Cowboys May See The Writing On The Wall

By Tony Mangia

Forget Eli's Autograph, Giants Ready To Write Off 'Boys

With all the controversy with coaching and losing surrounding the underachieving Cowboys, you would think Dallas fans and media would have more  important concerns than wondering if Eli Manning will sign his name on the  visitor's locker room again.  The Texas team--which had Super Bowl appearance written all over it--is 1-4 in a watered down version of the NFC and still  considers the autograph a sore spot in their Lone-Star hearts.

After last year's loss to the Giants in the brand-new $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium opening game, Eli Manning signed his name in the locker room area and topped it off with "First win in new stadium."  This so riled the Cowboy's players, they vowed to use it as motivation in their re-match in old Giants Stadium.  The Cowboys lost that game too.

Manning didn't take credit for the signature until almost three months later.  He said, "People made it sound like I went in their locker room and right for everyone to see, trying to do something disrespectful. It wasn't like that by any means."

In actuality, a Cowboys stadium worker invited Manning to draw his John Hancock after the week 2 game.  "I've done it in a lot of different places in the NFL," he confessed, "I thought they were starting a new tradition." The NFL Commissioner might want to come down hard on Eli and his graffiti tagging.

The squeaky-clean Giants quarterback came forth last December after admitting, "It's not right in the locker room, it's in the attendant's own little locker room," atoned Manning," Unless you're invited into the room, you're not going to see it."  Now no one will.  Manning's work was painted over by a stadium crew last year.

If his behavior in the Cowboys' locker room last September was not Manning-like, his play this season sure is.  The Giants fly into Dallas with a 4-2 NFC East leading tie with Philadelphia and Manning is playing consistently. Meanwhile,  Dallas is playing for their playoff lives and a good game by Manning and he could be writing the Cowboys' epitaph.

Jerry Jones, the  flamboyant owner of the Cowboys met with his stumbling team to give a positive message to his players.  When asked if he still confident his team could rebound from the mediocre start he said, "I'm not." This is a surprising answer from the pre-season Jones,  confident enough to believe his Cowboys would be the first true home team in Super Bowl history.

Dallas quarterback, Tony Romo, was asked if his talented but seemingly uninspired team and was playing their last stand on Monday night against the first-place G-Men?  "It's obviously important," he said, "And we do need to win."  You never know if 8-8 can gets in the playoffs or 12-4...we need to play our best game this weekend."

Romo will have this chance to get back into the thick of the playoff race and maybe--in three weeks-- have the opportunity to sign his name and "First Cowboy win in new stadium" in the Giants' brand-spanking-new, billion-dollar New Meadowlands Stadium as revenge.