Just as long as you don’t want to sit down.

DALLAS—Dallas head coach Wade Phillips speculated Wednesday that if recent history is any indicator, Jerry Jones is “almost certainly” considering the option of signing former Falcons quarterback and current incarcerated felon Michael Vick to the Cowboys.

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I’ve just finished a project that’s been hanging over my head for some time, along with an application for a one-course release in Spring 2010 and a good bit of WECSOR/SBL-PCR organizational work. And I taught a class today. And graded some papers.

I can only say this: teaching three different classes, sitting on three committees, running one extra faculty meeting per week, coaching one soccer team and assistant-coaching another, starting up a home Bible study, and fielding the papers for SBL-PCR’s Hebrew Bible section are, particularly when they all happen at once, not very conducive to scholarly production, blogging, or, well, sanity.

Of course, like all the rest of you, I’m eagerly awaiting more news from Qeiyafa.

What has become of my beloved Dallas Cowboys? Why are they building their roster on thugs and criminals? During the last regular season, they picked up former Chicago Bear Tank Johnson during his suspension resulting from possessing six unregistered firearms while on probation for another gun-related misdemeanor. Now they’re courting Adam “Pacman” Jones, suspended from the entire 2007 season after his involvement in a fight—which involved a triple shooting—at a Las Vegas strip club. We’ve come a long way since the days of Tom Landry and Roger Staubach. A long way down.

Brett Favre, one of the best NFL quarterbacks ever, has finally decided to retire. Favre’s accomplishments include:

442 touchdown passes, 61,655 passing yards, 5,377 passing completions, 253 regular season starts as a quarterback and 160 victories as a starting quarterback. The list is a lot longer, and it even includes the dubious honor of a record 288 career interceptions.

HT: RealFootball365.com

From RealFootball365.com’s weekly “power rankings”:

15. San Diego Chargers (LW: 6; 1-2) – Where have you gone, Marty Schottenheimer? Bolts Nation turns its lonely eyes to you …

At least my other teams come in better:

6. Tennessee Titans (LW: 12; 2-1) – You can bet that those mocking Vince Young in April 2006 for his low pre-draft Wonderlic scores are the ones feeling stupid right now. Watching Young is like seeing a combination of John Elway, Fran Tarkenton and Joe Montana. He’s clutch, he’s mobile and he does nothing but win.

3. Dallas Cowboys (LW: 4; 3-0) – Although the Cowboys play in football’s weaker conference, there is no question that they could give any of the AFC’s elite a run for their money. There simply aren’t many — if any — poor areas on the roster, and if there are, they’re covered up by a tremendous offense and outstanding coaching staff.

Oh, how I’d love to see a Cowboys-Titans Super Bowl. But the Steelers and Patriots are going to make that really difficult.

Well … our second AYSO game of the season also ended in defeat, but the boys played much better today, especially in delivering the ball out of the goal. Our goalies made some great stops and some great punts. We still need to get more aggressive in going for tackles, more aware of the space on the field, and more disicplined in playing positions, but in every respect this game was an improvement over our season opener.

Last Saturday, our home opener—by “our,” I mean my son Nathan’s AYSO team, which I coach—went against us in a big way. We lost 5–2, thanks in no small part to poor delivery of the ball out of the goal and a little too much “mob ball.” We’ve been working on those skills this past week, so I’m hopeful for a better showing against this Saturday’s opponents, the Killer Dragons. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Dallas Cowboys opened their 2007 training camp with a big show to kick off the “Wade Phillips era.” You know, that phrase is a little annoying. With six different coaches in the eighteen years that Jerry Jones has owned the team, I don’t think any of them qualify so far as having an “era.” But never mind that. The Cowboys have some talented players returning, and everybody’s excited about Texas native Wade Phillips—the son of former Oilers coach Bum Phillips—taking over the helm.

As for the San Diego Chargers … well, I’m still not quite over the dismissal of Marty Schottenheimer and the hiring of Norv Turner. A Sports Illustrated staff writer wrote that “The Chargers were an NFL-best 14-2 before imploding in a 24-21 home playoff loss to New England,” but why does losing by 3 points to the Patriots’ fourth-quarter comeback constitute an “implosion”? Anyway, I’m hopeful that the Chargers’ players’ talent will overcome their coach’s lack of talent. Last season, the Chargers were 14-2 (87.5% wins). Turner’s career regular season record is 58-82-1 (41.5% wins). This does not bode well. But there’s a lot of attention on rookie Craig Davis and what he might bring to the team at WR.

Anything good going on with the Tennessee Titans has been overshadowed recently by the misdeeds and shenanigans of Pacman Jones. I’m afraid I’m likely to lose a lot of respect for the Titans if they allow Jones to attend training camp and play in preseason games despite the fact that he’s been suspended by the NFL for the entire season (pending a review after week 10). Hopefully, attention can now turn to the rest of the team, including the various draftees who haven’t yet been waived.

Don’t pick up Tank Johnson. Just don’t do it. You’ll just take Dallas farther down the Raiders road—a journey it’s already on.