{"id":11,"date":"2002-07-11T00:41:03","date_gmt":"2002-07-11T00:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=11"},"modified":"2002-07-11T00:41:03","modified_gmt":"2002-07-11T00:41:03","slug":"hard-knocks-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"Hard Knocks Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that HBO<\/a> is going to run another
\n“Hard Knocks” football special this year.
\nLast year, this show followed my home-team and super bowl champion
\nRavens<\/a> through
\ntraining camp and the preseason. This year they are going to switch gears and
\nhead to Texas to profile my second favorite team, the
\nDallas Cowboys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First, a bit on the show itself. By and large, I really enjoyed it last season.
\nObviously, as a big fan of the Ravens, I thought that the opportunity to see what
\nhappens more or less behind closed doors was quite interesting. The
\nshow certainly had its slow points but it also had a couple of memorable moments.
\n(like “The Goose” locking the tight ends, including Shannon Sharpe, in a
\ntrailer or a bit of rookie hazing that ended with a poor gentleman taking
\nan ice bath). The focus on rookies that were on the fringe of getting cut and
\nsome unfortunate injuries suffered by the team added just that bit of drama that
\nwas needed.<\/p>\n

The coverage now heads to Dallas. For those who don’t know, Dallas has been
\nmy favorite football team for as long as I can remember. I know what many of
\nyou are thinking: “Oh no, a Dallas fan. How could you?” All I can say is
\nthat I got it honest. I grew up in a house of Cowboy fans, namely my two
\nbrothers. The Cowboys were good in the seventies, my brothers would cheer
\naway every Sunday, I was young and impressionable, and it stuck. When they
\ngot good again in the early nineties, my love for the sport was just hitting
\nstride. It all clicked, particularly since poor old Baltimore didn’t have a
\nteam of its own. When it gained one, just a few scant years ago, Dallas had to
\nslip down a notch to make room for the hometown boys.<\/p>\n

My only problem with the show is that this season just can’t be as good as the last.
\nThe records of the two teams in the season following the show could end up
\nbeing quite similar. Dallas, although lacking at the quarterback position, is
\nlooking quite solid in both defense and at the running back position. Their
\nwide recievers are reasonably solid. They could (I repeat could) compete for a
\nplayoff spot, much like my Ravens did last year. This year Dallas seems to
\nbe on its way up. The Ravens, little did we know, were on their way down.
\nHowever, this might not mean much to the show for two
\nreasons. One, the show takes place in the preseason. At this point, it is
\nall about the hype. The Ravens had a super bowl trophy. The Cowboys
\nhave quite a large following. The ratings may end up being better but the content
\nprobably won’t. Two, the Cowboys just don’t have the cast of characters that made
\nthe show so much fun with the Ravens. Let’s replace Brian Billick with Dave Campo. Let’s
\nreplace Tony Sirigusa with La’Roi Glover. Replace Shannon Sharpe with … well, you can’t
\nreally replace that mouth with anyone outside of Mick Jagger. Can you? It just
\nwon’t have the same ring to it. There is no replacing the personalities that
\nmade up the Ravens last year.<\/p>\n

In any case, I’ll be watching and hoping for the best. I’m voting for the
\nCowboys this year, if only to stem the tide of tears over what has become a
\nrebuilding year for the Ravens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that HBO is going to run another “Hard Knocks” football special this year. Last year, this show followed my home-team and super bowl champion Ravens through training camp and the preseason. This year they are going to switch gears and head to Texas to profile my second favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys. First, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}