Forty million of those dollars went to the installation of a massive 160-foot long, 90-foot high HD video board that dominates the airspace above the field. And in a surprise twist that no one could have seen coming, it took only one game to learn that an average NFL punter can easily smack the thing on a routine kick. Titans backup A.J. Trapasso hit it in the third quarter of their preseason game last night. Starter Craig Hentrich said he hit it half a dozen times in warmups and estimated that half the league's kickers wouldn't be able to punt normally in that building.

Jones isn't buying that, however. He says the board has "entertainment value" and has no plans to move it higher. (There probably isn't room, anyway.) Plus, Jones is convinced that the only danger is a devious punter with no regard for the laws of football who would intentionally try to hit the thing.

"If you look at how you punt the football, unless you're trying to hit the scoreboard, you punt the ball to get downfield. You certainly want to get some hangtime, but you punt the ball to get downfield, and you sure don't punt the ball down the middle. You punt it off to the side."

"How high is high if somebody just wants to sit there and kick straight up?"

Yeah, why would a punter ever want to kick a ball ... up? That's not the Cowboy way, I tell ya.

Titans kicker exposes problem in Cowboys Stadium [ESPN]
Jerry Jones: The scoreboard isn't budging [Dallas Morning News]

Baugher, after being cut by the Patriots last week, retaliated by attacking his father at 4 a.m. in a fast food parking lot.

Erle Baugher, 54, his left eye red and swollen where his allegedly drunken son Danny apparently socked him during a dust-up in a deserted Hanover parking lot Thursday, told a cop the young man "was released by the New England Patriots (Aug. 29) and he was not handling it very well," according to a police report.

Fascinatingly, the elder Baugher is also a former punter. We can't believe they weren't kicking each other.

Punted Pat In Dad Spat [Boston Herald]

Anyway, Cozad is now about to go on trial for first-degree attempted murder, and he's claiming detectives tried to force him to confess.

"The first time, he said, 'You little (expletive). You better start telling me the truth, or you're going to jail for a very long time,"' Cozad said. Cozad said the next two times the recorder was paused he or his mother, who was also in the office, were berated. Cozad finally said, "I'm done," at which point he was taken into custody.

Ordinarily, we would decry the obvious police bias against punters, but we just can't bring ourselves to do it: They're punters, and they deserve whatever they get. Punters are a nationwide menace here to steal our souls and eat our children, and we must take them down one at a time. You're next, Feagles.

I Don't Think He's In Any Position To Be Complaining [Blown Coverage]
It's Like Tonya Harding, But Less Manly [Deadspin]

Apparently, it all bubbled up to the surface at Northern Colorado on Monday, when backup Bears punter Mitch Cozad stabbed starting punter Rafael Mendoza in the back of his right thigh. Cozad, showing the wisdom of the backup punter, sped off in his car with personalized plates; he was arrested, kicked off the team and expelled from the university.

We'll let others — which is to say, everyone — make the "shank" jokes, and simply point that this has to be something backup punters have wanted to do for a long time; he even hit the correct thigh! Mock if you will, but until you've felt the heartache of watching another man reap the glories of being the starting punter at a subpar Division I-AA school in Colorado, you really can't understand what the man has been through.

Punter Makes Worst Shank Of His Life [Greeley Tribune]