A Depressing Story About Mel Renfro

On the front page of this morning’s New York Times is a piece about how “clinical depression among retired National Football League players is strongly correlated with the number of concussions they sustained.” The story’s based on a study conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study…

Mayor Buzzkill

You know how you know you suck? Your legacy is way worse than the guy who fired Tom Landry. I tried to help Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. No, really. Tried to give her a platform to express her personal regret/jubilation/defiance/pulse over Super Bowl XLV being played in Arlington. Made an…

A-Rod = A-Fraud

The worst day ever in Texas Rangers history. Ever. Maybe it’s his cousin’s sister’s friend, or something. Maybe his wife, Cynthia, knows all about it. Maybe it’s harmless, innocent. Or just maybe — like some of us have long been saying — Alex Rodriguez is far from the Boy Scout…

Mark Cuban Suits Up for Football

Yup — that’s what it’s going to say in Sunday’s New York Times, specifically its PLAY sports magazine. In the June 3 issue, Joe Nocera reports that Wall Street money man Bill Hambrecht and Google executive Tim Armstrong are launching a professional football league to compete with the NFL –…

Kim-Possible

For now, Anthony Kim’s at top the Colonial leaderboard. Just when we were all comfy letting the awkwardly named Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial run its course undetected, a local kid up and bolts to the top of the leader board. OK, admit it, we’re still going to ignore the…

Actually, Yes, These Are Your Father’s Rangers

A fool opined about how these new Texas Rangers would be constructed, and instructed, to win games not only by scores of 13-2 but also 3-2. Fool, meet gold. Er, copper. The teasing peep show we’ve seen the last eight years — eye-popping blowouts negated by numerous close losses; gaudy…

Tom Hicks: Makin’ Friends Everywhere!

First, Tom Hicks gets in hot water in the U.K. for announcing that his purchase of Liverpool’s football club was nothing more than a business decision — no different from buying, oh, a cereal manufacturer. (I do so love this headline from a pissed-off column in today’s Guardian concerning Hicks’…

Doctoring Dirk

Come in, come in. Have a seat, Dirk. Better yet, lie down on the couch. That’s right, you and your NBA Most Valuable Player trophy get comfy. Or at least try. Because that’s it, really, the reason I’ve summoned you here. To convince Dirk Nowitzki once and for all that…

Random Sports — and “Sports” — News

This picture of Keyshawn Johnson and Steve Martin might be the most confusing photo ever taken. Former Dallas Cowboys receiver Keyshawn Johnson retired today, to join ESPN as a sportscaster. Not that Johnson thinks he was ready to give up the game. “Although I am currently able to play at…

Bush Library, Meet Sports Think Tank

Jim Morris, who looks nothing like Dennis Quaid, is in town this week for a sports thingy over at SMU. Tomorrow: The Super Bowl. Today: Summit On Sports. In 2011 North Texas will give the world a grandiose, decadent event filled with parties and excess. But for the next two…

Why the PGA Screwed Texas

Used to be the pros came to town to pay their respects to Byron Nelson. Now, the PGA and its players don’t much care about his namesake tournament. Even us non-golfers knew when the Byron Nelson and Colonial were happening — and happenin’, come to think of it. Used to…

The Super Bowl: Or, What’s In It For Me?

We’re big fans of Craig Depken’s from way back, when, last June, we pushed his paper Mega-Events: Is the Texas-Baylor game to Waco what the Super Bowl is to Houston?, which the University of Texas at Arlington sports economics prof penned with his University of Baltimore associate Dennis Coates. Another…

Suites Sweetened Cowboys’ Super Bowl Bid? So Says Indy Paper.

There’s a name for Jerry Jones’ grin here … something-eating maybe? It’s on the tip of my tongue… You know who’s pissed that the Cowboys landed Super Bowl XLV? Well, sure — Indianapolis, duh. As proof, we point you to this story, just posted, from the Indianapolis Business Journal, which…

Well, That Did Not Take Long

The above image just went up on the Dallas Cowboys’ official Web site. How long you think that’s been prepared? The “North Texas” is a nice touch, but you also gotta wonder whether Arlington, which is footing $325 mil of the billion-dollar price tag, wouldn’t like its name there instead…

Hail Roger: North Texas Scores XLV

Roger Staubach suited up for his old team one more time; amazingly, the tight pants still fit. While the silence from our lame-duck, lame-ass Mayor’s office is deafening, the rest of Arlington, North Texas and, yes, Dallas can rejoice. Super Bowl XLV will be played here in early February 2011…

Cowboys Favored to Win the Super Bowl

Throw away your pins and climb down off your needles; this is the biggest mismatch since the Mavericks played the Warriors. OK, not the best example. But everything, remember, is bigger in Texas. So big that when the NFL awards the 2011 Super Bowl — XLV — to the Cowboys…

Tom Hicks: The Ugly American?

Tom Hicks had such a good thing going in Liverpool, where he owns the football club gearing up for tomorrow night’s UEFA Champions League final against AC Milan. Then he had to go and open his mouth: In today’s Guardian, the top U.K. read, the owner of the Texas Rangers…

Trainer Keeps A-Rollin’

Over the weekend I slipped outta town; took in some toe-tappin’ music at Texas’ oldest dance hall and screamed like a girl o’er the rapids of Texas’ shortest and coldest (70 degrees my ass) river. (FYI, if you’re headed to New Braunfels for Memorial Day, the river is running at…

Irsay Can You See the Super Bowl in Indy and Not Arlington?

Tomorrow, NFL team owners will award the 2011 Super Bowl, but to whom? The Dallas Cowboys? Maybe. Jerry Jones certainly thinks his ‘Boys deserve it; he ain’t spending a billion on 100,000 seats in Arlington for just to be closer to the Judge Roy Scream. The Arizona Cardinals? No way…

C’mon, Richie, How About them Desperados?

You think you’re in a sports drought? Try being Dale Hansen. All it takes is alcohol. What you’ve felt and what KTCK-AM’s (1310, The Ticket) Mike Rhyner sensed, Dale Hansen confirmed last night. It’s official: Local sports are in an extreme state of suck. You knew it would be lean…

A Setback in Quincy Carter’s Latest Comeback

We just traded our Quincy Carter rookie card for a package of Ding-Dongs. Had the munchies. A month ago, Richie wrote a column for the paper version of Unfair Park about the, ahem, comeback of former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter, currently pitching for the Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings in the Arena2…