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20/01/2023

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20/01/2023

Cowboys are still just a big tease unless they can upset the 49ers | Opinion
There’s a good reason why Ezekiel Elliott has no memory of the last time the Dallas Cowboys went on a serious Super Bowl run.

He was in diapers.

Yeah, it has been a minute.

Elliott, the bruising, 27-year-old running back, was born in the summer of 1995 – which also happened to be the year that the so-called “America’s Team” put together a championship season that culminated with a Super Bowl ### crown.

He’s heard all about the postseason misfortune that has afflicted the Cowboys over many years since. Until Monday night, when they smashed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to advance to an NFC divisional playoff game at San Francisco on Sunday, the Cowboys had won just four playoff games since that last Super Bowl campaign.

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“What happened before us, it doesn’t matter,” Elliott told USA TODAY Sports. “I look at what’s happened since we’ve been here. This is the second playoff game we’ve won since I’ve been here. It feels good. I’m just ready to make a run. All that matters is what we do now.”

Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott
The beatdown of Tom Brady on Monday night fuels hope. Dak Prescott played the game of his life, accounting for five TDs the week after arguably the worst game of his career. And one more win would put Dallas (13-5) in the NFC title game for the first time since the 1995 season.

The confidence was thick in the visiting locker room at Raymond James Stadium on Monday night, when the Cowboys won the franchise’s first road playoff game in 30 years.

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“Michael Irvin came right up at the end of the game and he was talking about the teams he played for,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said, wistfully recalling the three Super Bowl victories in four years that the Hall of Fame receiver was part of. “He used the analogy of the dog. He said when they put the dog in the hunt, once they’ve tasted that, then they come back.

“So that’s what you’ve done here. These guys will never be the same … So this one will definitely lift this team’s capability of playing good against San Francisco.”

Leave it to the loquacious optimist (Jones) to sell it for all it's worth.

'America's Biggest Tease'?
But remember: These are the Cowboys. For so many years, with Jones beating the drums of hype and hope, “America’s Team” has been “America’s Biggest Tease.”

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At least this current version of the Cowboys, even with some Jekyll and Hyde tendencies, has a chance to create its own history. Yet it’s so fitting that to truly arrive, Dallas must not only upset a 49ers team (14-4) with an NFL-longest 11-game winning streak, but also score a historical victory in what will be the next installment of one of the league’s greatest playoff rivalries.

Dallas vs. San Francisco gave us this: Joe Montana connecting with Dwight Clark for “The Catch” during the 1980s that propelled the 49ers to their first taste of Super Bowl glory. Roger Staubach’s last-minute heroics as part of three consecutive years the Cowboys eliminated the 49ers from the playoffs during the 1970s. Three straight matchups in the NFC Championship Game during the 1990s (Dallas 2, San Francisco 1) that morphed into a de facto Super Bowl series.

And last year, the 49ers went to JerryWorld and eliminated Dallas, with clock-bungling at the finish preventing Prescott from throwing up a final pass into the end zone after the Cowboys frantically drove into scoring range.

Prescott said earlier this week that the playoff setback last year will hurt for “the rest of my career” and provide motivation to better handle time-saving techniques in crunch time (which also falls on coach Mike McCarthy and coordinator Kellen Moore). Yet he also sees a chance at redemption, a theme that played out in knocking off a Bucs team that won the past two season openers against Dallas.

Still, the reasons why Dallas will be so challenged to redeem itself on Sunday have piled up. The 49ers bring the NFL’s top-ranked defense. Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy has been the NFL’s biggest surprise, efficiently getting the ball into the hands of playmakers like Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle. And as Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy sees it, the Cowboys are further disadvantaged in having to play another road game after playing on the road Monday – while the 49ers had two extra days of rest and preparation, and no travel, after opening the playoffs at home on Saturday. That amounts to a 52-hour difference in rest and prep.

McCarthy knows. “TV is king,” the coach told reporters, mindful that the short week comes after the Cowboys-Bucs game drew 30 million viewers on ABC and ESPN. “We’ll have less sleep,” McCarthy said, “and we’ll be grumpy.”

While Elliott, Prescott and other players don’t have any recollection, Jones certainly remembers another time the Cowboys went to San Francisco for a playoff game and were given little chance to win. It was the 1992 NFC title game. The young Cowboys were widely cast as being a year away.

Instead, the Cowboys used a 30-20 victory to signal a changing of the guard in the NFC, the springboard to all of the Super Bowl glory that made them the Team of the ‘90s.

“The streaking (Alvin) Harper in San Francisco,” Jones recalled, referring to a 70-yard catch-and-run off a slant route by Harper late in the fourth quarter that set up the game-clinching touchdown.

On that day at Candlestick Park, the Cowboys arrived early and made a statement. Does this group have it in them to do likewise?

Jones insists that the win at Tampa allowed the Cowboys to believe, “It can happen to you. So I expect tangible evidence of it when we play San Francisco this week.”

Elliott, meanwhile, senses the fire that was lit after Dallas closed the regular season with a dismal loss at Washington.

“I don’t know if that was because of what happened last week or just because it is the playoffs, but you could look in the eyes of the team the whole week,” Elliott said. “Guys were just ready to go.”

Now let’s see if they can do it again. After all, the dog is in the hunt.

20/01/2023

Each year since 1973, abortion rights activists have gathered on Jan. 22 for Roe v. Wade Day to celebrate the Supreme Court decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion.

But now, 50 years after the decision, Roe v. Wade Day will be different: Sunday will also mark the first anniversary of Roe since the ruling was overturned.

As protesters once again gather nationwide in support of reproductive rights, abortion access advocates say that instead of celebration, there will likely be a mix of more painful emotions: anger, fear, uncertainty, mourning. Still, galvanized by a surge in organizing energy after last year’s ruling, they said the day marks a new year of possibility for reproductive rights and an opportunity to reimagine abortion access from the ground up in a post-Roe world.

“Reproductive freedom has always been bigger than Roe,” said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, organizer of the nationwide march in support of abortion access, dubbed "Bigger Than Roe."

She added: “Now we need to dream bigger.”

For many, that vision involves efforts in state courts and legislatures, as well as grassroots aid like abortion funds.

Meanwhile, anti-abortion protesters will gather Friday at the annual March for Life days before the 50th anniversary of Roe with the theme “Next Steps: Marching in a Post-Roe America.”

Newly emboldened anti-abortion demonstrators also plan to protest at pharmacies next month, expressing their objection to the FDA allowing the sale of abortion pills at these retailers – in states where they are legal. Abortion rights activists have denounced such protests as an egregious breach of customers' and pharmacists' safety.

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MORE ON ROE'S 50TH: Post-Roe abortion battle draws attention to state judicial elections, new legal strategies

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‘It’s infuriating’
Danika Severino Wynn, a midwife and vice president of abortion access at Planned Parenthood, called last year’s Roe v. Wade Day “a bittersweet anniversary,” adding advocates were “already in prep mode because we had a strong feeling of what was to come.”

“The fear that we’d never make it to Roe’s 50th anniversary was very real,” she said.

The Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision devastated abortion access in large swaths of the country. Abortion clinics in restrictive states began to shutter almost immediately. People seeking abortion care were forced to travel across state lines. And in states where abortion remains legal, providers were quickly overwhelmed by patients.

“It's infuriating that Roe did not make it to its 50th anniversary, that we didn't get that chance to celebrate in the way we have in years past,” Severino said. “But we will be commemorating it regardless as a sign of our plan to keep marching forward and fighting for what was taken away.”

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A surge in organizing on both sides of abortion debate
Despite the Dobbs decision, advocates said recent wins for increased abortion access, including the FDA green light for pharmacies to provide abortion pills, a Justice Department decision to allow the United States Postal Service to deliver the pills and challenges to state abortion bans, offer hope.

State ballot measures in California, Michigan, Vermont, Kansas, Kentucky and Montana last year also either codified abortion rights or rejected measures that would have eroded abortion access. The aftermath of the Dobbs ruling also became a galvanizing moment for reproductive rights, advocates said.

Nikki Madsen, executive director of the Abortion Care Network, the national association for independent abortion providers, said abortion access organizations have seen “an outpouring of support since the overturning of Roe,” leading her to feel “a mix of grief and possibility” as its 50th anniversary approaches. She said the decision sparked a public conversation about abortion access “in a way I've never seen before.”

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For anti-abortion activists, the Dobbs decision was also a galvanizing moment and “an enormous milestone and the achievement of a seminal goal of the March for Life from the beginning,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life. She said Jan. 22 marks a new era in the abortion debate.

“I’m grateful that Roe was overturned but very aware that the work to build a culture of life is not yet done,” she said. “We are in a new season where the people enjoy more freedom to enact laws to protect life, so our work to change hearts and minds is all the more important.”

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Roe v. Wade was ‘the floor, not the ceiling’
Alison Dreith, director of strategic partnerships at the abortion fund Midwest Access Coalition, said the federal protections once offered by Roe were always not enough.

The ruling never guaranteed abortion access, especially for marginalized communities, she said. It also “allowed states to chip away at abortion access” by having gestational limits on abortions, limiting public funding and insurance coverage for abortion care, restricting medication abortion, and requiring counseling and waiting periods before an abortion.

“Roe v. Wade in and of itself was really the floor to begin with and not the ceiling. And as that monumental decision has been eroded, leaving so many people without access, it's an opportunity for us to reimagine the future,” Dreith said, adding that this is the most excited she has ever felt for Roe v. Wade Day.

For instance, she said, there's a new push to undo effects of the Hyde amendment, which limits the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion and other restrictions on funding and insurance coverage for abortion care. This was once unthinkable and rarely considered by legacy abortion access organizations, Dreith said.

'THIS IS WHAT WE FEARED':Latinas are largest group of women of color affected by abortion bans

The Dobbs decision showed the public that the abortion debate is not immovable for either side, said Mary Ziegler, law professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law.

“This debate has been thrown into this state of tremendous flux,” she said. “But it's also been a moment for people to see those possibilities when they realize that it's never been as much of a stalemate as we may have thought in past decades.”

'INDIES' SHUTTER:Independent abortion clinics are 'disappearing from communities' after the end of Roe

Reimagining the future of abortion access
The debate over abortion access has shifted to state courts and legislatures, ballot initiatives, abortion funds and grassroots aid. Many advocates also suggest better supporting independent abortion clinics and expanding telehealth services.

Medication abortion also has emerged as a major focus for both sides of the debate and is at the center of multiple lawsuits. Dozens of other lawsuits are using state constitutions and statutes to challenge abortion bans.

"This anniversary has always been a time of honoring the long battles of generations before us," said Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at the National Abortion Federation, the professional association of abortion providers. "Now, it's a focus on the work ahead. As we settle into this new reality, we do so knowing this is a long fight. And we have hope we can not only restore abortion rights but create a world where there's more access than there ever was under Roe."

Also on the 50th anniversary, more than 20 reproductive justice organizations from around the country will gather at a summit in Atlanta to honor Roe and its legacy, mourn its loss and "start of dreaming up the legacy of the next 50 years and beyond," said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, a multiracial reproductive justice organization that helped organize the summit.

"We have an opportunity now to build a future that serves and centers BIPOC people and all of those historically forced to the margins," she said.

Hugh Brown, vice president of the American Life League, a Catholic group that opposes all abortions and exemptions to abortion restrictions, wants to see an entirely different shift. His mother became an anti-abortion activist after Roe v. Wade in 1973.

"My mother would certainly say there's still a lot of work to be done," he said.

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Since 2020, a Harvard University research library has been planning an exhibition for Roe’s 50th anniversary, said Ziegler, also a curator of the exhibition. When the decision was overruled last June, plans shifted. The exhibition’s narration was edited to reflect the new reality of abortion access, and the result was titled "The Age of Roe: The Past, Present, and Future of Abortion in America."

But as abortion rights supporters gather again Sunday, Ziegler said it’s clear Roe is not only a Supreme Court ruling in history books but also a cultural symbol in a movement that continues.

“It's completely unsurprising to me that the memory and legacy of Roe still lives on and still motivates people,” she said. “Roe in many ways has become a cultural symbol that motivates people and makes them think about what's next.”

Contact Christine Fernando at cferna

20/01/2023

Dream bigger': How weekend marches keep advocates' fight for Roe v. Wade alive on 50th anniversary

Each year since 1973, abortion rights activists have gathered on Jan. 22 for Roe v. Wade Day to celebrate the Supreme Court decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion.

But now, 50 years after the decision, Roe v. Wade Day will be different: Sunday will also mark the first anniversary of Roe since the ruling was overturned.

As protesters once again gather nationwide in support of reproductive rights, abortion access advocates say that instead of celebration, there will likely be a mix of more painful emotions: anger, fear, uncertainty, mourning. Still, galvanized by a surge in organizing energy after last year’s ruling, they said the day marks a new year of possibility for reproductive rights and an opportunity to reimagine abortion access from the ground up in a post-Roe world.