Page 14 • Wednesday, September 8, 1999 s PORTS -Batta'* 011 Dallas defense rests in nnmbtchc Cowboys to suit up nine defensive linemen The Original and Only! BALLET. FOLKL.ORICO “MEXICO de Amalia Hernandez IRVING (AP) — Whatever quality the Dal las Cowboys lack on their defensive line, they hope to make up for it with a group of young backups. Dallas will go into the season opener against Washington on Sunday with nine defensive line men, including five tackles. That not include best tackle, Lett, who is sus pended indefinitely. The Cowboys of ten have gone with eight defensive line man. When they have kept nine, the extra player usually has been an end. Lett's absence is the main reason Dallas needs help inside. It is not easy replacing a 6- foot-6, 295-pound veteran who’s made the Pro Bowl his last two full seasons. Alonzo Spellman will start in Lett’s place, but he is still learning tackle after playing end most his life. He also faces the challenge of trying to come back from a year out of the NFL. "It’s coming along well, but I’ve still got things to work on,” Spellman, who will proba bly be a backup at end and tackle when Lett re turns, said. “It’s all about repetitions — the more you see it, the more you get used to it." Chad Hennings is the other starting defen sive tackle. The starting ends are Kavika Pittman and Greg Ellis. The four starting linemen have played a combined 16 years in the NFL. There are only 18 games of experience among backup ends Ebenezer Ekuban and Peppi Zellner and re serve tackles Nathan Davis, Michael Myers and Brandon Noble. “We have a lot of youth with speed and quickness and older guys with strength and know-how,” Pittman, who is playing with a bulky cast on his right hand while recovering from surgery to repair two bones broken on the first day of training camp, said. Without Lett, Hennings is the only link to the dominating line led by Charles Haley that helped Dallas win three Super Bowls in four seasons. The current edition can not live up to that standard, but it can be better than last year’s unit, which was near the bottom of the NFL with 34 sacks. That inability to get to quar terbacks was part of the reason the Cowboys were in the bottom third of the league in pass defense last season. Practice squadf**' ^ 1 (AP fe “Tarascos” “Aztecs” 7 i * Spurs honored at White House It ''%§||sipF ■ *'< !►■ T ^5 Dancers Musicians rfH &Chorus M direct from the Palace of Fine Arts r in Mexico City t £3K|. . CUNT0N September 22 7:30 p.m. Rudder Auditorium MSC Box Office 845-1234 or call toll free (888) 890-5667 Also available at TicketMaster (409) 268-0414 Meilco City PSP rm . T-r—, ■wid'v HouseholdProducts, Inc. ^ TELMEX WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton has welcomed the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs to the White House yesterday, telling the team that politics is like basketball. “You get ahead, you get be hind,” Clinton, a self-described “basketball fanatic,” said. “Normally, you don’t know whether you are going to win un til it’s right before the end the game,” he said In June, the Spurs won the NBA championship, their first, in a 4-1 series over the New York Knicks. Clinton extended a special welcome to forward Sean Elliott, who underwent a kidney transplant last month. Teammates were also motivated by El liott’s quick comeback. Elliott “is an inspiration to a lot of people who have kidney transplants, especially if he can come back for training camp,” team captain Avery Johnson said. The Spurs took a 35-minute tour of the White House before the event in the East Room, which was attended by friends and family, the president and four members of the Texas congressional delegation. Former Cornhusker gri returns to football as cof WACO (AP) — Tommie Frazier always knew he would become a football coach. But first, he had to pass a test. By choice, the former Nebraska Corn- huskers’ star quarterback spent the past two years avoiding the game he once dominated. He worked in the Nebraska governor’s pub lic information office for six months and then landed a marketing job with a Lincoln, Neb., telephone company. Frazier would not even con sider coaching until he could prove to himself that he no longer wanted to play. “I wanted to be able to sit down, enjoy a game on TV and not feel the urge to play,” he said. "I wanted to get that desire out of my system first.” Now, nearly four years after leading Ne braska in back-to-back perfect seasons, Fra zier said he has done exactly that. He starts this season as Baylor’s running backs coach. Although he still looks fit enough to suit IRVING filled their practice squad yestr ubljc sc h 0 ols iivt'i't itH' 17 plavors theyreleasK^ ecome extlvt Running back Beau Morgar ;ptat playing Ryan Neuteld, offensive linf"^ bar con~ Brymer, linebacker Joe Phipps ^ lower a_ sive lineman Robert Newkirk, igned after clearing waivers. ^ flexible st I he Cowboys had hoped tc^ . fieciuentl - ceiver MarTay Jenkins, their* ;tive to school pick, but he was claimed by An: Orators. Since Dallas surprisingly daime: 0 w less, they i Braz/ell off waivers fromm is stroked, t York Jets on Monday, making hi:,ed and their t< enth receiver on the 53-manros moment, eve- —it in the long f educational gf There aL' 1 was improvementix jg | 1() limii to defense, but Lett was a bigreaso (c school requ amt now lu goi e again. e abilities of st “I think there’s a lot of poter way out of ed line," Ellis said. “Our group has to bad minded pe and work hard every day, every ibtreal solutio be persistent.” , students suff Pressure from the line is even m nfoi innately, r than usual for Dallas because injunecrease educati 11ui KevinS i not been prot the secondary vulnerable lanv think the ement rigid, n ricts should thi themselves af sticks, and tin ed it they fall: eorge W. Bust ions reflect thr stick appro a cl ould threaten “failing” sch tive to meet pn up. Fra he neverev< student achiev playing, and he said he :> a ^is kind of pit cause of it. ie wrong path '"There’s a lot ear-old.t. By hinging a there who still want to play, ar iized tests. Bn away from their; -eate the problt said. "I think itve. ting standard: coach, your locu: Texas Assessir on helping thete .AS) stress hast Although he general acadetti recognized a onekoughly, herei college footbaJJple puts pressm NFL teanwpasseNS scores; the zier because of ^sure on teach l<>ckfn>rClitiCal inCOm 764-4135 or 260-^jUSt how in( ultural insen; You can also page me at i f . nt ., n t ac thr Appointments&Walk V LC L ’ Ll '' i people belie Thank you for your sup