The Cowboy Way

Say what you want about the Cowboys' Jerry Jones, but wouldn't you want to have a guy like him in your corner? During the offseason he left an owners' meeting early to fly east for a late contract negotiation with former Jets nose tackle  Jason Ferguson. The Jets offered Ferguson $8 million in front and it was almost a done deal before Jones swung it by coming in at $9 million.

He's 30 and he's had weight problems through the years (that's Ferguson, not Jones), but he's the one guy Bill Parcells felt he had to have to make his new 3-4 defense work. So Jones gave the guy the VIP treatment. We're not talking about a glamour position here; we're talking about an owner-nose tackle sitdown. Contrast this, please, with a character such as Dan Snyder, whose team keeps drafting quarterbacks because he likes, as he's said, "sexy" picks.

Give me a choice of one non-starter to grab for my team and I'd take Vikings running back Mewelde Moore. He's running back kicks now. On my team he'd be carrying 15 times a game and catching passes because he is one hell of a runner and a terrific kid with a big heart.

Instead he sat on the bench last year, and figured to do so this year as well, behind trash like Onterrio Smith, the guy who was caught with the "Whizzinator" kit in his bag, and who's currently serving a year-long, three-time-loser substance-abuse suspension.

It's only a small item, but it's why I don't like Mike Tice's Vikings to reach the Super Bowl, as some people predict. Not only for this particular case, of course, but for such flaws in judgment.

Plane Talk

I grieve for the abuse the English language is suffering. I have nothing against new 49ers coach Mike Nolan, or at least I didn't until I read this quote. He was talking about Andre Carter's switch from DE to OLB:

"He was excited about it, even verbalizing that, 'Hey, I love doing this.'"

Verbalizing? Verbalizing! How about nounizing or adverbizing? What's wrong with, "saying"? It's this convoluted, constipated way people talk these days, copying the language of corporate America or talk show hosts or lawyers.

The other day I had to check on a deposit my bank missed. "The banking center might not have a hookup with the computer center," I was told.

Banking center? Banking center? "What in God's name is a banking center?" I asked. The lady was amazed that I didn't know.

"It's where you bank," she said.

"You mean it's just another way of saying 'bank?'" I said.

"Yes, that's right."

"Well, why not just call it a bank?" But by then her attention had wandered.

Among the worst are the airlines, particularly the passenger comfort support specialists, or whatever they call stewardesses these days. It's one of the many things I can't stand about air travel (a minor annoyance, I'll admit). The Redhead and I just came back from a training camp swing to Foxboro and then Pittsford, N.Y. We drove ... roughly 1,200 miles in all ... anything to get away from the airlines.

You never get help on a plane. It's always "assistance." You don't get off, you "deplane." Flights don't end, they "terminate." They don't ask you to put up your tray tables and seats, you must "ensure that they are in an upright position." My favorite is when they mention that you can "illuminate" your lights.

"Why do you use such cockamamie language?" I once asked a stewardess, I mean a flight, uh, comfort thing.

"Because it sounds better," she said.

"When you get home, do you tell your husband, 'Honey, please illuminate the light?'"

"I'm not married."

And if you want to carry on the discussion, you'd better not. You'd better cut it off right there, because the word will go out: Weirdo in 27F. The next thing you know you'll be talking to a guy whose badge says security.

Varying Legacies

In the years to come, Bill Belichick's system will be tested in an interesting way. Two of his former first lieutenants have their own command now, Romeo Crennel with the Browns and Charlie Weis at Notre Dame. Their success, or lack of it, will be a reflection on the man under whom they studied.

Funny thing about how some coaches, directly or indirectly, can produce successful descendants, and some just can't. The Paul Brown system produced a healthy share of Hall of Fame coaches -- Weeb Ewbank, Don Shula, Bill Walsh and more. Super Bowl winners Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren are products of Walsh's system, and under Holmgren's tutelage was another Super Bowl winner, Jon Gruden. Belichick himself is a Bill Parcells offspring, Joe Gibbs learned at the knee of Don Coryell, and on and on.

And yet the man who many consider the greatest coach of all time, Vince Lolmbardi, never produced a coach who had any success in the NFL. It's strange.

It's All Greek To Me

A couple of weeks ago an e-mailer asked me for a few Greek wines to brighten his upcoming honeymoon in Greece. I couldn't find my tasting notes on the subject and tapdanced my way through it. Enter Jeff Moyers, assistant wine director of Sam's Wine & Spirits in Chicago, with the following information:

"As far as top flight wines coming from Greece, it's tough to beat the Gaia Estate Thalassitis (white, like a Sauvignon Blanc). Then there's the Moschofilero, Greece's signature white grape, from Boutari. A lovely wine that's perfect for summer sipping. For a surprisingly stunning Rose, check out the Skouras Zoe. And for some robust reds, try the Alexandrops Magapanos Savatiano and the Haggipaulu Agiorgitiko Nemea."

Gosh, Jeff, many thanks, and actually I had them right on the tip of my tongue.