Glauber's Hot Reads: Coach K helps the Cowboys

You wouldn’t think a college basketball coach could offer much insight to running a football team, but Cowboys rookie head coach Jason Garrett said a recent meeting with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski proved invaluable.

“I think you’d be hard pressed over the last 30 years to find an organization,

in or out of sports, college or pro, whatever it is, that has been more successful than Duke basketball,” said Garrett, who succeeded Wade Phillips as the Cowboys’ coach. “He’s obviously been there that entire time. He was very gracious and generous to have me there in the heart of their season. He has an amazing way of creating an environment that is so organized, so systematic, so seamless, the execution and everything they do is off the charts. He also has this amazing personal touch with everyone involved in the organization.”

Garrett summed it up Krzyzewski’s program this way: “It’s a combination of IBM at its finest moments and the greatest mom and pop shop you’ve ever seen and he puts it together.”

BYE, BYE PORTIS

When Mike Shanahan was the Broncos’ coach in 2002, he drafted running back Clinton Portis in the second round. Now that Shanahan is coaching in Washington, it looks as if he’ll put an end to the running back’s career. At least as far as the Redskins are concerned.

Shanahan said there’s no chance the Redskins will bring back Portis on his current contract.

“We’re always wanting to sign our players, so we’re constantly talking to their agents. With a guy like Clinton Portis, he’s a little bit different,” Shanahan said. “I’ll let him test the market out. Not to say we don’t want him, but for a lower price, and obviously we’ll try to find the best deal.”

Translation: Portis’ days with the Redskins are all effectively done, unless he’s willing to play on a cut-rate deal in 2011. Not happening.

FITZGERALD TO STICK IN ARIZONA?

Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald is due to become a free agent, and he’ll no doubt command big bucks on the open market if and when there’s a new collective bargaining agreement.
But if Cardinals general manager Rod Graves has his way, Fitzgerald is going nowhere.

“Negotiations are ongoing and at this point I have all reasons to be optimistic,” Graves said about the possibility of retaining the All Pro receiver. “Larry means a lot to our football team. I think that’s an understatement, but we’re going to work and try to do everything we can to try consummate the deal and keep him as part of our history.”

FOX GLAD HE’S ON ELWAY’S TEAM

It wasn’t all that long ago that John Fox would be coming up with schemes to stop former Broncos quarterback John Elway. Now Fox, the former Panthers coach and Giants’ defensive coordinator, is working for Elway, the Broncos’ newly named vice president of football operations.

“I obviously followed John as a player and competed against him on the wrong end probably more than I liked,” Fox said. “But he’s all in. This isn’t a PR move. He’s burning the midnight oil, he’s working hard, he’s very willing to learn. This isn’t rocket science. But he understands what a football player looks like. Standing in the huddle and doing the things he did as a team leader and football player at the quarterback position, I think he understands what a football player looks like.”

SUCCESS WON'T SPOIL THE PACKERS

The Packers are coming off a Super Bowl win over the Steelers, but it’s business as usual for general manager Ted Thompson. And that means continuing to build through the draft, just the way he was taught by another Packers’ Super Bowl winning general manager, Ron Wolf.

“We won’t change anything,” Thompson said. “We kind of go about our business the way we do it. [Wolf] is the one I went to work for in '92, and he was a strong believer that you build the core of your team around the draft. Certainly free agency is another avenue, but you do that a little bit more selnd it.