The scheduling conflict that put a Cowboys-Jets game and a Texas high school state championship game on the same field at the same time seems to be a case of miscommunication.
And it sounds like somebody’s going to find out where they fall in the Pope Francis-Woody Johnson spectrum of scheduling importance.
According to Corbett Smith of the Dallas Morning News, the conflict that became obvious when the NFL announced its schedule Tuesday night stemmed from the fact the Cowboys didn’t ask those dates to be blacked out among their schedule requests.
So on Dec. 19, the Cowboys are scheduled to play the Jets at 7:25 p.m. That’s the same day as the championship games for the three largest classes of high school football in Texas, and they were planning on using Jerry Jones’ building as well.
It’s all because the UIL, the state’s governing body for high school sports, said last June they wanted to open the state title games up to bidding from multiple sites including Houston and San Antonio (to allay political pressure in a big state). They had a one-year extension to an existing contract with the Cowboys, but hadn’t exercised it yet, leading the Cowboys to believe they were going to rotate beginning this year, rather than 2016.
The UIL and the Cowboys are trying to work out a compromise, but the group’s leader sounds a little big for his britches.
Executive director Charles Breithaupt said in an interview on Austin’s KVET-AM that the high school league wasn’t going to alter its plans to keep all the title games at a central site, or adjust the schedule a day earlier or a few days later to stay in AT&T Stadium.
“We don’t want to cheapen our event,” Breithaupt said.
Breithaupt also said the Cowboys apologized for the mixup and were committed to seeking a change from the NFL.
As big as high school football in Texas may be (the last two games in Arlington have drawn more than 50,000), the idea the NFL is going to uproot its schedule now seems out of character.
Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple was well short of an apology and a promise to work on moving their game, but did strike the appropriately concerned tone.
“Although there is no binding contract in place for this year’s championship games to be played in Arlington, AT&T Stadium is certainly a venue that is under consideration for the 2015 games,” he said in a statement. “In light of the release of the NFL schedule, we are currently working with the UIL and the NFL to explore options for the 2015 games to be played in Arlington, however, we are aware that alternative sites must be explored.”
If this Breithaupt cat has as much juice as he seems to think he has and gets the NFL to bend, he might end up working someplace bigger.
Like 345 Park Avenue. Or The Vatican.