Probleme » ... What (also) happened with Vin is that hes a local

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Kirk Cousins was rolling going into his previous visit to Dallas with Tony Romo sidelined, just as the Washington quarterback is this season.The Cowboys have an answer this time in rookie Dak Prescott, whos been so good that Romo didnt get his job back when the 36-year-old completed his recovery from a preseason back injury.Dallas, at an NFL-best 9-1, is looking for its first 10-game winning streak in the same regular season in another Cowboys-Redskins matchup on Thanksgiving. The run started with Prescotts first career victory at Washington in Week 2.Cousins and the Redskins (6-3-1) are trying to keep up in the surprisingly strong NFC East, a year after visiting the Cowboys in the regular-season finale when they had already wrapped up the division title at 8-7.Cousins had three touchdown passes in the first quarter and was on the bench before halftime of that playoff tuneup.The look was similar in last weekends 42-24 win over Green Bay, with Cousins tossing three TDs in Washingtons sixth win in eight games since starting 0-2.Hes playing great, Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. They were able to move the ball up and down the field and they were also able to make a lot of big plays in the passing game at critical times. That goes to the weapons he has, how they use the weapons and his ability to distribute the football.Prescott led a fourth-quarter comeback in a 27-23 win over the Redskins after fellow rookie sensation Ezekiel Elliott was benched because of two fumbles.Now Prescott is the leading rookie passer in the NFL, and Elliott is the leagues top rusher at 1,102 yards.Hes been bottled up from time to time in the first quarter, but as the game goes on, that offensive line can wear you down and he gets chunks of yardage, Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. And Dak has just done a great job. Hes just been very poised under pressure.Elliott hasnt had fewer than 92 yards since getting 83 before the benching at Washington.I think were a different team, but I mean theyre in the same case, the 21-year-old former Ohio State star said. As the season goes on, youre going to get better, youre going to play more together, youre going to get more chemistry. Its going to be a good matchup.Things to consider in the eighth Thanksgiving meeting with the most frequent holiday rival for the Cowboys, who have won six of the first seven:NO ROMO: Its the first time a healthy Romo wont start on Thanksgiving for Dallas since 2005, the year before he was a midseason replacement for Drew Bledsoe. Romo was a Thanksgiving whiz early in his career, winning his first five.Most of those were when Prescott was a young Cowboys fan in Louisiana. It was always, `get up, eat some good food and then watch the Cowboys play, the 23-year-old Prescott said. Now Im kinda excited to be playing in it.FAT ROB RUNNING: Undrafted rookie running back Robert Kelley -- nicknamed Fat Rob -- appears to have solved Washingtons need in the backfield, producing 137 yards and three TDs on 24 carries in Week 11. It was his first 100-yard game since high school.He just keeps moving the pile, keeps moving his feet and does a great job, Gruden said. Hes a physical runner and obviously his ball security has been outstanding, knock on wood. Kelley took over after Matt Jones had fumbling problems.SLOWING COUSINS: The Cowboys offered little resistance to Cousins on their home field last season, when he was 12 of 15 for 176 yards in less than a half to clinch the NFLs best completion percentage.Dallas is without safety Barry Church (broken arm) and cornerback Morris Claiborne, who was having the best season of his career before a groin injury.Theyre hot right now, cornerback Brandon Carr said. They have a lot of confidence in their team. Thats great. We have the same confidence over here.TY FOR TRENT: So much for the Redskins being in trouble with their best lineman, left tackle Trent Williams, suspended four games after violating the NFLs substance abuse policy.Williams replacement, 6-foot-8, 335-pound Ty Nsekhe, has been terrific in two starts, victories against Minnesota and Green Bay.Hed only started two NFL games previously. I have no complaints over Ty, Gruden said. Like I said before, hes a starting tackle in the National Football League, without a doubt.DANCING SNYDER: Washington cornerback Josh Norman, who figures to draw the Dez Bryant assignment more than he did during Bryants 102-yard day in the first meeting, wasnt sure what to make of owner Dan Snyders modest dance moves caught on national TV against the Packers.What in the world is he doing up there? Norman joked. I was like, `Man, if hes having a good time, Im all for it. Its a good feeling to know that the owner is having a good time.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apschuyler Cheap NFL Jerseys .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. Stitched Jerseys . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. (Want more Vin Scully? Go to our The Man. The Voice. The Stories.)He has been describing baseball games to us for 67 years now. Think about that: 67. Oh, and by the way, he has gotten pretty good at it. But would you like to guess who doesnt think thats, like, the coolest broadcasting feat ever?Vin Scully. Who else?I attribute it to one thing and one thing only -- Gods grace, Scully said in a conference call on Sept. 19, to allow me to do what Ive been doing for 67 years. To me, thats really the story. Not really me. Im just a vessel that was passed, hand to hand, down through all those years.So clearly, we cant leave it to a man this humble to put his career in true historical perspective. But if you ask his peers, it wont take long to learn were not the only ones who think its mind-boggling that Vin Scully has been calling baseball games for 67 years.No one ever did any sport any better than Vin has done baseball, said his old friend, and former colleague at NBC, Bob Costas. And no one ever did whatever their best sport was nearly as long as Vin did baseball. So thats whats really unique. If the question is the greatest all-around sportscaster, he is in the argument, and maybe he wins the argument. But if the question is who the greatest baseball broadcaster is, there is no argument.So what makes Scully special? According to his friends, whats the one common theme? Hes a poet. There is the language of baseball. And then there is the language of Vin Scully, the Shakespeare of the broadcast booth.Charley Steiner, Dodgers broadcaster: I look at us, or at least I look at myself, as a reporter whos running up a sand dune, pencil in his hand, fedora on my head, PRESS attached to the ringband, praying like hell to keep up with a story -- running and just doing everything you can to tell the story as best as you can. And so, were sprinting. Vin, on the other hand, is a poet, and the game seemingly comes to him. He has a wonderful vocabulary. He is well-read, above and beyond baseball. He has the facility to come up with those words in those moments where you just sit back and your jaw drops.Ned Colletti, former sportswriter (and Dodgers GM): If he was a writer, he would be one of the greatest writers of the last century. It could be writing anything. He could be writing spiritual essays. It could be writing politics. It could be writing a love story. It could be writing anything: baseball, sports. He would be one of the greatest writers of our lifetime and the last 100 years because of how he thinks and how he uses the right word.John Lowe, longtime friend and baseball writer: I dont know if how many people know this, but he is able to read lips. ... So it was Game 3 of the 87 NL Championship Series, Cardinals at Giants. That was the Jeff Leonard show, you might remember. ... He (Leonard) hits one out. He goes around the bases, one flap down. The crowds going crazy, and hes standing in the dugout, and the crowd is pleading for a curtain call. And on camera, you see what he says to somebody in the dugout. And Vinny can read his lips and shouts, Leonard has said, Make them wait. And so Vinny says Make em wait. The Sir Laurence Olivier of Candlestick Park.Charley Steiner, on the first Dodgers game he ever broadcast with Scully:?I had finally accomplished my goal. I was going to become the Dodgers announcer. First game. You may remember in 2005, there was a horrible hurricane down there in Florida, and it was really a dicey proposition as to whether or not we were even going to play that first game. There were mud puddles in the outfield. The palm trees, some palm trees, were down. Some were just hanging on. The left-field scoreboard is dangling by a thick wire. And so, Im on the air, the new Dodger guy. Vin is to my left. And Im trying to paint this picture that the field is in disarray, and some palm trees, some big old palm trees, are down and out, some middle-aged palm trees are still kind of hanging on, and they have just planted some new ones. And I think, well, thats pretty good. And now, beginning his (56th) year ... was the voice of the Dodgers. Heres Vin Scully. So Vin kind of sits down, metaphorically speaking, kind of like Van Cliburn. He separates the tails from his jacket, and he sits down, and hes saying, You know, well, Charley, youve been talking about the palm trees, and ... the old palm trees are on the side, and theyre going to be removed. And some of them are just hanging on, and maybe therell be another season. And then theres the new ones that have just arrived. ... Pause. ... But isnt that what spring training is all about? And I said, OK, its time for me to go. I cannot play on this field.When youve done something for 67 seasons, youre bound to impact a wide range of people. From former Cy Young winners to former college classmates to commissioners and colleagues, the depth and breadth of Scullys associations is astonishing. And everyone has a memory. Here are a few more gems we collected in our interviews.Orel Hershiser, current Dodgers broadcaster, former Dodgers Cy Young winner: When you watch TV and youre grazing, theres very few voices in the world that when youre grazing ... if you hear them, you stop. If you hear Vinnys voice, you stop. You stop grazing, and you see thats an important event: Vin Scullys doing it.Jerry Reuss, former Dodgers pitcher, on getting caught up in Scullys storytelling --- during a game:?Id have to sneak back into the clubhouse while the game was going on, and then when Vin started on a story or telling something, Id be stuck there.dddddddddddd And Id say, Wait a minute, Ive got to be out there on the bench. Im not here to listen to Vin.Charley Steiner, on Scullys typically polite way of dealing with a mild pregame dinner crisis: Ill give you one little moment which I still find funny. ... They gave us some steak ... a few weeks back, and ... the meat was a little rough. And so, Vin being Vin, says to Maria, the waitress, I think we need a sharper utensil. ... I just looked at him and said, Youre good.Larry Miggins, Cardinals outfielder in the 1950s who went to Fordham with Scully:?We had an assembly at Fordham Prep and all the classes were together. He was sitting right behind me, and he reached over and grabbed my shoulders and said Larry, someday youre going to be in the big leagues. I had played varsity baseball at the time and we had won the City championship. He said, Someday Im going to be in the big leagues (as a broadcaster) and the first time you hit a home run, Ill be there to announce it and tell the world about it. We never talked any more about it, and then it happened -- in 1952. I didnt see him after the game, and I heard about it that winter when we got together with some guys in the Bronx. He got the biggest kick out of it.Giants broadcaster Jon Miller, on when he realized how good Scully was:?I remember when I was a senior in high school and my grandmother lived in Eugene, Oregon. It was about a 10-hour drive, and in the evening the Dodgers played the Cubs. I always remember even that it was the Cubs. And so I heard Vinny do this game, he and Jerry Doggett. And this was probably 1969 Id say, and I dont remember anything about the game. There was nothing fascinating about the game. It was just a regular game. But (listening to) Vinny in the car for the whole game and hearing the whole deal from start to finish, which I had never done before. I just thought it was remarkable how thoroughly entertained I was and how totally caught up into the game that I was, and how Don Kessinger came up and Vinny would weave in the story of how Kessinger decided to become a switch hitter, and how that had so remarkably changed his career, and who it was that had suggested that he try switch-hitting, and he was having so much trouble as a hitter that he felt that he had nothing to lose, because it looked like hes just gonna hit .220, and he wasnt going to be in the big leagues if he hit .220. And Don Kessinger finally hit a popup to short, and he was out. And it was just that he had pushed this guy out and told me something. Now I actually cared about Don Kessinger.Ned Colletti, on the compassion of Scully:?After I left the GM job (in 2014), I talked to Vin on the phone. And the conversation had me in tears by the time it was completed. (He said) Jamie McCourt called me (in 2006, when Colletti was hired) and told me, We just hired a man named Ned Colletti to be our general manager. What do you think? Well, figuratively speaking, Im thinking Im down in the boiler room, and shes up on the top deck. And Im thinking, Why are you asking me? But I told her that I was thrilled and excited and the Dodgers had gotten it right, with a great person and a true baseball man. And he said, You know what, Ned? I was right. ... And now this life will take you to another destination, maybe still with the Dodgers, but another chapter that will be safe and wonderful. And we will never miss you because you will always be a part of our lives and part of our hearts for all the days that remain. I had a tough time getting through it. But I was grateful, forever grateful, that he told me how he felt and didnt mind expressing it to me.Bob Costas, on the special circumstances that helped create the legend:?Hes a unique and distinctive broadcaster. But he also had, and made good use of them, unique circumstances. Hes been at this for so long that his broadcasts are simultaneously current and nostalgic. Youre engrossed in tonights game, and at the same time you are transported to your earliest baseball memories. That can be true if you are 25 or 65. ... What (also) happened with Vin is that hes a local announcer, and people always like the local announcer more than the national announcer because hes announcing, by and large, their teams. And now the technology lets people around the country hear it. They are eavesdropping on a local broadcast. ... And when he did the national broadcast in the 80s, baseball was still pretty close the national pastime. The Game of the Week still mattered. There werent a zillion games on TV and a zillion highlight shows or call anything up you want on the internet. The internet didnt even exist. So think of the rating of the World Series games. ... The last game, Game 7 of the 86 World Series, went up against Washington against the Giants on Monday Night Football -- and the football game got single digits, and the baseball game got like a 37 ... like close to a Super bowl rating. ... These circumstances, start to finish will never be recreated.ESPN.com Dodgers writer Doug Padilla and ESPN The Magazine researcher Doug Mittler contributed to this report ' ' '