I remember, just last week, seeing the ESPN ticker and laughing when it said something to the effect of: Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth will not start in Sunday's season opener against Dallas due to his "awful" performance in the team's preseason finale.
I thought it was funny, blunt and to the point.
How's this for blunt? Alex Barron shouldn't have a job today. If I were Jerry Jones, and it didn't violate NFL labor laws, I would've paid for a coach airline flight from D.C. to Dallas tomorrow morning and made Barron sleep in Reagan International and fly AirTran home this morning.
First off, tell me how you deem it OK to quit paying your franchise offensive lineman over the past decade, left tackle Flozell Adams, to bring in younger guys and move Doug Free to left tackle. That's well and good, Free is showing all kinds of potential, but when starting right tackle Marc Colombo was injured in the preseason, it threw things into disarray.
That was exhibited on Sunday night as the Cowboys offensive line was wide open, and no that's not a good thing in football when you're talking about an offensive line.
But nothing was worse than Barron, who was called for three holding penalties in the game, including the last play of the game when Barron looked like he was trying to engage in the most violent episode of ballroom dancing ever recorded on video when he grabbed a hold of Redskins BEAST defensive end Brian Orakpo from the get-go, and held him throughout the play as Tony Romo was flushed from the pocket and found a wide-open (the good kind) Roy Williams in the end zone for what was thought to be the game winner as time expired. Turned out, time just expired, minus the game winner part thanks to the yellow piece of laundry thrown squarely at Mr. Barron.
But that shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, Barron leads the league in penalties called on offensive linemen since 2009. You know, that thing that everyone whined about Flozell doing. The main difference was most of Adams' penalties were false starts, which are five yards. Holding penalties are often drive killers, and Barron's a pro at that.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
So here's a tip, Alex, cock your FSU visor a little more to the side, try to look a little more hardcore and hope you have a job by the end of the day today. If you don't, you could always move to Ohio and run for Stark County Treasurer, that seems to be the thing to do for people who are way out of their league and aren't prepared for the big time.
Stay on top of the latest Dallas Cowboys news with NBCDFW.com. Follow NBC DFW Sports on Facebook or have breaking Cowboys news sent directly to your phone with Blue Star SMS alerts. Text "bluestar" to 622339 (NBCDFW) to subscribe to this free service. Read more about it here.
