send a message to your brain, Your brain sends a message to your body, and you react to what you see. And the faster you can do that, the quicker you can get the ball to that receiver before the defense we had, the better quarterback you are, you know, And man, I just I never ever dreamed. Almost hours of knocking the ivory off of those keys was going to actually, but anybody that plays the piano will tell you that it is
so true. You have to anticipate and you and and the quicker you can react to what you see, the better you are both. And uh yeah, that's one of the stories in the book. And uh it's it's it's so true.
You know, the Cowboys are looking for a quarterback in this draft, maybe maybe a drafted quarterback. I'm thinking Jerry Jones is going to hear this and he's that's a question now that's going to be asked to the quarterbacks.
Well, yeah, and Bob said that to me. He said, you know, I found that players who play a musical instrument make better athletes. And you know, of course Bob Ward was a deep thinker and he he went for stuff like that. But you know, if they have a piano in the quarterback room, I'm available.
There you go. All right.
So I thought I knew you awfully well.
We spent a lot of time, especially these last what ten fifteen years when you were doing the Compass broadcast for the Cowboys radio broadcast, So I didn't know about the piano playing, and I think I'd forgotten how good a baseball player you were, and how did you make that decision between Okay, I'm going to baseball or I'm going to football.
Before you answer that question, let me for those who aren't aware of how strong a baseball program Bobby Winkles had at Arizona State. Here are a few of the names that came out of the Arizona State baseball program in the sixties and seventies. Sal Bando, Rick Monday, Reggie Jackson, Larry Gurra, Randall went to Arizona State. I didn't realize that Eddie Bain was.
Like football scholarship, did he really?
Okay, yeah, that's right.
And uh and and then it was probably after and shortly after your time. Floyd Banister was there, Kenny Landrou Bob Horner uh played there as well. I mean that was a baseball factory. So now answer Mickey's question.
Well, it's it's funny because yeah, I mean, baseball was my my love growing up. Uh. And I got to a s U and Bobby Winkles recruited me, and then he left my freshman year and Jim Brock came in and and a lot of things changed. I mean I grew up going to all those baseball games and watching them sprint from the from home played to the dugout when they struck out, and sprint to first base if they walked, and you know, it was just so much fun watching those guys work the way they did, and
and that was that was part of the draw. But my baseball career just just kind of took a nosedive. In my football career. I went from being one of five freshman quarterbacks playing one year of quarterback in high school and going there as a punter and a defensive back to becoming the starting quarterback my sophomore year. And that is a long way to go in a short
period of time. And it was because of guys graduating, quitting, transferring, and really Frank Cush was stuck with me and we had a great team and all I had and he told me before the first game is now white. All you got to do is get the ball from the center and give it to one of our guys without
dropping it, and we'll be fine. And that was his pep talk, you know, And I kind of made a career out of that, whether it was Woody Green and Benny Malone and Steve Holden or Tony Dorsett and Herschel Walker and Drew Pearson, and you know, I just always was surrounded by great talent, and so my football career just took off. We won the first three Fiesta Bowls. We led the nation in scoring and offense. And so
my senior year I didn't even play baseball. I tell the story in the book about striking out to make the last out of the College World Series. That's a story not many people know about until now, and but that was the last time I played baseball.
If you would have if they would have let you hit, then you wouldn't have struck.
Out though, if it would have let me swing at And I was one of those guys that did everything the coach. You know, there are times, and I learned this kind of the hard way, when you as a quarterback or as an athlete, you have to do what you feel and not what the coach tells you to do. And that was one of those times. The last play of the forty nine er game Championship game after the catch was another one of those times when I always had done what I felt instead of what coach Landry
told me to do. So there are times like that when you just got to go with with your feel and that that was one of those times that I had a two and o count and a fastball was coming, and I could hit any fastball. Nolan Ryan couldn't throw one by me, but I couldn't. If it broke a quarter of an inch, I couldn't hit it.
That's why you became a quarterback.
That's why I became a quarterback. I'd still be riding around on a bus in West Texas playing minor league baseball if I hadn't been for that. I could hit a curveball, but uh yeah, the next two pitches were curves. And that was the end of my baseball career.
You know.
You you mentioned.
Things about how things you were fortunate, how things fell for you, and I thought, the interesting thing, and I think this is indicative of some of the story, as you told in the book, is how you met your wife, the mother of your children, and how important family became to you. And I thought, maybe you can tell the story of of when you first met her.
Are you talking about our first day? Yes, yeah, we had just met. They just moved into town from Canada, and and I'll tell this pretty quickly, but it was homecoming and I asked her to go to homecoming with me, and we we didn't even know each other hardly, and she was not a big football fan. And I got kicked in the head by one of my own players early in the game, and I was out, I mean I was out, and concussion and and all that went home. I'm sitting on it in front of the TV, watching
watching television. Mom walks in and says, Danny, didn't you have a date with that new girl tonight? And I said, Mom, I don't remember anything. So she said, well, I better call him, And so she and joe Lyne had been sitting there in her dress and all made up. She didn't go the game. She didn't know what happened. And now it's like eleven o'clock at night. And anyway, my dad ended up driving me over and picking her because
I couldn't drive with Mike with a concussion. Picked her up and we went down to Bob's Big Boy on Main Street in Mates and went in and I bought he of Hamburger, and my dad sat in the car and waited for us, and we went back out. He took us home and that was our first day. The next day, I didn't remember a thing about it, and that.
Led to forty six years of marriage.
I must have done something right, I say, And how many kids? Four? Four kids? Sixteen grandkids? And then and then I just got remarried. She passed away six years ago from brain cancer. And then and then I remarried two years ago. And Linda has fifteen grandkids, so we have thirty one between us and nine kids, and life kind of started all over again.
You have lost.
Those are the kind of things. Those are the kind of things I'm talking about that are that are really really important to me anyway. And my football career is kind of just a blur now.
And the poetry part too, right.
Oh, I loved. I loved because that was how I trained my brain for Landry's game plans. You know, we'd get a game plan on Tuesday night and had to have it memorized Wednesday for offensive day, and he would change things up every week. He'd never run the same play from the same formation two weeks in a row, so we had to be able to memorize. And and that was back before players had receivers in their helmet and that you know, the to just talk to him
and call the play. That's probably the biggest thing that's changed in the game since I played, at least the quarterback position is being able to talk to the quarterback well, so we have signals and we had to memorize all that stuff. So I would train my brain by memorizing poetry and I some of those not only were they great to memorize, but they were inspirational as well.
You know, Uh, just reading reading the book, and uh, I love how transparent both you and Heather Joe are about the tragedies that have happened in your life.
You mentioned, uh, Joe Lynn's brain cancer, and.
I think for a lot of people it will help them who are dealing with with things like that. I've got a good friend it just was diagnosed, and you know, uh that sort of thing. This book. I bring that up to say that this this book goes far beyond football. They're so many life lessons and one of the things I love. I've three daughters coached him in basketball. Heather Joe told a story on page one, twenty six. She said,
my parents are my biggest ride and die. I was playing in a basketball game one time when I stole the ball headed for a fast break as my defender turned, I caught her foot on mine and took a good dive, cracking my head loud on the hardwood. The referees didn't stop the game, didn't even blow a whistle. Instead of attending to me, they were focused on the game. So in the middle of the game, my dad stormed the court. Words were exchanged, and he was asked to exit the gym.
Your biggest fans should be concerned about one thing, you. I guess I should have said there was an attempt to throw him out of the game.
They weren't successful, exactly right, Bill. I told them. I told them they better go get the Arizona National Guard if they think they're going to give me that, because I was sitting right behind him other she was on the bench, and I mean, if you could have heard that, the echo of her head getting the floor, I just I freaked out, you know, and I did. I just ran straight out into the middle of the game. And
I don't wonder you guys doing stop the game. And they, yeah, they they tried to kick me out, but they didn't. I didn't. Budge wasn't about.
She said, they let you stay in the gym.
I was fine by the way our trainer took care of me while dad and the ref were facing off.
That made me feel better about my antics as a youth basketball coach.
In the reference, parents can be the worst, can't they? Or the best?
Again, it's a great example of there's stuff for parents in here too.
I love this, I was gonna say, and me too.
Trying to help coach junior high fast pits girls software and I to get thrown out of a game one time.
Well, I tried to help Joe Germaine here coach high school. I got. I got thrown out of two games. I had to go sit up in the booth and coach from the boot because I just couldn't handle the officiated high school officiating. Just oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah, that's tough.
Well, and so now in your retirement life, are you keeping just as busy as you ever were?
No? I hope not.
Well, you got how many grandchildren?
Thirty one?
There's got to be tons of games you have to get to, right every Saturday.
Saturday Saturday is I mean, Linda goes one way and I go the other way, and we divide and conquer and try to get it done. But yeah, I'm then Sunday afternoon dinners and and uh, there's a lot of stuff going on. But you know what, I went for a number of years by myself, and fortunately I had my kids, you know, around me. But I'm not one of those guys. Some guys can live by themselves. I'm not one of them. So I'll take it. I'll I'll take of being busy any day over just having nothing to do.
And grandparenting.
You know the importance of the parents and the grandparents being at the games because you lived it with your great parents that you had.
Well, do you have a roster on your refrigerator? What everybody's name?
All the grandkids have it in my phone? Yeah, not on the fridge. I can't carry that fridge around in the car with me. I gotta have it with me at all times. But you know, I just personally, I think it's one of the real problems in our society and our culture today is just parents. Either they're not there at all, or they're too soft, or you know, I've got an answer for everything, and that's that's one of my answers, is parenting. Good parenting will solve a lot of problems.
Well, I think people need to be able to read your book. So it's Danny White Spotlight and Shadows.
And you can go to.
Amazon dot com and you can get a copy on Kindle. You can get a hardcover copy or a paper back copy. And I suggest that if you're interested in a career.
That Danny White made for himself.
And the family he raised and how he was raised by a very strict father, I think you would enjoy this book.
And and Vicky also they if they want to sign the copy, if they go to my website Danny White dot com, they can get U We'll sign one and send it to them.
Oh very nice, Well, very good.
I love it.
I'm going to read it again. I just I was able to. Like I said, go slow down. I can slow down and take it all in.
Uh.
I mean, I'm sitting before I go to bed to night after the National Championship game tonight, I'll read Danny White Spotlights and Shadows once again.
And while well, I'm impressed. Bill, you're one of those guys that can read with one eye closed. I guess that's great.
And by the way, kudos to Heather too. I thought her insight in the book was invaluable. She's She's spot on with her memories and how that affected the relationship.
You had with your daughter, how it affected her life.
I am just a little bit proud of her.
I could imagine.
Well, Danny, we appreciate it and hope to see you soon and hopefully this Cowboys team can win some games for you.
Well, thanks for having me on, guys, Let's do it again sometime. I'd love to.
Absolutely this was a fun trip down memory lane, especially your memory lane.
It was what's left of it.
Yeah, the great Danny White here on mix Shots. Thanks Danny again. The book is Spotlights and Shadows with his daughter Heather Joe Kennedy. Thanks Danny and mix Shots continues in a moment.
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All Right, final segment here mixed shots, got nine minutes left. Great to have Danny White on and I'm serious, that's make sure you've especially you're Danny White fan going back to when he was playing for the Cowboys. I think this book is well worth it. It gives you an insight into Danny the person and his family, and there are a lot of life lessons in that.
Book, and he had and he was right, He had a lot of fortunate things happen for him to end up being. You know, the Cowboys started off as the punter right after he started his career at WFL World Football League with the Memphis.
The show Memphis Southmans.
Yeah, it was a weird name. Anyway, two years there the league folded. The Cowboys had taken and they knew he'd signed a personal services contract with the Southmen, and the Cowboys took a third year, a third round flyer on him, thinking that the WFL would eventually fold, which it did, and in seventy six he came to the Cowboys.
And how fortunate was he by landing with the Cowboys and as the backup quarterback that year they had traded away Craig Morton and Clint Longley was the backup gets in the infamous fight in the locker room with Roger Staubach, he leaves, the Cowboys get rid of him, and suddenly he's the backup quarterback in nineteen seventy six, and the punter too, by the.
Way, that's right, all right.
In our final few minutes some things to talk about. Of course, the annual NFL Annual meetings happened last week since we got together. They were in the middle of the meetings when.
We write it.
That's right last Monday.
The rules were they've tabled the tush push till May.
I think they're going to be able to word that where we're not going to see the tush push done the way.
Well what they need to do, and this was a simple fight.
My thought was, you just go back to the rule that was in the NFL through two thousand and four that there was no pushing players from behind, and that that encompasses the running back going up the middle and five offensive linemen getting behind him and all of a sudden it keeps going, going and going. That's where it's dangerous. Somebody's gonna get hurt doing that, and that would include the tush push. So it's not like I'm outlawing one team's play and.
The Eagles or anyone else they can line up like they they've done the tush push. You just can't put someone behind the quarterback pushing them right exactly. All you have to do to change the rule, and whether it's a quarterback or any other spot on the field. You can't push a player forward.
And I think that's what and even Roger Goodell pointed that out. He brought up the other pushes that go on because the defense can't get pushed.
And it doesn't even have to be a penalty.
Right.
What you can do is it's almost like forward progress. A guy dash is from behind, that's that's where that's where it's marked. That play's over, that's where it's run the next down from.
And the other rule changes they did, I'm all for, why would you have one rule for overtime in the playoffs and not have it during the regular season where each team gets a possession.
So that passed.
The touchbacks out to the thirty five yards which will help be significant.
Yes, And then and then giving more jurisdiction to the video replay assist from the official up in the booth that all he has to do is see something's wrong and buzz down and say, hey, fix this.
It doesn't have to be challenged. We don't need a replay.
You either missed the call or you got the call wrong. And they expanded what that guy can do up in the in the coach in the basically the replay booth.
All Right, as I mentioned off the top of the show, I've been I've been able to really aren't filling up my big green notebook looking at these prospects. And I actually love this time in my process because there's a certain I've got so many other things I have to do it. I'm not like the Brian Brodis's and Dame Bruglers of the world, who can go ahead and do it a lot of bills like yemens and all that, and so now's the time, and this is when I
get really interested. And so I just if I'm not staying up late reading Danny White's book, I'm staying.
Up late looking at draft prospects.
And just like on Friday afternoon, I'm going through these wide receivers, and I'm not going through the top wrong wide receivers. I'm Okay, what options do the Cowboys have in the mid rounds with wide receivers? And you have to know this stuff to know whether you have to take that Tep McMillan in the first round or Matthew Golden in the first round. Well, can you fill another position there? If every if all things being equal, if you're choosing between a wide receiver or a corner back
or line back or whatever it might be. You got to know how deep the positions are throughout the draft. And so I'm going through on one page here, I got four wide receivers that are probably projected to be anywhere from third to fifth round picks. I'm going I like that guy. Oh, I like that guy. I mean, there's a bunch of guys that now can they And I'm looking at guys who can eventually be number two receivers. Obviously, if you're looking for someone who can be a CD Lamb,
it's probably going to be a first round pick. Now, there are occasions Pookin Nakua, who was a fifth round pick and it's now the number one receiver along with DeVante Adams with the rams he had, Amen Ross Saint Brown who was a fourth round pick for the Lions who emerged as a top rung receiver, Stefan Diggs going back further, and so you can find guys like that.
Just percentages aren't with right right.
But you can find good quality receivers in the third the fifth rounds, and the same goes for other positions. I mean, this draft you've got a bunch of defensive linemen. You've got a bunch of edge rushers that can be contributors. And really, the way I look at it is, I'm looking at guys not so much for this year, although you want them to contribute their rookie year when you're talking about mid round guys, but who are guys that
can eventually be a starter in this league. They can fill a role right now and then like what the Cowboys did four years ago getting OsO, Digga Zua and Chauncey Golston. And Osa came on quicker than Golston did, but we saw what Golston was able to do this last year. There are a bunch of players like that that you can get on the defensive line in the third round.
And that's what.
Especially that second day, the second and third round picks. And again, so I had asked you the question the depth of those positions, which of those positions the Cowboys would be interest has the least amount of depth that you'd say you better get that guy in the first one.
Well, and then where's yeah, where's the drop off?
Right? And and see you look at the running back position and it's a deep draft of good running backs. Okay, now it's going to be interesting to see how quickly they start coming off the board because it's a deep draft of good running backs, right.
Yeah.
However, I'm thinking that some of those running backs are so good that teams are going to think, well, I don't want to wait all the way to the fourth round. I got to get my guy in the second or third round otherwise, because we love these guys so much.
Thanks to Saquon Barkley, by the way, well now showing how important the running back can be, yep.
And wide receivers.
They might wait on wide receivers because you have of those top one hundred type players or to say, top fifth d type players you probably for the first time have in a while. You've got more running backs than wide receivers. Probably that or at least that many that fit into that mix.
Where do cornerbacks fit in?
You know, I haven't I haven't dug deep enough into the depth of the cornerbacks yet, but I mean there are good cornerbacks and one that the Cowboys need to really consider in the first round. Who you looked at down in Austin, John A. Barn and what I like about him? As much as anything beyond what I see on film. He checks all the boxes as far as being a quality, high character, smart player who is a barring injury, I think is going to have a long career.
And the thing that stood out to me most just listening to his interview afterwards was his confidence.
This is a confident.
Guy and if your cornerback, you better have that because you are going to get beat. So how do you respond to that?
And think of the competition that he's gone up against, especially this year in the SEC and then in the College Football Playoff. Not only this year but also last year. He went up against those Oregon guys in the in the National semifinal last year in Oregon had all those good wide receivers. This year going up against Ohio State, and so you have some real tape to look at against NFL quality players, and so you make a good judgment on someone like.
Beer and a lot of that position seemingly is getting overlooked because you lose Jordan Lewis the Cowboys right now, if they're going to start whenever, it's Doron Bland and tell me who you know.
I know they.
Traded for a career Kyral, but this is a guy that you know, Okay is a former high pick, but he hasn't really bled a drop in the league so far, and so I don't think they can sit there and say Trayvon Diggs is going to be ready to go for the opening of the season.
And I think you got to look at both Diggs and Overshown as guys that in your own mind as you're planning out this year, is what are you doing at cornerback and linebackers right? Because you cannot count on them being there the first half of that And.
I think for sure Overshown he's not going to get back in time. He'll be on pup to start the season. He'll be on pup to start training camp. And Trayvon Diggs, you know we're going to see here in a in a little bit if when they start their offseason program, is he here rehabbing.
I see Dak every day.
But I do think your first round pick has to be a guy who can step on the field and place absolutely and start immediately.
Picking at number twelve.
And the second round guy too, when we're looking at defensive lineman also, which we didn't.
Even well it'd been in a rotation on the defensive linefe So yeah, yeah, because I don't think just like mcneiland last year.
I mean, he was in a rotation last year.
And so now if he can step up and be a guy, right, and Sam Williams comes back as the player they thought they were going to have until he tore his acl and Micah Parsons which we didn't even touch all that business.
But even as far as the edge rushers going, I know, we're out of time here. Even as far as the edge rushers go, you got to keep in mind, and this is this ups the need for edge rushers, is that Williams is in the last year of his contract. Dante Fowlers on a one year deal as well, and.
You know, and he may be best as a rotation guy, not having to play.
He had snaps a.
Game, yeah, and he and that's what he's been lately. He had a little over five hundred snaps with Washington last year, but the year before with Dallas he was around three hundred snaps. And that's basically what Sam Williams has topped out in the first two years of his career.
And even five hundred snaps, that's probably that's half of thirty twenty five.
It's you.
You typically will get eleven hundred snaps in a season on defense, and so that's about fifty percent of the snaps anyway, all right, thanks to Danny White for joining us here ever since. We'll be back next week and we will see you again next Monday at eleven on mix Shots.
See.
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