THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007
SPORTS 7B
>>NFL
Cowboys, Packers prepare to battle this evening
From 1993-95, the Cowboys and Packers met twice each season, once in a row.
son game, the other time in the playoffs. The Cowboys were home for all six games and won them all, throwing in another home victory in 1996, a season after which Green Bay won the Super Bowl.
team, New England. Green Bay's only loss is more mundane — to 5-6 Chicago.
So Dallas is a 7-point favorite,
Both teams are
"We held in there, and a couple of those games were pretty darn close, and I thought the Dallas Cowboys were unbeatable those years, and they really were."
10-1, back at the top of the NFC as they meet Thursday night, with a potential home-field edge in the playoffs on the line. Of course it's at Texas Stadium.
BRETT FAVRE
Green Bay Packers quarterback
Brett Favre, 0-8 there, remembers the past well against Cowboys teams that won three titles in four seasons.
"Each year, I thought we progressively got a little bit better and we kept saying, 'OK, next year this is not going to happen! But it did until we won the Super Bowl,' he says. "We held in there, and a couple of those games were pretty darn close, and I thought the Dallas Cowboys were unbeatable those years, and they really were."
The Cowboys are not quite unbeatable this season, but their only loss is to the NFLs unbeaten
a fitting spread although it doesn't have its usual post-Thanksgiving rest advantage. The NFL also scheduled the Packers for a holiday game, so both teams will have their usual seven days to prepare.
The spread is legitimate. Not
This is the first meeting between Favre and Tony Romo, who grew up in Wisconsin, in the heart of Packers country, when Favre was in his prime.
only is Dallas at home, but it also is better balanced than Green Bay, which is last in the NFL in rushing.
"I am sure he is probably tired of answering this question or talking about it himself," Favre says. "I think he's his own player. I think the fact that he's from Wisconsin and is younger than me and watched me play and was a Packer fan enhances this whole scenario."
With help from a balanced cast, Romo enhances the Cowboys against Favre ...
COWBOYS, 24-20
CRIME
LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson stood before a judge Wednesday and firmly spoke a phrase he has uttered in other courtrooms in the past: "Not guilty."
Simpson pleads not guilty to kidnapping to stand trial with co-defendents April 7
This time the former football star was arraigned, along with two other men, on suspicion of kidnapping and armed robbery of sports memorabilia dealers in a strange case that has ballooned to 12 charges that could send Simpson and the others to prison for life.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Simpson's notority, gained from past trials on charges of murder and road rage, looms in the background of the Las Vegas episode. His lawyer said jury selection would be an "onerous" task that would probably last longer than the trial itself.
Ehrlich's lawyer, John Moran Jr., said he would challenge the most recent charging document as vague and a list of potential witnesses as violating his client's Fifth Amendment rights.
"I am very concerned that we get 12 people on the jury that can listen to the evidence that occurs in the courtroom," attorney Yale Galanter said on the courthouse steps. "People are going to have opinions."
Simpson's co-defendants, Charles "Charlie" Ehrlich, 53, and Clarence "C.J." Stewart, 53, also entered not guilty pleas, and Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass set trial for all three men on April 7.
District Attorney David Roger listed 78 potential witnesses, including Ehrlich and Stewart, an odd choice since prosecutors may not compel defendants to testify.
Moran said it would be impermissible for the prosecutor to call them "if this tortured process does proceed to trial."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Glass appeared impatient with Moran's argument and said she would consider written motions when they are filed. She moved quickly through the arraignments, requiring Simpson and the others to state their ages, education and that they could understand English.
Simpson appeared relaxed and cheerful before court convened, chatting with his lawyers and a few friends in the courtroom. He did not comment about the case and confined his remarks to small talk.
"Mr. Simpson is glad that the arraignment is over with. He's glad that he doesn't have to come back to Vegas until April," Galanter said.
O. J. Simpson sits in a courtroom his arrangement in Las Vegas. Nov. 28. Simpson pleaded not to guilty in charges of kidnapping and armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.
While the lawyer said he would be pleased to have the case resolved without a trial, he said that seemed unlikely unless prosecutors dismissed all charges. A plea bargain, he suggested, was not on the table.
"I don't know what my client did wrong," Galanter said. "And that's why it would be difficult for us to enter into any kind of a plea agreement. It wasn't a trespass because he was invited into the room. It wasn't a robbery because it wasn't the unlawful taking of someone else's property."
The prosecutor declined to comment outside court.
Simpson landed in court after leading an odd raiding party in a Sept. 13 hotel room confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers to take collectibles and family heirlooms he claimed were his.
Simpson, 60, of Miami, has maintained that he intended only to retrieve items that had been stolen from him by a former agent, including photographs, football awards and the suit he wore the day he was acquitted of murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Prosecutors allege the heist netted tens of thousands of dollars of sports collectibles that didn't belong to Simpson.
At a colorful preliminary hearing two weeks ago, there were accounts of an angry scene inside the Palace Station casino hotel room during which a cursing Simpson loudly
demanded his possessions.
Threats were made and guns allegedly were drawn by two men originally charged in the case. Those men and another cohort were given plea bargains with the possibility of probation in return for their testimony against Simpson, Ehrlich and Stewart.
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