WEATHERFORD —
Don't get me wrong, because, to borrow some colloquial phraseology from the "dear departed" (extra heavy on the apostrophes) T.O., "I loves me some Cowboys." But the absence of premature, pre-season predilections and predictions has been sort of a nice non-distraction as we approach the 2011-12 NFL season.
Fall football officially "began" for me this week, as I sat down with three area head coaches to discuss, among other things, the upcoming year of gridiron expectations.
And a brief aside about these meetings, which I may have a predilection for in my own right, lest some of you are not regular readers _These annual conversations, apart from the occasional gems when you catch from high school athletes who may give a fresh or surprising perspective on their sport, life or whatever, just may be at the top of my list were I to enumerate the best thing(s) about being a sports reporter.
Without exception, these sit-down, face-to-face meetings, lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, are among the very favorite requisites of this job.
Unlike the hurried atmosphere of grabbing a few quick quotes after a ball game, while usually sharing time with a gaggle of other media-types, this is unfettered, quality time. All of these coaches are very accommodating, with their time and their insight, and it is a real opportunity to visit the person "behind the clipboard," so to speak.
I happily share that these are quality folks, gauged by the biased barometer of my own home-spun observation. I'll be speaking with other coaches and athletic directors in the coming weeks, and relish those encounters, as well. And to leave the subject, and the aside, most of the coaches (guys and gals) I deal with, and have dealt with in Parker County athletics, are cut from similar cloth.
Let's see... I was, oh yeah, loves me some Cowboys. While the lockout thing is (again) distasteful, one of the side benefits of the ongoing talks, causing a good deal of wait-and-see about a lot of things, has thankfully been the lack of mindless jabber as the airwave experts fill time between sports commercials.
Not all sports analysts are created equal, smarts-wise, just as all columnists aren't (note the weekly dose of self-deprecation).
The unfortunate trend of now-a-days radio and television however, is the penchant for having the two or three talking heads available between _ what seems to always be the hours I am driving home _ prattle on about some guy who is going to really stink up the league because of some stupid tweets he may have put out on in cyberspace.
Without real moves, personnel or otherwise, able to be made due to the lockout, because the players and management cannot play at the same time on the same playground, even the legit experts are forced to speculation. But the good thing is, even the most long-winded of talk-show hosts can run out of breath when "they got nuthin'" and the Rangers are currently doing very well.
The unlocking of the owners lockout appears to be close, which will no-doubt spur another round of speculation about... well, probably a whole bunch of other non-football related stuff.
In the meantime, we can enjoy the silence.
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