http://www.texasmonthly.com/its-always-football-season/rss
Mon February 11, 2013 2:37 pm
The Texas Rangers Are More Popular Than the Dallas Cowboys. Barely. In One Poll.
By Jason Cohen

Rangers coverMaybe Texas Monthly's May, 2011 cover was just premature? A new survey claims the most popular pro sports franchise in Arlington is NOT the football team.

As Drew Davison of the Star-Telegram reported, the survey by Scarborough Sports Team:

asked Dallas-Fort Worth adults whether they have watched, attended or listened to a Rangers or Cowboys game in the past year. A "yes" answer is considered a fan, and 62 percent answered positively for the Rangers.

That was one percentage point higher than the Cowboys.

It's the first time the Rangers have been ranked higher than the Cowboys, and DFW is one of only 10 metropolitan areas with more fans of the baseball team than football team.

Even Rangers president Nolan Ryan told Davison that, historically, "I never gave it much thought about how we rated with the Cowboys."

After all, what was the point? But with the Rangers making the World Series twice in the last three years, and Jerry Jones' Team under .500 in that same time frame, it's at least a conversation.

Fox Sports Southwest's Jon Heidtke told Davison that the Rangers' TV broadcasts were not only booming in North Texas, but also Austin, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. 

Of course, even if you ascribe any significance to one percentage point in one survey of one metro area, the Cowboys aren't limited to Dallas. They own the state, and as a recent Facebook study analyzed by Deadspin showed, also remain the biggest NFL brand in the country. The Cowboys are still the Cowboys.

The Star-Telegram's Mac Engel noted as much two weeks ago. "The Cowboys can do nothing, which the hiring and firing of some assistant coaches amounts to, and they are still more important than the Mavericks or Stars," he wrote.

Engel went on to say that the Rangers, for the first time ever, "are in a position to run with the Cowboys," but that the intensity of fandom is just not the same.

Interest and the care level about baseball in this market is higher than any time previously, but too often a Rangers home game feels more like a glorified picnic.

Watching the Rangers lose Game 6 of the 2011 World Series may have ruined your week, or month, but the Cowboys have the ability to ruin each and every Sunday for you in the fall.

Read More
Fri February 8, 2013 2:41 pm
Guess Which Football School Is In The City Where Employees Are “Most Likely to Date the Boss”?
By Jason Cohen

Yup. Austin has finished first in a survey by the website Payscale of cities where employees are “most likely to date the boss."

No word if the UT athletics department, where former women's track and field coach Bev Kearney and football offensive coordinator Major Applewhite have both admitted to relationships with students, was included in the methodology, though “college/university" was one of the employer categories.

Applewhite's experience aside, Austin failed to crack the “Most Likely to Have a Fling At Work" ranking, and also did not rate in the Top 10 for “Most Likely to Find Love At Work." 

"College coach" was also not a top profession in the survey. "Lodging managers" were most likely to date the boss (which is still probably smarter than dating the guests), while the most fling-prone professions were artists, cooks and welders.

Houston finished #10 on the "Most Likely to Date the Boss" list (as Richard Connelly of the Houston Press's "Hairballs News" first noted). And San Antonio ranked tenth for "Most Likely to Find Love."

Read More
Wed February 6, 2013 2:31 pm
Mack Brown Isn't Interested in “Eye Candy”
By Jason Cohen

Mack Brown's official press conference for college football signing day is in an hour. You probably can't watch it, at least not on television (I know I can't). But the Longhorn Network's Lowell Galindo did catch up with Brown on ESPNU (and ESPNU will also presumably be on the case at 3:30).

Brown acknowledged his recruits were "a smaller group . . . you want to fill needs," but he sounded excited about the offensive linemen, who average six-foot-five, 302 pounds.

But the moment that got people talking was Brown's more defensive comment about smaller classes, which came off as a rebuke to the accolades for Texas A&M, which, according to the Austin American-Statesman, landed thirteen of the state's Top 55 players, and Ole Miss, which has had such an unexpectedly good day that fans on TexAgs.com are complaining about 'em. 

"You have to be careful on signing day that it's not a lot of eye candy. There'll be a lot of guys that oversign today, so the numbers will make it look like they got a great class," Brown said.

Both Lisa Horne of FoxSports.com and Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times took notice: 

The Longhorns host Ole Miss September 14—and will probably beat the Rebels on the strength of Brown's 2011 and 2012 recruiting hauls.

Read More
Wed February 6, 2013 11:45 am
The New Way to Recruit Against the Aggies
By Jason Cohen

Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News checks in with a Signing Day update that shows how quickly things have changed for Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin. 

Sumlin told TexAgs Radio when he first came onboard a year ago foes were telling recruits not to choose A&M because the Aggies would get their "brains beat" against SEC competition. Now, Sumlin said, it's "you can't play there" because of A&M's early success in the league that's won the last seven national titles.

Meaning, for you non-sports readers, that the Aggies are so good that new recruits would struggle to win playing time. Which is at least true for the quarterbacks.

"Brains beat" is one of Sumlin's favorite phrases, btw. 

Read More
Tue February 5, 2013 6:00 pm
Book 'Em, Horns: UT QB Connor Brewer's “Campus Watch” Appearance
By Jason Cohen

Connor BrewerWhen I first read that University of Texas redshirt freshman quarterback Connor Brewer had been arrested early Saturday morning for public intoxication and possessing a fictitious drivers license, I couldn't help but think, "that kid's gonna win the Heisman!"

Then, upon realizing that Brewer wasn't busted in a Sixth Street bar by city cops, but by University of Texas police officers, my second thought was, "that kid's gonna be in 'Campus Watch!'"

As regular readers of our previous TM Daily Post feature know, UT's police blotter infamously lards its federally-mandated, public safety-conscious record of campus crime with deadpan humor and occasional flights of verbal fancy, making it a cult favorite read for students, Texas Exes, Austin residents and Horns-haters alike.  

Of course, the officers who write it probably know better than to make fun of a Longhorns quarterback. And really, Brewer didn't give them all that much to work with--just your garden variety underage over-drinking.

The 19 year-old Arizona native is not actually identified in the item, but the charges, and the fact that he was booked into the Travis County jail at 2:49 a.m., means this is clearly him:

2100 BLOCK WHITIS AVE

Public Intoxication / Fictitious License: A UT Police Officer observed a UT student staggering and stumbling as he attempted to walk. The student stumbled across the street and was able to use a rock retaining wall to help maintain his balance. During the investigation, the officer detected a strong odor of alcohol on the student's breath and learned the student was under the legal age of 21. The student presented the officers with an ID card but was not able to verify any of the information on it. Due to the student level of intoxication, he was taken into custody for Public Intoxication. The officers later learned the ID card presented to them was counterfeit. The student was charged with Public Intoxication / Fictitious License and transported to Central Booking. Occurred on: 2-02-13, at 1:50 AM.

I'll presume that when he's sober, Brewer can remember the checkdown sequence on a pass play better than he could the name on his ID.

UT head coach Mack Brown issued a statement on the incident.

Read More
Back to Top