Stay away. Don't touch us. No way we're leaving here, uh-uh. Come on, it's August, and it's but 68 degrees here Monday afternoon. The low is expected to be 59 tonight. Got so chilly with the near 10 mph breeze coming off the ocean I had to go put long sleeves on - in August. Seriously.
That's 68, like 22 degrees on Monday less than the 90 degrees in Dallas. And for perspective, like 35 degrees less than it was on Sunday back at The Ranch, when the temperatures hit a high of 103.
But no sense fighting this . . . for now. It's inevitable, we will go on Tuesday, the final day of training camp here at the River Ridge Sports Complex, the Cowboys pulling up stakes after a light morning practice to board their charter flight to Denver, where they will put in two-a-day practices on Wednesday and Thursday with the Broncos before Saturday's preseason game at Invesco Field at Mile High and then . . .
Returning home to The Ranch where we are certain to melt.
Talk about paradise lost.
Now technically, this is supposed to be the Cowboys' final training camp practice here at River Ridge, and not for this summer, but for years to come since there is a multi-year contract in place with the City of San Antonio to return camp to the Alamodome.
And this is just me, and really nothing against the fine city of San Antonio, which each summer we've been there for training camp opened its arms graciously to the team and those of us at camp. But there might not be a finer place to stage training camp than right here in this sleepy little city just off the Pacific Ocean, roughly 60 miles north of Los Angeles.
Says Bradie James, "I talked to Gene Jones, and told her to get in Jerry's ear so we can come back."
The climate is ideal for the concentrated work teams must put in during training camp, much more conducive for holding two-a-day practices or those longer single practice sessions, especially more so than those forsaken days out in Austin and Wichita Falls back in Texas. It's no wonder the Cowboys set up shop just up the 101 from here in Thousand Oaks for those 27 consecutive years.
Nothing could be finer . . . and there hasn't been, if you consider climate and facilities. Sure the climate-controlled Alamodome keeps the team out of the intense Texas summer heat, but the club is practicing on artificial turf the entire time, certainly harder on the legs than the natural grass out here.
Say Dave Campo, a veteran of camps in Austin and Wichita Falls, "When you are fighting for your life, it's harder to improve."
Plus, the logistics, other than having to transport your entire operation halfway across the country, are so much more simple. There is no transportation back and forth between the living quarters and the practice field. The Cowboys sleep here, eat here, meet here and practice here on the Residence Inn grounds, never more than 200 yards from anywhere they'd ever need to go.
And other than the two-hour time difference and having to travel a little further than just a four-hour drive down I-35, the media enjoys this much more, too. I mean, come on, most of us office in tents constructed on the Residence Inn tennis courts, which is only a downer if you like to play tennis. It's that nice outdoors e-v-e-r-y day. And if any of 'em are ever lucky enough to get a day off, there is a golf course adjacent to the grounds, and like another three within even a bike ride from the practice fields.
Talking nice.
And in my books, that is a big reason why the Cowboys have remained so healthy during this training camp, which also has been the case in the three previous summers working out here. I'm going to bet there aren't many teams in camp boasting just one starter missing any significant amount of training camp. And while veteran Greg Ellis did miss a practice or two with a sore back - more precautionary than anything else and from a bad bed, he said, and not football related - Terence Newman has been the only Cowboys starter out, suffering a slight groin tear during a pileup trying to make a tackle. And that's been it.
In fact, Newman, Quincy Butler (hamstring) and Marcus Dixon (back) are the only ones right now on Monday afternoon rehabbing - still - with assistant trainer Britt Brown.
Normally, this time of training camp, there are at least a half dozen guys out with hamstring or groin strains, and a few more with sprained knees and ankles, which more times than not are products of fatigue and dehydration than anything else. I mean one of the first rooms the trainers would set up in Austin and Wichita Falls was the IV one, where standing room only was the norm. Even in San Antonio there were dehydration problems because of the humidity seeping into the Dome.
They can't even spell dehydration in Oxnard.
"We were always worried about taking the IV," Campo said of practicing in hot and humid weather.
"It would be 100 degrees every day, and the coaches would tell you to go hard, but you knew there would be days you just couldn't," James said of his experience practicing in the heat, especially in college at LSU.
Now me, I'm just a writer, and most times more emotional than logical. I know nothing about contracts and legalese.
But if it were me, and everything else was even, I'd have the Cowboys returning to Oxnard for training camp, the place Al Davis discovered when his Raiders were stationed in L.A., and probably because Tex Schramm already had discovered the benefits of training in Thousand Oaks back in 1963.
Now the Cowboys vacated this place in 2007 because those owning the property surrounding the practice complex were supposed to build a housing development. But thanks to the economy's downturn, I'm told by local realtors that's just not going to happen any time soon; that this land used for parking and the fan zones will be available for years to come.
Be a shame to just let this land sit vacant year round.
Now didn't someone once say contracts are made to be broken? Or was that records? Can't remember.
But after Monday's practice Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was seen talking with the Oxnard mayor, along with one of the city councilman, both of whom came out to "say goodbye," but as Jones said he told them, "keep communicating."
And the good news is this: When asked, knowing the club has a contract for upcoming camps in San Antonio, if there was a chance of coming back here to training camp, Jones said, "Yes, yes, there is a significant chance," and he would go on to say with a big grin on his face, "there are some things about (camp in Oxnard) I like a lot.
"This has been good."
Now that might not be next summer since the Cowboys will be moving into their new stadium, and Jones said the entire organization will need to be in close proximity to the $1.1 billion structure as the season nears. And, on top of that, there might be a chance of a few practices there, just to create a soft opening, if you know what I mean.
But Jones suggested very heavily there is a good chance of holding future training camps in dual locations, part of the time in San Antonio and part of the time right here in God's country.
And when asked if the club would be returning to San Antonio, regardless, Jones said, "Yes, but the situation is possible for time here and time there." Furthermore, when it was suggested that likely would not happen next summer, Jones said, "Not necessarily, it just presents more of a challenge."
So maybe Tuesday's practice will not be the final training camp practice in Oxnard ever, just for this summer. Heck might not even be the final camp practice here in the next two years.
Now there is some music to my ears.
Can I get a hallelujah on that?
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Mickey Spagnola - 
