WAKE UP! ON ETBLITZ | Jerry Jones hears the fans (unwillingly); Rangers rising quickly; ready for football and volleyball? Us, too!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Read Wake Up!, and then go visit Cozy Coffee Station and grab a great coffee, your favorite tea, a soda and even breakfast on your way today. They’ve got two East Texas locations: Kilgore, at 110 Midtown Plaza, and Gilmer, at 755 Highway 271 North, both inside of Credit Union of Texas. And see what you want before you go, if you’d like, by going here: Home | Cozy Coffee Station (cozycoffeestation.com).
Schedules and more
A week from today, practice begins for high school football teams all across Texas. Volleyball practice can technically begin on Aug. 1. And we’ve been getting ready for both for some time, sending out questionnaires to coaches, preparing our ads for the 2025-26 school year, setting game assignments and so much more.
It’s hard to believe, but this will already be the third football and volleyball seasons locally since ETBlitz.com was launched midway through 2023. And we are SERIOUSLY fired up.
Throughout the course of this week, we’ll be getting you ready for both football and volleyball. And I’m not going to do what I normally do here, which is lay out what’s coming. You know we’ll have previews, schedules, stories and more in the weeks leading up to the season openers for all of our 15 area high schools, as well as the Southwest Junior College Football Conference. Might even see major college football and NFL previews here, as well. It’s going to be a fun few weeks leading up to the start of the football season, and volleyball, too.
Cowboys Camp
Speaking of the NFL, and speaking particularly about the Dallas Cowboys – who are in camp in Oxnard, California – edge rusher Micah Parsons and the franchise still haven’t agreed to a contract extension.
If they don’t do so before or during the season, then Parsons could become a free agent when it’s over (although that seems highly unlikely).
Still, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had to endure a little message from fans on Saturday. The fans in attendance for the open practices on Saturday began chanting ‘Pay Micah’ at the boss.
And he got the message.
“”I heard it light, but not compared to how I heard them say, ‘Pay Lamb [last year],'” Jones said Sunday, referring to last year’s contract standoff with wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. “That was a faint little sound compared to the way they were hollering last year, ‘Pay Lamb.’ … Whoever’s not in, you can count on a few hollering that. But it was a big loud chant last year on Lamb.”
Ultimately, though, Jones told the media that he had no “real comment at all” on the Parsons contract negotiations.
Jones’ son, Stephen Jones, the team’s executive vice president, also heard the fans, but they realize what’s at stake, the younger Jones said. “It doesn’t change anything. We want to pay Micah, too. He’s got to want to be paid, too.”
That last part was a message: don’t ask for the farm, Micah.
A year ago, Lamb’s contract situation did get worked out, to the tune of a new deal for $136 million right before the season started.
And it’s not as though the franchise is unwilling to complete deals. They signed tight end Jake Ferguson to a new four-year deal valued at maximum of $52 million Sunday. Ferguson, just a few weeks ago, had a football camp at Spring Hill High School in Longview.
In 47 games, Ferguson has made 149 catches for 1,429 yards and seven touchdowns.
By the way, not to make matters worse, but ESPN’s Todd Archer reported Sunday that other contracts the Cowboys would likely want to extend, or at the very least are under some pressure to extend, include offensive lineman (left guard) Tyler Smith, who has this season and next left on his deal, and kicker Brandon Aubrey, who, like Parsons, is a free agent after this year.
Stephen Jones offered this word to console fans.
“…We still obviously have a lot going on,” he said. “You don’t really like to talk about them until they’re done. …You’ve got to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s. Everybody’s got to get comfortable, and you go from there.”
So, Cowboys fans, in other words… hurry up and wait.
The team opens the preseason at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles against the L.A. Rams on Saturday, Aug. 9, an 8 p.m. Pacific kickoff, 6 p.m. here in East Texas.
Rangers Report
Well, the Texas Rangers, playing at home all weekend, swept the Atlanta Braves in their three-game series, finishing it off with an 8-1 win on Sunday.
That means the Rangers are now 56-50 on the season, 9-2 in their last 11 games, and now are off on a West Coast swing, all at American League West Division rivals L.A. Angels (beginning tonight at 8:30 p.m. our time) and then Seattle (starting Thursday night).
This is a key series for Texas, now tied for second with Seattle in the AL West standings behind Houston. If Texas can stay hot, they can overtake the Mariners and have second place in the division all to themselves before August even arrives. And the Houston Astros, who lead the division, are not exactly burning it up. The Astros have cooled off since the All-Star Game break. They’ve lost four straight games and are 4-6 in their last 10.
Texas has won six straight, by the way.
