“I’m getting hundreds of emails – hate mail – but I’m responding to it all. People deserve a response.

You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. You have no idea …
Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection – I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry.” - Ed Hochuli

It’s good to see a referee man up to a mistake.  People need to lay off of this guy though.  He is one of the best referee’s the NFL has.  I honestly love when he ref’s Cowboy games, he has historically been very ‘Fair and Balanced’ in his calls.  I hope this hate mail stops soon, it would be a shame to see the quality of this great referee fall because of one mistake. 

Source: Yahoo Sports

I don’t have scientific or statistical proof, but I’m pretty sure that the majority of his picks at any given time are usually wrong unless the pick is blatantly obvious.  In fact, I just looked up his picks and so far he’s 9-7.  Only Mike Golic had a worse week than Hoge.. and it would have been the same if Golic was allowed to pick the MNF game between Denver and Oakland.  (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/features/talent)

For the 2007-2008 Season, Hoge had these picks -

Merril Hoge
AFC Champion San Diego
NFC Champion New Orleans
Super Bowl Champion San Diego
MVP Tom Brady

The only thing he was right about was Tom Brady.  Are you surprised he picked Tom Brady?  A freaking hermit crab would have picked Tom Brady.  Every girl on the planet would have picked Tom Brady just because he’s dating Giselle.  Any football fan would pick Tom Brady because IT WAS THE OBVIOUS CHOICE.

But.. alas he was absolutely wrong about the Saints and the Chargers. 

he also hates Vince Young…. and my boy VY needs some fans right now after the bad week he had

Adam Jones is expected to play in the first game of the Regular season for the Dallas Cowboys.

He was suspended for the entire 2007 season for his off the field antics.  After being traded to the Cowboys in the off-season, Jones has been working very hard with mentors Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin to rehabilitate his career and reputation. 

From Adam Jones,

“It feels good man, you know, to get a second chance and I just have to take advantage of it…” He continued, ”First and foremost, I don’t want to let myself down, definitely my little girl down. I’m thankful for Jerry [Jones], the fans in Dallas and my teammates for believing in me. I need to keep doing what I’ve been doing to get reinstated, staying with myself and my teammates and staying away from those knuckleheads and just stay focused.”

This could be fantastic for the cowboys secondary and could help push the Dallas Cowboys to the next level.  They could win some playoff games and maybe actually get to the Super Bowl.

Dallas Morning News Article

Here are my picks, this will either be amazing or absolutely horrible.

Adrian Peterson  -RB
Ben Roethlisberger – QB
Darren McFadden – RB
Roy Williams – WR
Santonio Holmes – WR
Hines Ward – WR
Cowboys D/ST
Donald Driver – WR
Todd Heap – TE
D.J. Hackett – WR
Jason Campbell – QB
Jeff Garcia – QB
Benjamin Watson – TE
Shayne Graham – K
Antwaan Randle El – WR
Sammy Morris – RB

This show is providing some great insight into how training camp is going.  It is also letting me see more of the personalities of the players.  On the field, you dont really get to see how people really interact with one another.  Further, the media portrays these athletes as villains or heroes.  We dont get to see the people they really are.  I was really pleased with the first episode of Hard Knocks and I cant wait until Wednesday for my next dose.

HBO’s Hard Knocks it aires Wednesday at 9 PM eastern

Here are some comments a friend of mine made about the episode:

 
First 10 minutes, appallingly bad. Looked like it was going to be the Jerry Jones show. I’d be willing to bet he set up that call with Terry Glenn’s agent before the actual call.
 
Remaining 50 minutes outstanding.
 
—Didn’t know Tank was such a cut up, he seems like a really fun guy
—Like the idea that Wade is the Good Cop Head Coach and the Garretts are the hard asses
—Interesting to see draft say conversation re: Mendenhall vs Jones brief synopsis. Appparently they believe Marion is an everydown back for sure
—Following Martellus Bennett was an interesting call, but you have to like guys who grew up as Cowboys fans getting selected by us
—Witten and Romo seem like genuine friends, we’ve said this before, nice to see it reaffirmed
—Dave Campo. Glad to see him back. Glad he’s not head coach.
—Who the hell are all those white guys they showed in the ice tubs. No seriously, we have 2 white guys starting on the O line, and it wasn’t either of them. I’m guessing Practice squad OL guys.
—Roy Williams, I am THE Roy Williams homer, so I will stand mute on this one, but I love the ideas I’ve heard, like inflating trade value, build a psychological fear in other teams (as though they are watching Hard Knocks and saying uh oh Roy is getting back to form!)
—T.O.’s T-Shirts. Anybody think he should’ve made a specific shirt for the Player formerly known as Pacman (PFKPac) that says: iRain on the front, then on the back says: But leave the money on the floor, Hoes.
—If we fall out this year, the ominous warning sign is PFKPac holding an empty bucket grinning and saying “Wekum to the Dallas Cowboy”
—Anybody terrified about Crayton’s mindset. Talking about the drop he said “It’s all I’ve been thinking about, it’s what drives me” That’s fine for the year, but how wound up is he gonna be in the playoffs?