Dallas Cowboys 2006 NFL Draft Review
1 - Bobby Carpenter, LB, Ohio State (6-2, 256); 2 - Anthony Fasano, TE, Notre Dame (6-4, 259); 3 - Jason Hatcher, DE, Grambling State (6-6, 284); 4 - Skyler Green, WR, LSU (5-9, 192); 5 - Pat Watkins, S, Florida State (6-5, 211); 6 - Montavious Stanley, DT, Louisville (6-2, 313); 7 - Pat McQuistan, T, Weber State (6-5, 310); 7 - E.J. Whitley, OL, Texas Tech (6-5, 309)
Analysis: Carpenter represents the type of big, run-stopping linebacker that Bill Parcells loves, and should immediaely fit into the Cowboys' 3-4 scheme. The pick of Fasano, on the other hand, was a curious one, since Jason Witten is a two-time Pro Bowler still very much in the prime of his career. Finding time for Fasano could be a challenge. That the Cowboys chose not to instead address their needs on the offensive line, particularly at the tackle position, could come back to bite them. Secondary help comes in the form of Watkins, who was drafted in the fifth round but many believed to have first- day talent. Stanley was considered by many to be one of the Top 10 defensive tackles available, and represents another good value. McQuistan, whose brother Paul was drafted in the third round by the Raiders, was not expected to be selected and is a project.
Bottom Line: The lack of attention to the o-line and the selection of a couple of question marks (Hatcher, Green) are disconcerting, but bringing in Carpenter and finding some late-round gems saved the weekend for Dallas.
There's no offseason for NFL players like Pierce
The majority save their interest for the games, injury reports and practice field gossip during the fall.
The middle of May? It's a time to recharge, beat the rust off the golf game and figure out what to do with the kids once school's out.
Not so for Brett Pierce, who like the majority of players in the NFL, is guaranteed nothing but a chance to make next season's roster.
March to August -- dead time for football fans -- is the most meaningful time of the year to Pierce.
Pierce, a Columbia River High School graduate, is depth chart material. He's the player willing to run full speed into a kickoff wedge, long snap on punts, perform on scout teams during practice.
Anything to make a difference. Almost anything to make the team.
The time for the NFL's Pierces to impress is the offseason.
NFL teams, with a few exceptions, don't guarantee contracts, although 15 to 20 players on a given team know they're valuable enough that they'll make the squad.
It's Extreme Makeover the rest of a team's 53-man roster.
As much as half a team's roster can change during the course of an offseason.
For example, of the 53 players on Seattle's roster at the start of the 2005 season, only 30 played for the Seahawks in 2004.
Pierce, a 6-foot-5, 265-pound reserve tight end, has made it the past two seasons, most with Dallas. He's hoping for a third year with the Cowboys, or another team if they'll have him.
So, while NFL fans are vacationing from their sport, Pierce is trying to be seen -- by coaches. In the weight room. The film room. Anywhere around the team's practice facility where it might look that he's trying to acquire an edge the Cowboys could put to use.
NFL players are required to attend 40 offseason workouts. For the Pierces, 50 is better. Sixty, better squared.
The coaches "like it when you're around. The more people who see you working out, it shows you care," Pierce said.
Showing up in the weight room isn't enough.
"The coaches talk to the strength coach a lot. They have a lot of influence with the position and head coaches," Pierce said. "So you better show a desire to work."
And you'd better not be thin-skinned, either. From March to June, teams stockpile players through free agency and the draft. What ends as a 53-man regular season roster -- including eight practice squad players -- is a process that begins with more than 100 players at the outset of training camp.
Pierce, Dallas' third tight end a year ago, will be one of about eight tight ends Cowboy coaches look at during mini-camp later this month and training camp in July.
The draft didn't bring good news to Pierce when Dallas selected Notre Dame's Anthony Fasano during the second round.
"He's going to play next year regardless. Your first and second-round picks play; they have to," Pierce said. "So that pushes me down one more level."
If there was any comfort for Pierce during the offseason, it's that the Cowboys are looking at using two-tight end sets next season. That means Dallas could place four tight ends, perhaps even five, on its 2006 roster.
Where Pierce stands in the Cowboys' pecking order, he's not sure. Having a coach like the secretive Bill Parcells doesn't help.
"He's infamous for not letting people know," Pierce said.
Planting roots in the community is a gamble for someone like Pierce. For living quarters, he rents a room from one of the Cowboys' team doctors, rather than lease a condominium or buy a house.
"Tomorrow, I could be gone," Pierce said.
The insecurity doesn't bother Pierce. He's willing to risk the instability for an opportunity to make an extraordinary paycheck and play a sport he loves.
"I don't sit down and worry about it, because in the end, it comes down to whether you can play or not," Pierce said.
Dallas Cowboys Release 2006 Schedule
The Cowboys will play Philadelphia on Christmas, but the game will be played at Texas Stadium, not Lincoln Financial Field as had been reported, two sources said. The NFL is expected to release all regular-season schedules Thursday.
Terrell Owens will make his return to Philadelphia on Oct. 8, which will mark the Cowboys' third road game in their first four contests.
The Cowboys open at Jacksonville on Sept. 10, followed by a visit from Washington on Sept. 17.
The Cowboys have their bye weekend on Sept. 24 and will play at Tennessee on Oct. 1 and travel to play the Eagles the following week.
Houston makes its first regular-season appearance at Texas Stadium on Oct 15, and the Cowboys will host the New York Giants on ESPN's Monday Night Football on Oct. 23.
The Cowboys will see Keyshawn Johnson and Carolina in Charlotte on Oct. 29. That begins a stretch of three straight road games: at Washington on Nov. 5 and at Arizona on Nov. 12.
Peyton Manning will make his Texas Stadium debut on Nov. 19 when Indianapolis comes to town, which is followed four days later by Tampa Bay on Thanksgiving.
On Dec. 10, Sean Payton, former Cowboys assistant head coach, brings New Orleans to Dallas, and the Cowboys will travel to Atlanta for a Saturday game on Dec. 16.
Date Opponent
Sun., Sept. 10 at Jacksonville
Sun., Sept. 17 vs. Washington
Sun., Sept. 24 Bye week
Sun., Oct. 1 at Tennessee
Sun., Oct. 8 at Philadelphia
Sun., Oct. 15 vs. Houston
Mon., Oct. 23 vs. NY Giants
Sun., Oct. 29 at Carolina
Sun., Nov. 5 at Washington
Sun., Nov. 12 at Arizona
Sun., Nov. 19 vs. Indianapolis
Thu., Nov. 23 vs. Tampa Bay
Sun., Dec. 3 at NY Giants
Sun., Dec. 10 vs. New Orleans
Sat., Dec. 16 at Atlanta
Mon.,Dec. 25 vs. Philadelphia
Sun., Dec. 31 vs. Detroit
DRAFT 2006: Cowboys listening to all offers for No. 18 pick
The cheap solution: Draft some good ones.
The Dallas Cowboys have the 18th pick in the draft Saturday, which gives them a chance to add all but a handful of the best blockers available - unless they trade up a few spots, perhaps to take Southern California tackle Winston Justice.
However, Jones usually prefers trading down, both to get more picks that way and because the lower they're taken, the cheaper they cost. That doesn't always mean getting lesser players, either, as evidenced by Larry Allen and Flozell Adams going from second-rounders to Pro Bowlers.
"We would really like to have numbers of picks," Jones said. "But if we thought there was a real chance to get a player who shouldn't have been sliding, we might move up. More than likely, I don't anticipate anything dramatic in either scenario, nothing more than three or four slots."
Since going 9-7 last season and falling short of the playoffs, the Cowboys have addressed most of their needs through free agency. That includes signing Kyle Kosier to replace Allen at left tackle and Jason Fabini to take over at right guard. Of course, they also made the headline-grabbing addition of receiver Terrell Owens.
"It seems like we've got a lot more options," Jones said. "With the free agents, we were really able to cover our needs spots. That allows us not to compromise our pick in any way. We don't have to take a lesser player because he plays a position of need.
"But I would not hesitate at all to draft a position where we didn't have the biggest need. We're not going to pass up too good of a player."
Except maybe if he's a receiver.
Although Owens is 32 and fellow starter Terry Glenn will be, too, when training camp opens, and there are legitimate questions about whether they will play every game (Glenn because of health, Owens because he's Owens). Jones may already be trying to make Owens content by not adding competition at the position.
"I don't feel an urgency to get a young wide receiver," Jones said.
If Dallas does try drafting by position, defensive tackle and linebacker are good places to start.
The Cowboys improved their defense a lot by taking outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware and defensive lineman Marcus Spears in the first round last year, then adding lineman Chris Canty in the fourth round.
Yet coach Bill Parcells can still find a spot for anyone else who can get to the quarterback or draw enough blockers to free someone else's path. Tackle might be a priority since La'Roi Glover left in free agency.
When in doubt, though, the Cowboys might go with an offensive lineman.
"If we get out of the draft without an offensive lineman, I'll be very disappointed," Jones said. "Frankly, I like putting an offensive lineman in the mix every year because of how expensive it is to get them in free agency."
The Cowboys have drafted six offensive linemen in four drafts under Parcells. They've had as many misses as hits.
Second-rounders Andre Gurode and Al Johnson split the center job last season and likely will do so again this year. Last year, seventh-rounder Rob Petitti cracked the starting lineup out of training camp, but as the season went on it became apparent that was mostly by default; most telling is that Fabini was signed to take his place.
The regrettable move was taking Jacob Rogers 52nd in 2004.
Rogers was an All-American from Southern California's national championship team, so the Cowboys thought they got a steal getting him so low. Turns out, other teams knew what they were doing by avoiding him. He frustrated team officials for two years, never taking an offensive snap before being released recently.
In the third round of that same draft, Dallas took Stephen Peterman. He remains a fringe player. The other OL pick of the Parcells era was seventh-rounder Justin Bates in 2003, who never made the team.
Voters consider locker room tax for visiting players at Texas Stadium
If voters approve, fans would also pay an extra 10-percent upcharge on game tickets and a $3 parking tax — all in the name of demolishing the 35-year-old Texas Stadium and redeveloping the area at Texas 183 and Loop 12.
The Cowboys plan to open a $650 million stadium in Arlington’s entertainment district by the 2009 season.
"If we don’t do this, we’ll have to do it with our property taxes," said John Danish, treasurer of Citizens for Texas Stadium Redevelopment, which is advocating for the proposed taxes. "It’s going to leave us with a big hole. I’d rather fill the hole with their money than our money."
If the measure passes, Irving could assess a maximum of $5,000 per player for each of the team’s eight regular season home games. Throw in a couple of pre-season games or playoff games, and it could cost some players a fifth of their salaries. The league minimum wage is $250,000 a year.
There is no official organized opposition to the measure, but plenty of people don’t like the plan — among them players, fans and even the author of the legislation that allows Irving to impose the taxes.
Cowboys officials have had no comment on the taxes because the organization has an agreement with the city to not try to thwart the tax referendum, spokesman Brett Daniels said.
Carl Francis, NFL Player’s Association communications director, said players are familiar with extra charges when they play at stadiums in other states. For example, in California, professional players pay state income tax ranging from 1 percent to 9.3 percent, depending on their income for the day’s work.
But Francis said no other stadium in the league charges players a locker-room tax.
The association’s attorneys will discuss and monitor Irving’s proposal, Francis said, but it, too, had no official comment on the measure.
Dallas Cowboys safety Keith Davis said the locker-room tax would have a significant impact on his pocketbook. Davis earned $380,000 for the 2005 season, according to reports.
"Why change things now that we’re leaving?" asked Davis, who started in all 16 regular season games last year and also played on special teams. "Guys that are making the league minimum, they were banking on that money. I don’t think it’s fair."
The locker room tax would apply only to professional football players at Texas Stadium.
The extra taxes also would pinch season ticket-holder Dave Igo of Plano.
If Irving wants to redevelop the stadium land, Igo said, the funding needs to come from existing revenues.
"It should come out of their money," he said. "It doesn’t make me happy as a season ticket-holder."
Irving Mayor Herbert Gears said the city needs the tax to raise about $30 million over the next three years to demolish the old stadium and build something else. The city may leave the recognizable roof with its hole in place, building something underneath, or may completely raze the stadium and start over from scratch, he said.
"We know for sure that the stadium will not operate as it has in the past because we have a non-compete agreement with the team," Gears said. "I think voters are going to be very receptive."
State Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, authored the 1997 legislation that allows such taxes for sports venues. But he said the bill was intended to provide a way for cities to build new, specific projects. The legislation shouldn’t be used for demolition without a definite plan of how the old stadium will be replaced, Brimer said.
No one, however, has challenged Irving’s proposed use of the sports venue taxes for demolition, according to the Texas Attorney General’s office.
But Brimer said: "If they’re going to build another venue, they need to be more specific."
Cowboys land Vanderjagt as new kicker
After depending so long on inexperienced or inexpensive kickers, the Cowboys didn't pass on Vanderjagt, a former Pro Bowl kicker and unrestricted free agent. A story posted on the Cowboys Web site reported that the deal was worth $5.4 million, including a $2.5 million signing bonus. Phone messages and an e-mail to the kicker's agent, Gil Scott, weren't returned.
Vanderjagt has the highest field goal accuracy rate in NFL history (217-of-245 kicks, 87.5 percent) and holds the record for making 42 straight. But on his last attempt for the Colts during the AFC divisional playoffs in January, he badly missed a 46-yarder that would have forced overtime against Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh.
"Everyone kind of had it a foregone conclusion that Mike wouldn't be back, but you don't just get rid of guys without being able to replace them," Colts coach Tony Dungy said. "We were fortunate that we were able to replace him with a great, great kicker."
Indianapolis gave Vinatieri a five-year, $12 million deal with a $3.5 million signing bonus.
The Cowboys used three kickers last season, and missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record. Dallas lost twice by three points and had a one-point loss, and the kickers were a combined 20-of-28 on field goals with four misses under 40 yards.
Billy Cundiff was the Cowboys' primary kicker the past four seasons, making 60 of 82 field goals (73 percent) in 53 games. He was released after hurting his leg in training camp but returned in November for six games after Jose Cortez and Shaun Suisham kicked.
But Cundiff was inconsistent, making a team-record 56-yarder against Detroit in his first game back, then missing a 34-yard tiebreaking kick in the fourth quarter four days later against Denver, the Thanksgiving Day game the Cowboys lost in overtime. Cundiff was 5-for-8 and cut before the final game, and Suisham returned for the season finale.
In 2003, Cundiff tied an NFL record with seven field goals in a Monday night victory at the New York Giants.
Since Rafael Septien set most of the team's kicking records from 1978-86, there has been a long line of kickers through Dallas, including Richie Cunningham, Chris Boniol, Eddie Murray and high school teacher Tim Seder, among others. Cundiff was the only one who stayed more than three seasons.
Vanderjagt, who turns 36 Friday, spent his first eight NFL seasons with the Colts after playing in the Canadian Football League (1993, 1996-97) and a season in the Arena Football League. He scored a franchise-record 995 points in Indianapolis, where all his home games were played in a domed stadium.
"Mike was tremendous for us in the time that I was here," said Dungy, who just finished his fourth season in Indianapolis. "He made some kicks that won divisions for us, that won big games, overtime games, and I never thought that he was going to miss when we sent him out."
In 2003, Vanderjagt made all 37 of his field-goal attempts and all 46 extra points. He was 23-of-25 on field goals last season, his long kick being 48 yards.
Vanderjagt's career long field goal is 54 yards, and he's made 14 of 21 kicks from at least 50 yards. He has converted 344 of 346 extra points and scored at least 100 points every season. The last Cowboys kicker with 100 points was Seder with 108 in 2000.
Still, Vanderjagt had another big miss in December 2000 against Miami, when he was wide right on a 49-yard attempt in overtime that would have sent the Colts into the second round of the playoffs. He had field goals of 32, 26 and 50 yards in that game, which the Dolphins won 23-17.
Also Thursday, Dallas signed L.P. LaDouceur, a second-year defensive end who played in 13 games on special teams for the Cowboys last season.
Cowboys release Allen; Colts acquire Vinatieri
Allen, 34, the final player left from Dallas' most recent Super Bowl team, is going into his 13th season.
The team opted to let him go rather than pay him a $2 million roster bonus he was due April 1. The move also saves them about $3.5 million toward next season's salary cap.
"This decision is a tough one for me personally," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. "Larry has been the best in pro football for a long time.
Dallas could re-sign Allen, with Jones saying the club has "made it clear the door is open for a return to the Cowboys."
Cowboys Lock Up Two Receivers
Does it really matter how fast a football player runs it?
A fascination with speed, numbers and the minutia of football has made ‘‘the 40" one of the most popular phrases in sports lexicon.
What’s his 40? Scouts don’t like his 40. Wow, what a 40!
Rarely does a football player run 40 yards unimpeded in a straight line during a game, yet there’s a fascination with the time it takes him to cover that distance.
The legitimacy of those times or the outof-proportion importance placed on them doesn’t matter. For some, the 40 is like summer ice cream: can’t get enough.
‘‘It’s probably made to become bigger than life because people talk about it," said Gil Brandt, personnel director for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960-89 and now senior analyst for NFL.com.
Brandt will be among the pro coaches, scouts and general managers watching and timing prospective quarterbacks, running backs and receivers in the 40-yard dash today at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Other running backs and offensive linemen ran the 40 at the combine yesterday. Tight ends and defensive linemen run Monday, and linebackers and defensive backs run Tuesday.
The players will do a variety of other traditional meat-market physical drills, but the 40 is the glamour test, the moment when a player at certain positions — primarily running back, receiver and defensive back — can be stigmatized or have his credentials bolstered by hundredths of a second.
‘‘It can mean a lot — millions (of dollars) — depending on what the expectations were for a player before he performs and why he performs poorly," said Neil Cornrich, an agent for NFL players.
Last year, defensive backs Carlos Rogers and Fabian Washington were projected as second-round draft picks before each ran a 4.31 at the combine. Both were picked in the first round.
The importance placed on 40 times is why 10 former Ohio State players participating in this combine spent recent weeks working with Butch Reynolds, the team’s assistant strength and conditioning coach.
Reynolds, a three-time Olympic track star, tutored players such as A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter on the proper form, technique and mind-set needed to run the 40.
‘‘The first step out is very important in the 40," Reynolds said. ‘‘You want to make sure to use your power to move forward and not upward. We teach them to stay low and fire out, like a plane taking off. A plane takes off with power and gradually moves up.‘‘
Some of the NFL’s greatest players moved down in the draft because of poor 40 times.
Emmitt Smith, the league’s alltime leading rusher, ran a 4.7 at the 1990 combine and fell to the No. 17 selection in the first round. That same year, fellow running back Blair Thomas, who ran a 4.45, was picked No. 2.
Jerry Rice came out of Mississippi Valley State in 1985 and ran a pedestrian 4.6 at the combine. Fifteen players were drafted before him.
‘‘Whatever (Rice) ran, he could apply that speed to the game," said Dick LeBeau, defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers. ‘‘How many times did you ever see Jerry Rice get caught once he got a step on a guy? A lot of players are like that."
Chris Spielman can attest.
He finished his Ohio State career in 1987 with stellar linebacker credentials: two-time All-American, three-time All-Big Ten, Lombardi Award winner as a senior.
Spielman ran a 4.85 at the combine. Detroit drafted him in the second round.
‘‘I think if I had broken 4.7 I might have been (taken) higher than the 29 th pick," Spielman said.
Nobody cared about Spielman’s 40 time during an 11-year career in which he was a fourtime Pro Bowl selection, led Detroit in tackles all eight seasons with the Lions and set a Buffalo team record with 206 tackles in 1996.
‘‘A lot of guys can run fast in this world, but not a lot of guys can run fast with pads on," Spielman said.
In football, that’s known as ‘‘playing speed" and has more to do with explosiveness than track-and-field ability.
‘‘Paul Brown would say it’s more important how they play than how fast they run," LeBeau said of the Hall of Fame coach. ‘‘Playing speed may sound nebulous, but it is different than what they run in a straight-line 40-yard dash. Playing speed makes or breaks you."
The innovative Brown is credited with being the first to time players in the 40 when he was OSU coach in the 1940s. He did it to determine who could cover a punt the fastest. He continued testing 40 times as Cleveland Browns coach.
The Dallas Cowboys made the use of 40 times popular, beginning in the 1960s. Brandt said he and coach Tom Landry ‘‘stole it from Coach Brown."
Now, the 40 has become so revered, the NFL Network is televising the dash today as part of its 26 hours of live combine coverage.
‘‘Americans love a race," LeBeau said.
Some prospects might not run, choosing instead to wait to run the 40 at their school’s pro day workout when they’re healthier or more familiar with the environment and running surface.
More players, however, reportedly ran the 40 at last year’s combine than in previous years (Brandt credits TV coverage with spurring competitiveness), and this year the RCA Dome has a new, reputedly faster turf to entice participation.
Those who do run — and some have paid up to $10,000 to be instructed at ‘‘speed camps" — will have their times analyzed like diamonds.
Just remember, some diamonds are frauds.
‘‘A lot of those times are unrealistic," OSU track and field coach Russ Rogers said.
Electronic timing has been used at the combine since 1990, just as it’s used at internationally sanctioned track and field meets. But there’s a key difference in this electronic timing.
‘‘They time you (at the combine) from the time you move your hand," Rogers said. ‘‘In track, they time you based on the sound of the gun. That’s about three- or four-tenths’ difference."
Times from hand-held stopwatches are even less reliable.
‘‘You’r e looking from 40 yards away," Rogers said. ‘‘There&rsquo ;s no way it can be accurate. If you’re 40 yards away and trying to time someone, you’re going to be two- or three-tenths of a second off."
That doesn’t stop alleged 40 times of high-school recruits from miraculously appearing on the Internet or spreading by word of mouth with little or no verification.
In 2001, Rivals.com claimed that about 40 high-school players had 40 times in the 4.3-second range. Compare that to how the San Diego Union-Tribune reported last year that timing officials had broken down videotape of sprinter Ben Johnson’s infamous steroidfueled 100-meter run of 9.79 seconds. They determined that Johnson ran the first 40 yards (converted from meters) in 4.38 seconds.
(Incidentally, Deion Sanders is the fastest-timed player in the history of the combine, recording a 4.29 in 1989.)
‘‘There&rsquo ;s all kinds of issues you’re looking at when someone says, ‘This is my 40 time,’ " OSU recruiting coordinator John Peterson said. ‘‘If I look at a high-school tape and no one catches them, they’re pretty fast."
LeBeau said 40 times are ‘‘valid for some positions" and that ‘‘if a young man runs a 4.8, he won’t play (cornerback) in the National Football League."
Yet the times of 40-yard dashes turned in today will serve as just one component of teams’ evaluations of players.
‘‘You’v e got a database with the 40 — the times of a lot of great, fast athletes," LeBeau said. ‘‘You got something to compare with."
And for football-starved media and fans, it’s something else to chew on.
NFL's $76.5 million financing for Cowboys facility at risk
Stadium funding for many NFL teams -- including $76.5 million for the Dallas Cowboys' facility planned for Arlington -- could become ensnared in a dispute with the players' union, according to an attorney representing the players union.
However, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the team will get its money for the stadium project, with or without union approval.
The league's stadium-financing program, or G-3, requires the approval of its union, which has verbally sparred with the league over extending the collective-bargaining agreement between the union and the owners. The future of the stadium program also is entangled in the question of how the league's 32 teams share their own revenue.
"G-3 is done until a (labor) deal is done," said Jeffrey Kessler, the union's outside legal counsel.
Speaking shortly before the Super Bowl, Jones said that if the league extends the current agreement, then the union would be on board with the stadium-funding program. If the agreement is not renewed, he added, then the league does not need union approval.
But the G-3 program specifically calls for union approval, so it is unclear exactly how Dallas can get the money without the union's nod, one league source said. The agreement does not expire for another two years. The Cowboys' new stadium is estimated to cost $650 million to build and open in 2009.
Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple told the Dallas Business Journal that because of the delicate status of negotiations, no one from the Cowboys could speak further on the matter.
"We are certainly concerned about the G-3," said John Mara, executive vice president of the New York Giants, which are planning to build a $1 billion stadium with the Jets. "If we do not get a G-3 vote, that has a serious effect on our stadium."
The Jets and Giants are planning to ask for a combined $300 million from the stadium-funding pool, which represents about 30% of the cost of the stadium. The teams hoped to ask for the G-3 approval at the league's annual meeting at the end of March and move into the new venue by 2009.
G-3 was created seven years ago to help teams build stadiums. The money comes from a share of each NFL team's media revenue and the visiting team's share of club-seat money that is generated by the new stadium.
Union approval
Because the visitors' share otherwise would go into the pool of money shared with the players, the union has to approve each disbursement.
Already, eight teams have received $663 million from G-3. Last June, the league approved $76.5 million for Dallas and $34 million for the Indianapolis Colts. But in December, union chief Gene Upshaw said he was withholding judgment about whether he would approve the Cowboys disbursement.
Colts Senior Executive Vice President Pete Ward said the league planned to take up the issue of the team's G-3 money with the union shortly. The money in the Colts case represents only 7% of the expected cost of the stadium.
Even if G-3 dies, Jones argued, the league would continue funding stadiums by returning to the old waiver system. Prior to 1999, when G-3 took effect, the league often dispensed with the requirement to hand over the visitor share of club-seat money for teams that were financing new stadiums.
City eyes Saints, Cowboys preseason game
T
he city of Shreveport is in the preliminary stages of trying to secure an NFL preseason game at Independence Stadium for the 2006 season, Shreveport's Chief Financial Officer Ken Antee said on Monday. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters at Super Bowl XL that the NFL wants the Cowboys to play a preseason game against the New Orleans Saints to benefit Hurricane Katrina relief and boost the Saints' return to Louisiana. "We've had some informal discussions with people that have been working with the (NFL)," Antee said. "We've been having conversations not directly with the NFL, but people working with the NFL. "It's our understanding the NFL wants them to play the two preseason games in the state to help build regional ties. Obviously other than LSU, we've got the best facility in the state to handle a game of that caliber." Saints fans are hopeful the city could land a preseason game. "I wouldn't want to go see a scrimmage, but I'd probably go to a preseason game," Shreveport's Chris Linn said. "No doubt about it." Antee has traded phone calls with Saints representatives and has not yet made contact with the Dallas organization. He hopes to talk with the Saints again today or Wednesday. "We are making adjustments in our schedule so we could do some things early in the preseason in Louisiana," Jones told reporters at the Super Bowl. "We will do all we can do early with the Saints to get the Saints kicked off right." The Saints will play two of their four preseason games outside of New Orleans in the Gulf Coast region. Shreveport has some history with the teams, having hosted a Saints-Cowboys scrimmage in 1998 at Independence Stadium. "The NFL has been pretty much driving it and we're going to do everything we can to get it here from the city's perspective," Antee said.
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