Cowboys warn Packers: Your postgame shower will be frigid

Cowboys Stadium, home of Super Bowl XLV, cost over $1 billion, holds about 100,000 people, contains 2,900 televisions, 1,700 toilets and is home to two 160-foot wide video screens.

What it does not have is enough hot water for the home team to enjoy a warm postgame shower.

Via Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com, Cowboys players Jason Witten, Miles Austin and Jay Ratliff have all warned of the lack of hot water in the home team's locker room. Packers tackle Bryan Bulaga is not amused.

"Wow, that puts a damper on the day. [...] Cold water? I'm just saying, how much did that stadium cost: $1.2 billion? Get a hot water tank. It should be the size of a room."

It should probably be the size of a Walmart. In fact, for $1.2 billion, each member of the home team should have his own private bathing pond and two professional bathers to sponge him down.

But something tells me that if the Packers win, they won't mind the cold. If they lose, sure, that shower's going to seem a lot longer and a lot colder.

But if they overcome the Pittsburgh Steelers and earn a World Championship, it should be a pretty good day, regardless of the quality of their shower. "Damper on the day" may be an overstatement. In 20 years, what stands out about the day will probably not be the chilly postgame shower.

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PGA Tour allows cell phones; what could go wrong?

Bowing to public pressure and the inexorable march of time, the PGA Tour has announced that golf fans will at long last be allowed to bring cell phones to tour events.

Now, before you cringe at visions of cell-yakking jackbags like our well-coiffed buddy there at right wrecking every swing and putt, there will be rules in place. The phones will be permitted only in specific areas, and must be kept on silent at all times.

Yep, no way whatsoever this could go wrong.

Really, though, it's a reasonable concession by the tour, though the ban has led to some good stories. When you go to Augusta -- which, by the way, is in no way covered by this freedom, and you moved to the back of the waiting list just for thinking about bringing your cell phone -- you see everyone in the parking lot making their last phone calls to their bosses like they were bidding farewell to loved ones and heading off to war. And in "Open," John Feinstein related the tale of golf fans who would take their cell phones right up to the front gates of Bethpage Black, toss the phones into the nearby bushes. At the end of the day, they'd retrieve the phone by using another phone lying around to call their own number and listen for the ring.  

The tour tested the policy out over the last few months, and will formally introduce it at the Honda Classic in March. First person to see their buddy in the background of a golf shot and get his phone to ring in someone's backswing wins a prize of some sort. In addition to the wrath of your friend you just got kicked out of the tournament, of course.

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D12: Justine Siegal makes history with batting practice session

Duk's Dozen is a selection of 12 morning-fresh links and items that will start your baseball news day off right. Got links? Send 'em here or via Twitter. 

1. Two years ago, I was talking with Tim Brown in the lobby at the winter meetings in Indianapolis when a woman approached and introduced herself. Her name was Justine Siegal, her business card read "Baseball For All" and she was unbelievably passionate about getting more women involved in the game.

One of her goals that she mentioned that night was becoming the first woman to pitch batting practice to a big league club and I couldn't do anything but smile after seeing her do just that with the Cleveland Indians on Monday. Justine continues to be a great role model — not only for her 13-year-old daughter and other young women, but for all of us who are working toward a dream that others say isn't possible. Y! Sports

2. On the flip side, Jason Kendall hasn't been a good role model lately. Listen as the old backstop goes nuts during a radio reporter's fawning attempt to interview young Mike Moustakas. Royals Review

3. Bryce Harper's biggest challenge at his first spring training? Surviving the horde of autograph hounds that engulfs him at every turn. Nationals Journal

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STEW NEWS! We're adding a new Steward to the BLS team and his debut column will drop later Tuesday. DB's swing through spring also continues as he files a report from Surprise, spring training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals. 

4. Albert Pujols isn't officially on the market yet, but one of baseball's teams is unofficially out of the bidding. Says Chicago White Sox GM Kenny Williams: "If [Jerry Reinsdorf] gave me $30MM dollars right now, I'm not going to spend it on one guy. Sorry White Sox fans." MLBTR

5. Jason Bay is such a swell guy that he says Jason Isringhausen can have his old No. 44 back, free of charge, if he makes the New York Mets coming out of spring training. NY Times

6. OK, so if you have Tim Lincecum or CC Sabathia on your staff, it's an easy thing to name your opening-day starter six weeks beforehand. But Ryan Dempster? Hire Jim Essian!

7. Mike Trout drew a tough opponent in his first live BP in Tempe: Dan Haren. ESPN LA

8. Here's a great overview on a storyline that's always interested me: Gary Sheffield's turbulent time with the Milwaukee Brewers. Brew Crew Ball

9. The Marlins seem fine with the fact that we're all acting like it's the Phillies world and the rest of the NL East is just living in it. Associated Press

10. Remembering Tom Brunansky's great age 21 season in 1982. Puckett's Pond

11. Braves fans' least favorite game: Nate McLouth or Jordan Schafer? Talking Chop

12. My new favorite game: Chris Archer or the Dalai Lama? DRaysBay

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Is anybody really buying John Cook's 'vintage' Tiger talk?

John Cook happens to be one of Tiger Woods' closest friends. So when he showed up on Thursday at a Champions Tour event and proclaimed Woods had finally figured out his new golf swing, people started to take notice.

"As of Monday, it clicked," Cook said, "it finally clicked to him on what exactly, where the face of the club needs to be at certain points, which really sounded to me like kind of old school Butch."

The last time things "clicked" for Woods was back in May 1999, when he called then-swing coach Butch Harmon from the Byron Nelson Classic and said, "I got it."

He went on to win eight of his next 12 tournaments, setting himself up for a 2000 season that many consider to be one of the greatest in golf history. After the way Woods owned Harmon's swing, it'd be easy to believe Cook's comments and wait with bated breath for a Woods resurgence at his next tournament.

But I'm not sure it's that easy this time around. Even if Woods has figured out Sean Foley's swing, he still has to deal with a far greater issue, and that's regaining his confidence.

For Woods, refining his new swing was always going to be the easy part; his success with Haney and Harmon proved he had the talent to figure things out. The biggest difference between this time around and pre-Hydrant-gate is that Woods is in the midst of the worst victory drought of his career.

He failed to close out the Target World Challenge with a four-shot lead, and struggled in the few times he's been near the top of the leaderboard on the weekend. 

His confidence is shot, and that's ultimately the biggest reason he's looked so normal of late. When he was winning at a record clip, he always seemed to be in the zone. Recently, he's looked like a guy grasping for a light-switch in the dark. He knows he's close, but he can't seem to find a way to turn the switch back on.

He'll find that switch when he regains some of the confidence that made him the most feared golfer on the planet.

There's no doubt in my mind Woods will find his game again; he's too good of a golfer not to win a handful of majors before the end of his career. But let's be clear: his current struggles won't be fixed with a grooved swing.

If Tiger really wants to get back to where he used to be, he needs to dig deep and find some confidence, not just in his swing, but in himself.

Related: Tiger Woods, John Cook

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Carolina coup: Landing Jadeveon Clowney is another rung in the Gamecocks' long SEC climb

Happy Valentine's Day, South Carolina: Your unabashed love for homegrown hero Jadeveon Clowney is officially requited. The coveted 6-foot-6, 245-pound pass-rushing nightmare – regarded from day one as the No. 1 prospect in the entire 2011 class by Rivals and everyone else with an opinion – pledged his fidelity to the Gamecocks today in a made-for-TV event from Clowney's high school gym, beamed live by ESPN in a late morning edition of SportsCenter. Think of the additional hype as an 18th birthday present from one of the many entities Clowney's presence will help to enrich over the next three to five years, before he cashes in himself.

Of course, even the brightest recruiting don't come with guarantees once they descend from their golden cloud to put on the pads on campus – if they make it to campus in the first place. (As spurned Alabama and Clemson fans are certain to point out in the comments, Clowney is also considered a possible academic risk, to the extent that fans from rival high schools chanted "Junior College!" during last fall's state playoffs.) In Clowney's case, though, the bet is sure as they come, and that in itself is a significant victory for South Carolina as it continues to assert itself as an emerging power in the SEC.

Clowney is easily the most hyped recruit to opt for the Gamecocks since anyone thought to start keeping track of that sort of thing, and probably the most hyped in school history. The guy he replaces for that distinction, Marcus Lattimore, arrived in Columbia last year as the No. 1 running back prospect in the nation and immediately went about backing it up as the most punishing and productive back in the SEC. The coup for Lattimore came on the heels of Steve Spurrier's most impressive in-state effort in 2009, when he struck gold with two of South Carolina's top five prospects, cornerback Stephon Gilmore and receiver Alshon Jeffery, both first-team All-SEC picks last year as true sophomores. That's a steady ascent in the program's standing with the state's best talent, with Clowney at the peak.

Consider the sea change in the Gamecocks' local fortunes since Spurrier's first four seasons. In 2008, Carolina only one of the state's top 10 prospects, and missed on three players – defensive ends Da'Quan Bowers (Clemson) and Robert Quinn (North Carolina) and receiver A.J. Green (Georgia) – who are about to go among the top dozen picks in April's NFL Draft. In 2007, USC missed out on the state's top prospect, defensive end Carlos Dunlap, who went on to help anchor Florida's chart-topping defenses in 2008 and 2009 and join the Cincinnati Bengals as a second-rounder last year. Of the 13 South Carolina prospects rated by Rivals as four or five-star players in 2005 and 2006, the Gamecocks signed only one.

Recruiting is above all a numbers game, and Carolina's numbers relative to the rest of the SEC and the nation in the rankings have fairly steady through out Spurrier's tenure, even with the highly-touted likes of Lattimore and Clowney in the fold the last two years. (Clowney's signature should move this year's incoming class into the top 20 nationally, and maybe into the top half of the conference, roughly on with every class under Spurrier except the unusually strong effort in 2007.)

But as recently as two years ago, the likes of Lattimore and Clowney weren't considering staying home to play for South Carolina as a serious option; that's true for Clowney, especially, as the first No. 1 recruit in ages to opt for a program that's never been among the handful of perennial powers – Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, USC et al. – that dominate the recruiting trail every year. Lattimore's presence last year, along with Gilmore and Jeffery's, had an immeasurable impact not only on getting the Gamecocks over the hump for their first SEC East title, but just as importantly on the perception of South Carolina as the kind of program that can successfully woo five-star headliners from the traditional power brokers, and exploit his talents when he arrives.

It helps, obviously, that the traditional heavy hitters in the SEC East – Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, winners of 18 straight division titles before collectively falling out of the polls in 2010 – are in various states of disarray. But if the Gamecocks were only waiting for their rivals to conveniently fall into a black hole at the same time to make their move, Clowney's commitment is more proof that they're up to exploiting the moment.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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