IRVING, Texas — Dallas quarterback Tony Romo is listed as probable for Sunday’s game at the New York Giants, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones gave a more optimistic report.

Romo has a swollen throwing hand.

According to an ESPN.com story, Jones on Friday told KRLD-FM radio: “He (Romo) is going to be playing at full strength. It’s just a very big-time feel-good to know that we’re going to be going in with this kind of quarterbacking.”

The NFC East title will be at stake when the 8-7 teams meet.

Jones, also the team’s general manager, said of Romo: “He’s a top, top quarterback and he’s got a good team around him. In my belief, a very good team around him, so the stage is set for us to play well in a big game.”

Romo was limited in practice Friday, according to ESPN.

Meanwhile, running back Brandon Jacobs of the Giants ripped Dallas supporters.

“You know what it is: (The reason) a lot of people and a lot of guys on other teams hate the Cowboys is their fans,” Jacobs said. “Some of their fans are loud and obnoxious and just bad. Just everywhere you go, you got some Dallas fans, and they’re just running their mouth about Dallas.

“It’s not really the team and the star (logo) and all that ’cause they’re just like any other team if you ask me. But their fans are the ones who have me just really feeling the way I feel.”

Are they worse than Philadelphia Eagles fans?

“Yeah, they are … I’m just talking about everyday life,” Jacobs said. “Cowboys fans get on my nerves.”

Jacobs rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns to help the visiting Giants beat the Cowboys 37-34 on Dec. 11.

Cardinals’ Dockett is docked $30,000

NEW YORK — Arizona defensive tackle Darnell Dockett has been fined $15,000 by the league for hitting Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton below the knees last weekend and another $15,000 for a horse-collar tackle on Bengals running back Bernard Scott.

Dockett was called for 15-yard penalties on each play in the Cardinals’ 23-16 loss last Saturday.

Arizona hosts the Seahawks on Sunday.

Dockett was fined $7,500 in 2009 for pushing his forearm into then-Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck’s throat while Hasselbeck was down.

Washington safety Reed Doughty was fined $15,000 by the league for striking Minnesota’s Christian Ponder in the head and neck area as the quarterback slid. Houston defensive end J.J. Watt received a similar fine for hitting Indianapolis quarterback Dan Orlovsky below the knee.

Atlanta linebacker Curtis Lofton was fined $15,000 for unnecessary roughness for striking New Orleans receiver Marques Colston in the head and neck area.

Notes

• Standout Houston receiver Andre Johnson will play against Tennessee on Sunday after missing the last three games because of a strained left hamstring.

• Quarterback Tom Brady is listed as “probable” on the New England Patriots’ injury report for Sunday’s game against Buffalo. An injury to his left, non-throwing shoulder limited Brady’s participation in practice Friday for a second consecutive day after he sat out Wednesday’s practice session.

• Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and safety Troy Polamalu each attended practice Friday and are listed as probable for Sunday’s game in Cleveland.

Roethlisberger (high ankle sprain) missed last Saturday’s 27-0 victory over St. Louis. Polamalu (knee) did not practice until Friday but is expected to start.

• Miami running back Reggie Bush won’t play in Sunday’s game against the New York Jets because of an injured right knee. He has a team-high 1,086 rushing yards.

• The Green Bay Packers, who play Detroit on Sunday, will be without three key players on offense: running back James Starks (knee/ankle), receiver/kick returner Randall Cobb (groin) and receiver Greg Jennings (knee). Jennings has missed the past two games.

• Kicker Ryan Succop signed a $14 million, five-year extension with the Kansas City Chiefs.

• Kansas City quarterback Kyle Orton and about 20 other players, who weren’t identified by the plaintiffs’ attorney, are suing Chicago law firm Chuhak & Tecson for more than $10 million, claiming they received bad advice on investing in energy concerns.

For Dallas Cowboys’ fans worried about Tony Romo’s status for the New Year’s Day game against the New York Giants, Miles Austin says not to worry. The receiver, who has been working this week with Romo, said the quarterback is practicing just fine.

Austin went on to say that Romo has been accurate and does not show any signs of the hand bothering him at all. While he said he doesn’t know how Romo feels, he knows that the passes feel normal and are on par with what he is used to from the Cowboys’ signal caller.

Luckily for Romo, there were eight days between the injury and the Giants’ game, so the hand had time to heal. His hand has been wrapped up and protected this week during practice while Romo has been throwing the ball. On Friday, it was heavily taped up in an effort to further decrease the swelling.

Romo has said all week he expects to play in the game. He said his hand has improved day-by-day and the swelling has been going down on a steady basis. In an interesting statement for fans, Romo said that playing with the injured ribs earlier in the season was much harder than playing with the swelling in his hand.

Romo has been playing in pain all season, so it was no surprise to learn he would not miss the game that will determine the NFC East champions. In the first game against the Giants this season, Romo threw for 321 yards and four touchdowns, which makes sense with the Giants having the 27th ranked pass defense in the NFL.

However, Dallas’ defense collapsed in the final two minutes and the Giants came back to win. With the defense prone to slip-ups, especially late in games, Dallas needs Romo at full strength. Thankfully, that is what Austin says his quarterback currently is.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys’ fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys’ related news, good or bad

Source: dallascowboys.com

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Brandon Jacobs has a message for Dallas Cowboys’ football fans. He said that it is not the team’s fault so many people hate them. The New York Giants’ running back said the reason people hate the Cowboys is because their fans are so bad.

Brandon Jacobs
Wikimedia Commons

Jacobs even said that Dallas fans are worse than Philadelphia Eagles fans. He did back up and say it is not the way they act at games that makes them bad but it is instead the way Cowboys’ fans act in their everyday life.

This week, Dallas Cowboys’ fans are at the tip of Jacobs’ hate filled tongue.

It is nice to see that Jacobs has moved on. If you remember right, this is the same Brandon Jacobs who went face to face with Rex Ryan last week when Ryan told the running back to shut up until they win the Super Bowl. Jacobs then told Ryan he would punch him in the face and called him fat.

While Rex Ryan took a lot of grief for the confrontation, it was Jacobs who kept talking. In the press conferences and interviews after the game, Ryan said it was a private conversation and he knows that Jacobs doesn’t like him. When Jacobs was interviewed after the game, he made more fat comments and reiterated that he would punch Ryan in the face.

Someone needs anger management classes.

In interviews this week, Rex’s brother Rob Ryan, the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, was asked about the situation. He said he respects both his brother and Jacobs and then said that he was pretty sure it was not a one-sided argument. He then pointed out that Jacobs ran for 101 yards last time the Cowboys played the Giants.

In interviews, Jacobs also claimed there was a long standing feud between the Ryan family and Giants’ assistant coach Kevin Gilbride. Rob Ryan laughed that off as well.

This is a championship game between the Giants and Cowboys. This isn’t about grudges, it is about winning the NFC East. Anyone who thinks otherwise is only trying to create problems. Of course, if you ask Jacobs, that is what Dallas Cowboys’ fans might be best at.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys’ fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys’ related news, good or bad

Source: dallascowboys.com

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

If the Dallas Cowboys continue to play without mental toughness, franchise legend Emmitt Smith thinks the team will get blew out … blowed out on Sunday against the New York Giants. Blown out.

The Hall of Fame running back told Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com that he doubts the team has enough leadership and toughness to win the de facto NFC East Championship game on Sunday night.

“Talent-wise, I think they have it. Leadership-wise, they have some good leaders on the ballclub. Do they have enough? Probably not. Can they go up to New York and be mentally tough in this situation? I think Jason [Garrett] has done a very good job of preparing the guys to be physically and hopefully mentally tough, but I think mental toughness is the thing needed in games like this.

“Mental toughness for four quarters or five quarters, if you have to go that far. But that’s something our Cowboys have not been able to do in close games. And that’s where mental toughness comes into play.”

It was that exact mental toughness that allowed Smith to become the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, a three-time Super Bowl champion and the guy who succeeded Drew Lachey as “Dancing With the Stars” champion. He’s completely right though; as he pointed out later, the Cowboys have lost four games this season after holding fourth quarter leads. And in one of those, it was a timeout by Jason Garrett that played a hand in defeat. Is the team getting its cues from its coach?

The bright side is that the Cowboys are playing the Giants, a team whose mental toughness comes and goes without advance warning. One day they’re beating New England and hanging with the defending Super Bowl champions, the next they’re getting swept by the Washington Redskins.

Related: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Washington Redskins

IRVING, Texas (AP) — With tape still wrapped around his bruised throwing hand after practice, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo insists that he will be ready to play in what is essentially a playoff game against the New York Giants.

“Everything’s coming together like we thought, just each day it’s getting a little bit better,” Romo said Thursday. “We’ll be good to go this weekend.”

Romo wore the protective wrap on his swollen right hand, the one he banged on a defender’s helmet on the opening series Saturday against Philadelphia before coming out of the game. The wrap leaves his fingers and thumb free. He wasn’t wearing anything on the hand Wednesday.

The Cowboys go on the road to face the Giants on Sunday night, a matchup of 8-7 teams that will decide the NFC East and fill the NFC’s last playoff spot.

Romo, who played through a broken rib early this season, said he isn’t worried about whether he will feel normal Sunday.

“You have to go out there and practice all week and get yourself ready to go to the game on Sunday. I’m excited that we’re in this position and we have an opportunity to go and play in a big game like this,” he said. “This is when it gets fun. No matter what, you’re not going to sit one of these out.”

During the few minutes early in practice open to reporters Thursday, Romo came out of the locker room wearing the protective wrap and made a few soft tosses. He was also bantering with teammates.

“Tony did a little bit more today than he did yesterday. I wouldn’t constitute a full practice, but he’s making some progress,” coach Jason Garrett said. “The swelling still is there. … All the functional things that a quarterback has to do, he has to be able to do by game time, and he’s making progress in all those areas.”

Garrett said backup quarterback Stephen McGee, who finished Saturday’s game after Romo got hurt, got some work with the first-team offense again Thursday.

Even with the rib injury in Week 2 and not playing much last week against Philadelphia, Romo has already thrown for 3,895 yards and 29 touchdowns. He still has a chance for his third 4,000-yard passing season and his second year with at least 30 TDs. No other Dallas quarterback has reached 4,000 yards or 30 TDs in a season.

Romo threw for 321 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions in a 37-34 home loss three weeks ago against the Giants, who overcame a 12-point deficit in the final 3½ minutes.

Dallas might have already clinched the division had it won that game.

“It’s obvious that this is basically a playoff game. For us, it’s been great energy all week. Guys are ready to go, and they’re excited,” Romo said.

The quarterback’s bruised hand just adds another twist to the important game.

“A lot of quarterbacks throughout the league play through stuff every week,” Romo said. “Sometimes it can be magnified because you’re playing in a game that’s like this. … No one cares, and once you get out there, it’s about winning and losing, so that’s all it’s going to be about.”

Romo said he won’t decide until later this week about whether to wear tape on his hand during the game. He never said how much pain he was feeling, saying only that, “like anything, you just have to deal with it and overcome it.”

Notes: Just like last week, the Cowboys are easing Pro Bowl defenders DeMarcus Ware (neck) and Jay Ratliff (ribs) into practice this week. Neither practiced Wednesday, and were limited Thursday … RB Felix Jones (hamstring tightness) was limited again in practice, but Garrett said he’s looking good in the work he’s doing. … LB Sean Lee missed practice for the second day in a row because of illness.

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