Texas NFL Capsules: Gurode not worried about cleat to face 3 years ago

IRVING — Plastic surgery fixed the physical scars on Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode's forehead after he was cleated in the face by Albert Haynesworth three years ago.

As for any lingering effects from that dirty play, Gurode says there are none as he prepares to face Haynesworth in a regular-season game for the first time since the incident.

"That situation is behind us. It's something that happened years ago," Gurode said. "He doesn't focus on it. I don't focus on it. We just moved forward and continue to play football."

Gurode needed 30 stitches and was bothered by headaches and blurred vision after the 6-foot-6, 350-pound Haynesworth, then with Tennessee, kicked him and stomped on his helmet-less face. Gurode didn't even miss a game and Haynesworth was suspended for five games — three games longer than anyone ever had been punished for on-field behavior in NFL history.

Haynesworth is now with NFC East-rival Washington after getting a $100 million, seven-year deal from the Redskins last spring. He expects to play Sunday at Dallas even if he's not able to practice because of a sprained left ankle.

It will not be the first time Gurode and Haynesworth have seen each other, since they were both in the last two Pro Bowls, but this will be the first time to face each other in a game that counts.

"Yeah, we are cool," Haynesworth told Dallas reporters in a conference call Wednesday, without elaborating on conversations between the two.

"If I could go back in time, I wouldn't do that," he said. "Now it was a step in my life, a crossroads. I had to choose what I was going to do. Either go down and let that define me or step up and rewrite history."

Haynesworth has 14½ sacks the last two seasons, and was a starter in both Pro Bowls, after having only 9½ his first five seasons.

"It's good that he moved passed it. I moved passed it," said Gurode, a Pro Bowl pick the past three seasons. "He is a great player."

Haynesworth calls Gurode "one of the best centers in the game. ... He has good movement. He is big. He is strong."

Gurode opted against filing criminal charges against Haynesworth, who publicly and privately apologized to Gurode in the days after the October 2006 game in Nashville.

Now that they will be on the field together again, Gurode knows there will be plenty of reminders of what happened, from the questions being asked to the video replays sure to be on TV.

"I expected when he signed with the Redskins and we played them that it was going to be brought up," Gurode said. "It's something in the past and you can't let what happened in the past define who you are today."

While Gurode is healthy and having another standout season, the Cowboys will have two first-time starters against Washington.

Coach Wade Phillips said Alan Ball will start at free safety in place of Ken Hamlin, who is expected to miss 3-4 weeks after sustaining a high right ankle sprain against Green Bay, and that Doug Free will start at right tackle.

It will be the first change on the offensive line for the first time this year after Marc Colombo broke his left leg and sustained ligament damage in his ankle Sunday. Free took over in Green Bay for Colombo, who had started the last 57 games.

"The exciting part of it is you've got another guy ready to go," offensive line coach Hudson Houck said. "He's got fresh legs. He hasn't been banged around. So he will bring some good things to the table from the standpoint of good feet, knowing what to do. Smart guy, plays hard, stays on blocks. "

The Cowboys had considered moving right guard Leonard Davis outside, but will keep him at the spot where he has started all 41 of his games and been a two-time Pro Bowler since coming to Dallas before the 2007 season. Davis played both tackle spots during six seasons in Arizona.

"It's probably easier because it's just one move instead of two," Davis said.

Still, it will be a change for Davis, who has never started a game for the Cowboys without Colombo beside him. But he has confidence in Free, a third-year player from Northern Illinois.

"He actually does better in games than he does practice," Davis said. "Basically since I've been here, Marc's been there. To not have him, it's tough. But we've got a solid, quality backup. Doug's going to do a good job."

Cowboys plan to use Free at RT for Colombo

IRVING — The Dallas Cowboys are planning to make a change on the offensive line to cover for injured right tackle Marc Colombo.

Doug Free is expected to make his first career start Sunday against Washington in place of Colombo, who has started 57 consecutive games. Colombo had surgery Monday, a day after he broke his left leg and suffered ligament damage in his ankle against Green Bay.

The Cowboys had considered moving Leonard Davis from guard to tackle, but that would have meant a new position for Davis and having to find a replacement for him. Davis was a left tackle for Arizona before signing in 2007 with Dallas, where he has been a Pro Bowl guard both seasons.

Young had just been intercepted for the first time since returning as Tennessee's starting quarterback. He walked to the bench. No pouting, no helmet slam. Instead, Young just grabbed a cap and took a seat on the bench before bouncing back with his third straight victory.

So far, it sure looks like all that time as a backup resulted in a more mature — and winning — quarterback.

"I grew up a little bit," Young said.

The 2006 Offensive Rookie of the Year has posted a passer rating of 90.4 or better in three straight games for the first time in his short career, and he is running effectively.

Coincidence or not, the Titans (3-6) are showing signs of life after the 0-6 start prompted owner Bud Adams to insist that coach Jeff Fisher start the quarterback Adams had watched through high school and college in Texas.

Nearly 14 months have passed since Young lost his job following the 2008 season opener, the game in which Young had to be coaxed back onto the field, upset over being booed for a second interception. A few plays later, he sprained his knee.

That was the start of a dramatic week in which Young skipped a scheduled exam, and Fisher wound up calling police to help find Young when the quarterback sped off in his Mercedes with a gun in the car. Young called the incident the result of a worried mother. But veteran Kerry Collins remained the starter as the Titans started 10-0.

Since then, Young's sideline behavior has been a hot topic in Nashville.

Fans speculated he stayed busy listening to his iPod when he monitored play calls through an earpiece; measured the distance between Young and Collins when talking with offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger; and even where he sat during games.

Through it all, Fisher insisted Young was the Titans' franchise quarterback and that the No. 3 overall pick in 2006 was busy learning.

"He's making the decisions and changing the plays on the line of scrimmage and doing what we expect the quarterback to do," Fisher said of Young. "The position's hard enough to play, and he's playing it well right now. We just have to keep it going."

Some of Young's teammates didn't sound enthusiastic when he returned as the starter, pointing out the big difference between practice and games. Young sounds as if he understands his challenge.

"I put my teammates first, and I'm behind everything else. I want to keep working and impressing them and earning their confidence and respect from them guys," he said.

Numbers help.

Young is 21-11 in his four NFL seasons, and he can win his eighth straight game as a starter Monday night when the Titans visit his hometown, Houston. In his three starts, he is 44 of 62 for 469 yards with two touchdowns and the lone interception. He has been sacked just once and has run 22 times for 73 yards and another TD.

Houston cornerback Dunta Robinson said the Titans have eased Young back into the offense, especially with Chris Johnson leading the NFL in rushing.

"When you've got a running game that is clicking and working the way that running game is, you shouldn't have to ask any quarterback to do too much," Robinson said. "He's coming in and he's managing the game pretty well. He's making the throws he's supposed to make, and they're handing the ball off to Chris Johnson, and he's making the difference."

Collins had Johnson, too, but Young's mobility allows him to move around and buy time. Young said he is working hard with Heimerdinger, and the result has been a variety of quarterback draws, scrambles, throwing on the run and even the option.

Young also has organized his private life to focus on work. He used to come in from practice and find his cell phone demanding his attention. This is the quarterback who had a brief reality show his rookie season, talked of how he stayed busy playing Santa, and dived into charity work with his own foundation.

"Now I have all of that structure-wise right. I don't have to worry about that. All I have to do is play football now," Young said.

He also had to deal with the murder of his mentor, Steve McNair, in July. Young said at the funeral he would be there for McNair's sons as the NFL veteran had been there for Young. Trenton and Tyler McNair watched as Young led the 41-17 win last weekend over the Bills.

"My confidence level is a tremendous high," Young said.

"As I have been sitting back and watching and learning the game of football as a quarterback the things you need to do. That is all I have been doing, just being ready and the preparation is the biggest key right now."

-- Teresa M. Walker

No drunks puking in the aisle next to him. No foul-mouthed fans screaming obscenities in his ear.

Just an elderly man prancing about, flipping off Buffalo fans with both middle fingers while celebrating the Titans' 41-17 victory over the Bills.

Worried about the trash in the stands ruining your game and setting a bad example for your children? Make sure they don't stray near the owner's box.

Apparently youthful exuberance got the better of Bud Adams. The calendar may say he's 86, but Adams seems to take as much pleasure berating his opponents as he did when he and his Houston Oilers won the first American Football League championship nearly a half century ago.

And he knows something about the extended middle finger. A lot of people in Houston gave it to him when he carted his team off to Tennessee, leaving behind a mountain of taxpayer debt at the Astrodome.

Unfortunately for Adams, his in-your-face moment was captured by a fan on video. That led to an obligatory fine from Goodell, and an obligatory apology of sorts by way of a prepared statement.

That's unusual only because most of the time owners only issue statements when they're heading out of town with their team in the middle of the night or, as Redskins owner Dan Snyder did recently, explaining why it was a bad idea for fans to bring signs into the stadium calling him an idiot.

Out in Los Angeles, Frank and Jamie McCourt have been issuing all kinds of statements, thinking, perhaps, that fans really do care which one comes out of a divorce owning the Dodgers. They don't, but they do care about the McCourts spending so much money on lawyers that they won't have enough to sign free agent John Lackey.

Still, being an owner used to mean never having to explain yourself. If you've got enough money to own a team, other people can do it for you.

Mark Cuban has taken that a step further, if only because he would never get anything done if he had to keep talking about every fine he's collected or every insult he's handed out. When the Dallas Mavericks owner feels the need to insult Kenyon Martin's mother, he sends his regrets on his blog.

Cuban is relatively new to this all, though. Adams has been around since the founding days of the AFL, and it could be he's growing impatient that he's never had a team win a Super Bowl, though the Titans came agonizingly close in 2002.

Adams was involved in a middle-finger incident after that season, too. It happened when he was showing off the Titans' AFC championship ring, and he mentioned that someone asked what finger he would wear a Super Bowl ring on if the Titans won.

Still steamed at Houston's mayor over a new stadium, Adams held up his right hand and extended the middle finger.

"I said, 'I'm going to put it right on this finger and say to the mayor of Houston, 'There it is, mayor, take a look at it.'"

No fine for that one, but he did say he was sorry.

So consider his recent $250,000 penalty an admission fee to the owner's Hall of Shame, an exclusive club that counts Marge Schott, the late owner of the Cincinnati Reds, as a charter member.

Schott so embarrassed baseball in the 1990s with her racist rantings and fond recollections of Adolf Hitler that she was finally suspended from ownership duties for a season.

When Schott came back she offended yet another portion of the population by saying she wouldn't allow her players to wear earrings "because only fruits wear earrings."

But the topper came on opening day in 1996 when home plate umpire John McSherry dropped dead of a heart attack in the first inning in Cincinnati. Schott didn't want to call the game, reportedly saying, "... I feel cheated. This isn't supposed to happen to us, not in Cincinnati. ..."

Later, she sent flowers to the umpire room in sympathy — flowers she had been given earlier in the day by a local television station.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org

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