IRVING, Texas -- Despite being yanked to the turf by his dreadlocks last Sunday, Dallas Cowboys running back Marion Barber doesn't plan to hide his hair during Thursday's game against the New Orleans Saints.

Detroit Lions rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was called for a horse-collar penalty after grabbing a handful of Barber's long dreadlocks to make a tackle early in the fourth quarter of the Cowboys' 35-19 victory Sunday.

NFL rules state a player can pull another player's hair in the process of tackling. Barber said it was the first time in his career that another player had pulled his dreadlocks.

The 15-yard penalty resulted in a first down at the Detroit 5, setting up Jon Kitna's 4-yard touchdown pass to Miles Austin as the Cowboys took a 28-19 lead.

"They said he didn't pull his hair, that they got a horse-collar," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "I saw what you saw. That was a huge penalty. It gave them another chance."

During practice Monday and Tuesday, Barber covered up his dreadlocks -- even going so far as to tie them into a ponytail and tuck them into his jersey Tuesday.

But he won't cover them up for Thursday's game against the Saints.

Cowboys interim coach Jason Garrett sees no problem with his starting running back's hair.

Read more...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Even if TCU and Boise State run the table, they still don't deserve to be in the Bowl Championship Series title game, Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee said Wednesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the president at the university with the largest athletic program in the country said that TCU and Boise State do not face a difficult enough schedule to play in the national championship game.

"Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football," said Gee, formerly the president at West Virginia, Colorado, Brown and Vanderbilt universities. "I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.

"So I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there's some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame."

Gee, long an admirer of the BCS and the current bowl system, said he was against a playoff in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

"If you put a gun to my head and said, 'What are you going to do about a playoff system [if] the BCS system as it now exists goes away?' I would vote immediately to go back to the bowl system," he said.

He said the current system is better for the student-athletes.

"It's not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that's a slippery slope to professionalism," he said. "I'm a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well."

Read more...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who faces former employer Miami on Wednesday night, called Phil Jackson "inappropriate" and "ignorant" for hypothesizing that the Heat soon could change coaches if the ultra-talented team doesn't shake its sluggish start.

Jackson drew attention -- and some ire -- after discussing the fallout to the Heat's 8-6 start under coach Erik Spoelstra during an interview Tuesday with ESPN 1000 in Chicago.

"That record, I think, says a lot about coming together with some real talented guys, and not having a base," the Lakers coach said on "The Waddle & Silvy Show."

Jackson went on to say, "The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene, is that eventually these guys that were recruited -- [Chris] Bosh and [LeBron] James -- by [team president] Pat Riley and Micky Arison, the owner, are going to come in and say, 'We feel you [Riley] can do a better job coaching the team. We came here on the hopes that this would work,' and whatever, I don't know," Jackson said. "That's kind of my take on it, is that eventually if things don't straighten out here soon, it could be the Van Gundy thing all over again."

Jackson's direct analogy to the events that precipitated Van Gundy's departure in Miami during the 2005-06 season particularly irritated the Magic's coach.

"Phil has no idea what the Van Gundy situation was because, even though he coaches in our league, he certainly had no insight or knowledge of that," Van Gundy said Wednesday. "So an analogy he'd make to my situation would be totally useless because he doesn't have any clue what the situation was in that case."

Van Gundy resigned in December 2005 after the Heat went 11-10 through the early stretch of their season. Although he cited personal reasons for resigning, many observers maintain that Van Gundy was forced out by Riley. In the five years since his departure, Van Gundy has insisted repeatedly that the prevailing views of his exit are patently false -- an opinion he reiterated in the wake of Jackson's comments.

"To second-guess another coach and comment on a situation he knows nothing about -- it's inappropriate. And it's also ignorant," Van Gundy said. "I don't mean that commenting on Phil's intelligence. He's obviously a very smart guy. I mean it as ignorant [in that] he doesn't know what that situation was and he doesn't know what the situation is now.

Read more...

After reflecting upon the tumultuous events of Sunday's overtime loss that culminated with him walking out on the Titans, quarterback Vince Young texted coach Jeff Fisher with an apology Tuesday for his actions and words.

Fisher confirmed for reporters Wednesday that he received the text, which came a day after Young was asked to leave the Titans' facility because he was not welcome at a team meeting.

Asked if Fisher rather would have the apology occur face to face, the coach said, "You guys draw that conclusion."

"I'm not a real big text guy. I'm not really into this new-age stuff," Fisher said. "I don't Twitter or tweet. But I think face to face is a man thing, OK?"

Asked if a text was better than no apology at all, Fisher said: "Someone could have grabbed his phone."

In the text, a source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter that Young thanked Fisher for the opportunity to play for the Titans and wished him and the team good luck for the rest of the season. Young ended the text by asking Fisher to have more faith and confidence in him moving forward, and said that they each wanted the same thing -- to win a Super Bowl.

Young needs season-ending surgery to repair a flexor tendon in his right thumb, which he injured in the third quarter of a 19-16 loss to Washington.

Things became even messier for Young and the 5-5 Titans after that.

Young, who tossed his pads into the stands while leaving the field, got into a heated exchange with Fisher and stormed out of the stadium.

Read more...