You ever tried to stop a rumor from making the rounds because, well, it shouldn't have been a rumor in the first place? Only, by telling people the rumor wasn't true, you somehow gave it legs to make the rounds anyway? Yeah, this is like that.
English translation: Brad Sham is almost certainly coming back to the Dallas Cowboys radio booth next season. And his new/old sidekick is almost certainly going to be Babe Laufenberg.
Whispers in and out of Valley Ranch lately have been that Sham is being wooed for a gig at Fox TV. Makes sense. Brad does a little March Madness radio for CBS, a little NASCAR for DirecTV, a little fill-in NFL on Fox, and he's more than a little good. Makes sense, that is, till you pick up the phone and ask him if he has an inkling to leave.
"It would be very surprising to me if I'm not back doing Cowboys games in 2007," Sham tells Unfair Park. "It would have to be a case of me getting fired ... and I'm hoping you don't know something I don't."
No ... I just ... um ... wanted to pass along a rumor and then squash it real quick-like. So there. Brad Sham wasn't going anywhere, and, after exhaustive research, he's still not.
But, check it, wouldn't you think the legendary 29-year voice of the Cowboys would have a, ahem, voice in who he works with? Well, you'd be wrong. In the wake of Charlie Waters quitting after a one-year stint, the Cowboys are searching for Brad's next partner. But Sham's guess is only as good as yours. Which, let's be honest, ain't worth a damn.
"I have no idea," he says. "I'm not on the committee."
Weird. That's like being forced to cook the meals without being able to buy the groceries ... Wait. What? Still, he haunts us.
If -- apparently not when -- the Cowboys asked for Sham's opinion, he'd tell them he wants to again work alongside Laufenberg. The two excelled in Dallas' booth from 1998 until Babe resigned after the '05 season to spend more time with his family.
Says Sham, "If it's not Charlie, then, yeah, I hope it's Babe."
Oh, Babe?
"It's a real possibility," Laufenberg told us last night. "I'm hoping there's a way to go back to doing that job without having it require me to work seven days a week."
Laufenberg will have formal discussions with the Cowboys in the next two weeks and reach a decision by April. His regular gig at KTVT-Channel factors in. So do his 8- and 11-year-old sons.
"I'd like to see it work out," Babe says. "I missed doing the games last year. But I didn't miss being gone every other Saturday and Sunday." --Richie Whitt
