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Saturday, December 13, 1997
How is Erik Williams a Pro Bowler?
By Randy Galloway
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS -- Here's my advice for Brett Favre:
Hire yourself a good lawyer and sue immediately. Obviously,
there's a mistake, so prove it in court.
Erik Williams, the NFL announced Thursday, has been voted to
the Pro Bowl. What's next -- word from the Vatican that the Rev.
Deion has been elected pope?
Either this Williams thing is a joke or Jerry Jones was in
charge of the ballot box. Think about it. How better for Jerry
to get back at Favre for that November annihilation? Send Williams
to Hawaii to "block" for Brett.
Where are you, Marty Griffin? Come out of hiding. All is forgiven.
Just bring your hidden camera and get to the bottom of this scam.
Williams threw one good block all year, but that was at Griffin's
chicken-liver Channel 5 bosses. Williams' sued for alleged mistreatment,
Channel 5 folded and Erik bay-bee walked away with a $1 million
settlement.
But if you take that settlement to the football field, it amounts
to a dollar a bruise that Williams' ineptness inflicted on the
bodies of Aikman, Emmitt, etc.
And now Williams is being rewarded with Pro Bowl credentials
and the trip to Hawaii. As the backup tackle, he was selected
as the third-best at his position in the NFC. Nothing could be
less accurate, offering more proof that Pro Bowl voting is more
bogus than any other all-star team selection process, be it baseball,
NHL or NBA.
Williams is obviously still living off the reputation achieved
prior to wall-crashing the Mercedes three years ago. He hasn't
been close to the same since, and was worse than ever this season.
It should be embarrassing to Jones that four Cowboys from a
6-8 team were named Thursday to the Pro Bowl. Only two, Larry
Allen and Darren Woodson, were deserving. Deion Sanders was a
big-play bust, and rode in on past reputation. Williams, however,
defies logic.
With the Pro Bowl voting split evenly between coaches, players
and a national survey of fans, it makes you wonder which group
is dumbest.
The offensive line was the season-long focus among a variety
of Dallas failures, and now two of five starters from that area
made the Pro Bowl. Has anyone with a ballot been paying attention
since September?
For a second opinion, however, there's Hudson Houck, who coaches
the offensive line. My question was simple. Did the rest of us
miss something on Williams' season, meaning the Pro Bowl voters
actually got it right?
"I don't have the answer on why the voting went like it
did," Houck said. "Erik is one of my guys. I'm gonna
protect him. But certainly he didn't play as well as three years
ago. All I know is he was the best we had at that position, and
I'm not trying to evade the question."
Houck listed the positives on Williams, which included, "he
competes hard" ... "he never backs off" ... "he
will hang in there when times are tough."
For those of us who had lost count, Houck even noted that Williams'
penalties were down from last season. Yes, that's also hard to
imagine.
But Williams is also remembered as the guy who was loafing
downfield in the New York game as the clock ran out. Then, when
the season ran out Monday night, it was Erik Williams who couldn't
block a pint-sized defensive back the play before the disaster
that was Fourth-and-One.
"Normally, Erik takes out the man, the play goes for about
15 yards, we've got the first, and maybe we go on and win the
game," Houck said. "But on second down, Erik had pulled
a rib-cage muscle, and we didn't know it. I asked him why he didn't
take himself out of the game, but he thought he could still go.
But the rib brothered him on that attempted block."
Overall, however, Williams has become a trifecta of problems
for the Cowboys -- his off-the-field image is awful, his production
on the field has slipped to below average and his contract is
huge, meaning he can't be dumped due to salary-cap ramifications.
And remember, Jones gave Williams $14 million over five seasons
AFTER the Mercedes wreck.
Favre and the world-champion Packers were able to take total
advantage of such personnel mistakes last month. But come February,
it will be payday time in Hawaii. Thanks to deaf, dumb and blind
Pro Bowl voters, Brett will have Erik Williams on his team.
---
(Randy Galloway is a sports columnist for the Dallas Morning
News. Write to him at: Dallas Morning News, Communications Center,
Dallas, Texas 75265.)
All content copyright 1997, Randy Galloway,
The Dallas Morning News, Knight-Ridder-Tribune Media News Service.
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