Jerry Jones handpicked the Ravens for the Cowboys’ final game at Texas Stadium because he apparently thought they would be an easy victory. Oops. (SPORTSbyBROOKS.com)

Peter King discusses Sammy Baugh, the playoff race in each conference, and breaks down the current MVP watch in his latest edition of Monday Morning Quarterback. (SI.com)

The Love of Sports compiles its “All-Disappointment Team” for the 2008 NFL Season. (The Love of Sports)

Detroit News columnist Rob Parker recently asked Lions head coach Rod Marinelli if “he wishes his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator?” Ouch. (Deadspin.com)

Best headline from the Week 16 in the NFL: “You Stay Classy, Fatback Who Rides the Coat-tails of Reggie Bush and Chris Johnson.” (Kissing Suzy Kolber.com)

Here are your Top Ten Boston Sports Stories of 2008. Good for Boston…makes everyone else want to throw up. (Small White Ball)

In his latest edition of “Monday Morning Quarterback,” Peter King of SI.com discussed Tony Romo’s health status for Week 11.

I think this is Romo’s health status as of this morning: Talked to Romo on Saturday, while he was on his final two days off of a bye week, and he told me, naturally, that he would definitely play against Washington on Sunday night at FedEx Field. But it sounded like he’d be affected by his partially healed broken right pinky finger. The break is just below the top knuckle on his right little finger, and he’ll play with a splint on it.

“It won’t be all the way healed,” he said. “It’s still probably a good two or three weeks away from that. I don’t know where it’s exactly going to be, healing-wise, in Washington, but my timing will be fine.”

The key is whether Romo will be able to throw a hard 15-yard out. Any quarterback who can’t throw a liner to the sidelines is going to be a detriment. “I had to throw one of those this week,” he said. “I’m not going to lie to you. There was pain when I threw it. But I can take the pain. If I’ve done it once, I can do it again.” Romo also told me the finger “has gotten healthy enough so I could take a hit on it.”

We’ll see.

Dallas-Washington, with huge playoff implications, is a pretty big game. Dallas-Washington, with a marquee quarterback an injury risk, with the eyes of the nation on him, makes it a compelling watch.

I think expecting Romo to light up on Sunday night would be unrealistic. He’s going to struggle and I think the Cowboys will too, although they need him to play. Brad Bollinger (that’s not a mistake) is/are awful and if Dallas has any hope in turning around their season they need Romo on the field.

Just don’t expect that the Cowboys’ offense will run like it did before he was hurt. If Dallas is going to turn around its season, it will need the defense to step up big time.

In his latest edition Monday Morning Quarterback, Peter King of SI.com wants to know what those teams that won on Sunday all have in common with each other. If it wasn’t obvious before it is now: Peter King would love to make babies with the New England Patriots.

Check out his first two paragraphs:

Look at Sunday’s big winners and tell me what they have in common.

Baltimore, Tennessee, Arizona, the New York Giants, Atlanta, Indianapolis and New England. Yes, New England, even after an 18-15 loss to the Colts in Indianapolis.

What? Look at Sunday’s big winners and there’s mention of a Patriot team that choked against the Colts?

King did explain himself:

I include New England in this group for a simple reason: Tom Brady has played for eight minutes in 2008, and the Patriots are 5-3. There are lots of good stories in the first half of the season, but none are as surprising as New England sharing the AFC East lead with Matt Cassel playing quarterback for 31 of the team’s 32 quarters. The Cassel story illustrates why the Bill Belichick/Scott Pioli way is so effective. Remember the hue and cry to go get Chris Simms, Daunte Culpepper or Tim Rattay when Brady went down? The Patriots said: No, we’ll stay in-house for our quarterback, because how can a Simms or a Rattay learn the offense as much as Matt Cassel, who’s been here four years? If we’ve trusted Cassel to back up Brady, why don’t we trust him to play?

And I believe this: If Cassel gets hurt at some point down the stretch, or when he leaves in free-agency after the season, the Patriots will put 2008 third-round pick Kevin O’Connell under center, or use him to back up Brady. The quarterback is develop-able. That’s the New England mantra. Brady got developed. Cassel got developed. And O’Connell will too.

He makes a good point, but I still think it’s kind of funny that King chose the words he did. The Patriots didn’t win and quite frankly played dumb football against the Colts on Sunday night and King essentially called them winners. I might be getting too technical, but why not just say, “Even though they lost, I’m going to include the Patriots in my discussion and here’s why.”

But Petey can’t help but lather himself in Patriot soap every week and take a nice long bath.

Here’s what sports columnists are saying around the country on a variety of topics:

- Mike Celizic writes that Bud Selig is not cut out to be MLB’s commissioner. (NBC Sports)

- Joe Henderson wonders aloud if this year’s World Series could get any worse. (St. Petersburg Times)

- Hugh Falk lays out Part 1 of his blue print on how to fix the BCS. (RealClearSports.com)

- Johnette Howard writes that Jerry Jones is running the Dallas Cowboys into the ground. (Newsday)

- Bill Simmons hands out his predictions for the 2008-09 NBA Season. (ESPN.com)

- Cedric Golden says that the San Antonio Spurs’ title window has already closed. (Austin American-Statesman)

- Dave Kriger notes that a fixed site for future World Series would make more sense. (Rocky Mountain News)

- Drew Sharp says the Lions should start second-year quarterback Drew Stanton on Sunday. (Detroit Free Press)

- Peter King notes that we should expect the NFL Replay Rule to be tweaked. (Sports Illustrated)

In his latest edition of “Monday Morning Quarterback,” Peter King of SI.com writes this about Jeff Garcia:

5. Tampa Bay (4-2). How admirable is Jeff Garcia? He goes 15 of 20 with no picks or sacks against a formidable Panther D, and all he talks about after the game, in effect, is how he appreciates the chance to be an NFL quarterback.

Admirable? Garcia didn’t seem to appreciate the chance to be an NFL quarterback this offseason when he demanded a new contract from the Bucs or else he’d sit out of football.

“MMQ” is the best but King is off on this one.