In winning last night the way they did, Dallas could have become a rare commodity for a dark corner of the betting world - the system bettors. There are loads of "systems" that purport to tell you how to bet specific games. One of the systems that seems to signal a game to bet very infrequently goes like this:

Never bet a road favorite immediately after a straight up road win unless the straight up road win is also two touchdowns better than the spread.

The Redskins lost because somehow they could not run the ball through a porous defense and they made up for that by passing inefficiently. The longest offensive play of the game for Washington was a 17 yard pass play where Stephen Davis caught the ball over the middle about 2 yards downfield, broke the initial tackle and rumbled for a while until a bunch of guys converged on him.

Danny Boy has once again gotten himself trapped in his "tough guy" image - the guy who demands results or else. He fires secretaries and elevator operators and all that stuff, but Andy Heck pulled a giant rock last night getting called for a personal foul after a play was over - and Heck was not even in the game. He shoved a Cowboy after a tackle on the Redskins' sideline. It created a down and distance situation of 3rd and 19 for which there were no plays last night since the longest gain was 17 yards. Norv did not make him sit down and get back; none of the assistants got in Andy's face; so now it is time for "Darth" Snyder to show all of us what it takes to be the guy who holds everyone accountable. Only problem is that Danny Boy is going to do precisely - nothing. Why? Because there is nothing flashy for him to do like sign John Hannah to come back and play OL and at the core, Danny Boy is a lot more about image and appearance than he is about substance. He loves to come across as a tough guy; I wonder if he was the guy who set the school record for receiving wedgies when he was in middle school.

In other NFL news, Ryan Leaf is back in as the starter in San Diego because Moses Moreno right shoulder is injured. In Denver, Brian Griese is listed as "questionable" after an MRI showed a "partially torn cartilage" in his right shoulder. If a partially torn cartilage makes Griese questionable, that makes me think that Moreno's injury is pretty serious.

About 20 years ago Russell Erxleben came out of Texas and was drafted in the first round by the Saints as a punter and placekicker. He was a large man who had also played QB in high school and some thought that he was a prototype for future kicking specialists. Well he had a truly meteoric career; he crashed and burned and was out of the league in pretty short order. Now he has been arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced to a Federal penitentiary for running a scheme that defrauded investors of more than $50M. Sounds like the mistake was for the Saints to draft him, but then again there isn't an NFL team that is officially known as the Crooks.

A Pittsburgh columnist was a guest on the Tony Kornheiser show yesterday and said that the Steelers may be "tuning out" Bill Cowher's emotional and "in your face" coaching style. Tony asked if that meant that they needed to bring in someone with the opposite style - the latter day Marv Levy. The columnist responded that one thing the Steelers could do would be to hire Buddy Ryan because at the very least Buddy would kill Kevin Gilbride and that would be a step forward for the team. Kevin has been singularly unsuccessful as an offensive coordinator and a head coach yet he stays employed and so I think he must have videotape of one of the owners' meetings that makes the Tailhook rituals look like kindergarten rest time.

The Bills fired their special teams coach after last year's playoff debacle that has come to be known as the Music City Miracle. Well, I don't think he missed last Sunday's game where the Bills' special teams had a field goal blocked, fumbled two punts, gave up a TD on a return and committed a penalty to nullify a 40+ yard return of their own. Probably when he read those stats, his message to the Bills' hierarchy was "Booga-booga" - intoned of course while simultaneously sticking both thumbs in the ears and wiggling the fingers.

I know that all of you have been anxious about this, but you can relax now; it is official. The NFL and the Hawaii tourism authorities have concluded their negotiations and the Pro Bowl will stay in Honolulu through the game in 2006. I'll bet that was a tense negotiation and a fierce competition. I would love to be able to see the bid package that Boise, Idaho or Gary, Indiana put together to try to wrest this plum away from Honolulu. Look folks, NFL players already find excuses not to go and play in the game even if they are elected to go and it is in Hawaii. Where else would you put a game in February to make it more attractive to players who do not want to play any more games?

Moving on to NCAA football, I received a note yesterday chastising me for failing to mention that Yale beat Michigan to the 800 win mark in college football games and that it was only a nasty rumor that Yale had been playing games since just after the death of Charlemagne. I acknowledge that oversight and apologize profusely for the omission but note that Michigan plays an eleven game schedule with a bowl game every year and Yale plays a nine game schedule with no bowl games. With a two game lead at the moment, that makes the race to 1000 victories a bit lopsided. Maybe Yale needs to drop out of the Ivy League and get in one of the 1-AA leagues and play in the 1-AA tournament giving them the potiential to play as many as 14 games in a season?

Gary Barnett arrived at the University of Colorado continuing to ride the wave of glory that he garnered from catching lightening in a bottle for one season at Northwestern. Since then, his teams have been very ordinary but he seems still to have "mystique". He was going to right the ship at Colorado and his theme and catch phrase was "Return to Dominance". That was plastered all over the place with signs and tee-shirts and the like. Don't look now, but Colorado is 0-3 and still have to play Kansas State, Texas, Texas A&M and Nebraska. If you happen to come across one of those signs or tee-shirts, you can just "Return to Sender".

Speaking of Kansas State, they continue their brutally embarrassing schedule next week with a nailbiter against North Texas. If you are curious about the spread on this game, just think of a number that begins with "5"…

In the Olympics, a horse from the New Zealand equestrian team was disqualified when it "failed a veterinary inspection". At least it was not a drug test that it failed showing that there really is such a thing as "horse sense". I don't know exactly what the problem was with the horse that the veterinarian found upon inspection but I sincerely hope - for the vet's sake - that it was not an enlarged prostate.

Finally, continuing my service of checking out the agate type for Olympic results you might have missed:

In junior lightweight boxing, Tulkenbay Turgunov (Uzbekistan) defeated Kassim Napa Adam (Uganda) to move on to the next round.

A Korean boxer Kim Ki Suk told reporters of his superstition not to bathe while in a competition. He said it had become a habit for him. My bet is that the reporters did not need to be told about this situation.