Jan 1, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (rear) gets wrapped up by New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora (72) as Cowboys offensive tackle Doug Free (68) tries to block at MetLife Stadium. New York Giants defeat the Dallas Cowboys 31-14. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

From those remarks, I decided to take a closer look at the talent level in the arguably the best division in football, the NFC East and created the below chart listing players, positions, and years of experience.  I then highlighted each player who is the best at his position and came to an interesting conclusion for Mr. Cowlishaw,  it is his home-town Dallas Cowboys who have the best talent in the NFC Eastern Division, not the Philadelphia Eagles or New York Giants.  According to my below chart, Dallas has 8 of the premier starters at key positions,  while their rival, The New York Giants finish second with 6, followed then by the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins with 3 each.

I agree that some of  my rankings can be viewed as controversial.   We can begin with QB which I have listed as a tie between Eli Manning and Tony Romo.  Although in my opinion Romo is the better QB by far.  Romo has a higher QB rating, completion percentage, and more TD’s per game then Manning.  In fact without the luck of a David Tyree miracle helmet catch, a Wes Walker 2^nd down Super Bowl bobble with 4 minutes left in the game, or a Miles Austin dropped wide open 50 yard game clinching TD pass, it isn’t even a debate.

Next, we need to look at left tackle when Tyron Smith is starting for his 1^st year and will replace the better player who is aging and injured Jason Peters and running back where if healthy Demarco Murray will not only prove he is better than LeSean McCoy but all of the running backs in the NFL.   I also rulenctly gave the nod to London Fletcher over future Pro-Bowler Sean Lee, but I feel Lee is better in coverage and his young legs will over-take Fletcher this year.

So when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones answered the big question last year, when asked why the NY Giants were playing in the Super Bowl in 2012 instead of his Cowboys, to which he replied “ I would say Eli Manning along with the NY Giants unbelievable execution at the end of games.”

As we can now see, by breaking down the talent level between all 4 of the NFC East teams below, Jones was 100% right, it isn’t the talent level that separates these NFC East teams, but it was indeed superior (some would say lucky) late game execution.  The perfect example of Jones statement comes from their late season meeting in Dallas, when a dropped wide open TD pass by Miles Austin in the 4th quarter and a blocked Dan Bailey FG in the final seconds, lead the Giants to a very questionable victory in that important division clinching game.   This year Cowboy fans without that let’s say pseudo NY Giant superior late game execution factored in, you will need to adjust those 2012 NFC East rankings to read:

 Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.

Taylor has been writing some scathing columns about the Dallas Cowboys, and frankly, many readers are just getting tired with it. So, he challenged some of his readers to come up with some positive story ideas that he can write about. When they did, he declined and said he’d write about the charity and foundation work later. He’s stuck on bashing the Boys and if you don’t like it, stop reading. You can read his unusual column here.

Now, it is a bit unfair for readers to have inside information on what positive stories could be told within the Cowboys organization. But there has to be SOMETHING one of these guys could write that would slightly change the dark cloud hanging over the organization right now. It’s just spin after spin and “source” after “source.”

Bottom line: I don’t want to hear any more whining from you about what I write. If you do happen to come up with one, send it here.

Yikes. Sounds like someone needs some thicker skin.

The threats ring hollow, but of course there is not enough money to fight the threat in court. You can read about the disappointing situation here.  This might mark the second time a member of this brotherhood has been threatened. I was threatened earlier this year by the Dallas Morning News for using a horrible picture of Tony Romo’s thumb wrapped in a cast. I credited the Dallas Morning News, but the photo chief, David Woo, felt it was necessary to call me and threaten me.

I promptly took the photo down and I rarely ever use pictures of players now, even with the credit. I’ve learned a lot about photo use since then, and in all honestly, there is a fair-use law, but you really aren’t supposed to take photographs found off the internet and re-use them without permission. If you change the photo at all, then it could be big problems. It’s not quite the same what happened over at StripeHype–it seemed even MORE petty.

I know the blogger at StripeHype, and he is a huge Bengals fan. He rarely ever attacked, even criticized, his team that has stunk it up for nearly 20 years. He has interviewed several of the players, and was about to give away a jersey signed by a player, but the Bengals brass said he could not do that because it is copyright infringement. Dave, the blogger, says he has tried to get the Bengals to allow him to get photos of the team, but he has been denied access because he is not a member of the traditional media.

This could lead to a widespread attack from the NFL or the teams, with StripeHype starting the rolling ball toward our team of blogs. In fact, there is an all-out war the big-time media is waging against bloggers in general. It’s disappointing, too. I am a professional journalist, and although blogging is NOT traditional journalism where accuracy and ethics trump rumors and haste, they serve a purpose and must be accepted. One of these days a threat is going to come to one rich blogger, and the fight will be over in court. Bloggers will prevail.

May I suggest we all write to Mike Brown, the Bengals brass, and tell him how immature and petty his threat is:

Cincinnati Bengals
One Paul Brown Stadium
Cincinnati, OH 45202