Inside the Tank talks

Those who believe the Cowboys weren’t using the Tank Johnson interview to get inside information on Bears -- this Sunday’s opponent and Johnson’s former team -- are being naive.

This stuff goes on all across the league and has been for years. Teams would routinely bring in players for “tryouts” or “free agent visits” the week before playing said player's former team.

Now that doesn’t mean the Cowboys weren’t legitimately interested in Johnson’s services as a nose tackle because, obviously, as we've seen, they were. But the timing of this week’s visit was no coincidence.

You can argue all day about how much it might help, in light of the fact that the Cowboys already have a complete scouting report on the Bears. But if it didn’t help or teams didn’t think it would help then why would they do it?

Regarding Bears inside information, the Cowboys got a head start on that last February when they interviewed former Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera for the then-vacant head coaching position. Part of the interview was asking Rivera how he ran his defense in Chicago, what made it a success and would he do similar things in Dallas. Don’t think the Cowboys haven’t reviewed those comments.

And don’t forget that quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson came to Dallas from Chicago in the off-season. Sure, Wilson is serving a five-game suspension for using a banned substance. But his phone still works as does his computer. Also, as one coach pointed out to me, the Cowboys began picking Wilson’s brain about the Bears offense and quarterback Rex Grossman’s tendencies as soon as the schedule came out last April.

-- Clarence Hill

Comments

[Draggin']

You know, I am hearing alot about how Tank has had problems, and how he was involved in this problem or that problem. It was stated in the newspaper on tuesday I believe (I could get up and find the exact article but Im being lazy... YES I SAVE ALL THE COWBOYS ARTICLES!!) that it was stated that a lot of the problems that he has been involved in were actually not totally his fault, or probably could have been avoided. It seems to me that we are actually looking at more a training of what not to be, or WHERE not to be then what not to do. Honestly would you rather deal with a situation that can be easily avoided or with a situation that needs to be trained against? I am glad to have a man that can boost the Defense as well as Tank might be able to. Lets wish him well hope for the best and watch the blotters hahaha. If we look at all the problems we have had in the past NOT just SECOND chance people BUT the people that came to us with perfect records and found their way onto the blotters you would find that Dallas is a home for the umm troubled kind if you will. HAHA. LETS just WISH the BOYS luck, AND WATCH THE GAMES!!!

[Vix]

I think you're the one being naïve here. As a defensive tackle, Tank is not going to be able to tell the Cowboys anything they haven't seen on film. Or, did you naïvely buy into his self-proclaimed intelligence?

[James Joyner]

Good stuff, Clarence.

One question: Aren't the Cowboys prohibited from having any contact with Wilson during the period of his suspension?

[LL from Austin]

Idiot.