WAKE UP! THURSDAY EDITION | Three teams in the ETB area kick off the season tonight; Kilgore-Carthage preview, Power Picks coming later today
EDITOR’S NOTE: Wake Up! is a feature on ETBlitz.com designed to update you guys on everything from sports at the 15 schools we cover to community happenings involving them, Kilgore College, Tyler Junior College, Panola College and their conference, the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Cowboys, and more. Wake Up! is presented by Cozy Coffee Station, which you can find on social media — on Facebook, Cozy Coffee Station-Kilgore and Cozy Coffee Station-Gilmer, and on Instagram, @cozycoffeestation_kilgore and @cozycoffeestation_gilmer. See ’em online, and check out the fall menu with plenty of pumpkin, right here: Home | Cozy Coffee Station. They’re located at 755 Highway 271 in Gilmer, and at 110 Midtown Plaza in Kilgore. And they’re GOOD! Go see ’em!
What’s up today on ETBlitz.com
That’s a lot.
High school football season officially kicks off tonight, and there are three games on tap: Tatum at Winnsboro, Gladewater at Daingerfield and San Augustine at Beckville.
We’ll have our Thursday night football preview, with a look at each of those games, around lunchtime.
Also, our ETBlitz Power Picks! are back, where our panel (and a special guest) try to pick the winners of high school football games from our area, junior college games, and this week, select major college football games. Next week, we’ll throw NFL into the mix. Remember: the Dallas Cowboys are in the NFL’s first game of the season next Thursday, Sept. 4, at Philadelphia. September 4 sounded so long ago just a few weeks back, and now it’s here.
At any rate, the picks will be on ETBlitz.com today, as well.
Joe Hale will preview Friday’s mega matchup, the game at Kilgore’s R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium with coach Clint Fuller’s Kilgore Bulldogs, ranked third in the state in Class 4A-Division I, hosting Carthage, the No. 1 team in the 4A-DII poll. It’s gonna be a busy few days around here. Y’all buckle in and enjoy.
Cowboys-Parsons update
Speaking of the Dallas Cowboys, how are things between them and edge rusher Micah Parsons, in their contract dispute? Any better?
Wellllllllll,that’d be no, according to several reports.
A few weeks ago, remember, Parsons asked for a trade because he didn’t like the way talks were going on a new contract. His deal with the team expires after this 2025 season. The Cowboys, by the way, aren’t obligated to honor a trade request from anyone, and Parsons IS under a legit contract through the end of the season.
Apparently, Parsons decided to get a second opinion on his back pain, someone not affiliated with the Cowboys, earlier this week. And Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has said Parsons was made a fantastic offer, and that it’s actually his representation that’s holding back any deal.
It gets tricky when you start reading the tea leaves too closely, and doing things like listening to players’ relatives on contract talks.
But Terrence Parsons, Micah’s younger brother, made it known on social media yesterday that the situation “is gonna get ugly.”
Usually when all of this happens, a deal is announced out of the blue (see Prescott, Dak and before that, Elliott, Ezekiel).
At any rate, it’s almost a certainty that Parsons, who has been attending meetings at camp in Oxnard, California, but not practicing, will not be able to be in the line-up when the Cowboys open the season next Thursday on “Thursday Night Football” at Philadelphia. If he is, it would just about have to be a handful of plays in obvious pass-rush situations, since he’s had no practice time whatsoever.
The countdown is on: the season opener is a week from tonight.