Fort Worth sports week in review: Cowboys’ 2026 schedule, a QB’s death and more
Fort Worth sports headlines covered a wide swath last week, from the Dallas Cowboys’ 2026 schedule release to the death of a quarterback with a Super Bowl history. Local athletes also made national news in baseball and the WNBA.
Here are key takeaways:
— The Dallas Cowboys will open their 2026 season on the road against the New York Giants on Sept. 13, kicking off head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s second year with a 17-game slate that includes a trip to Brazil to face the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3.
The Cowboys will have their latest bye week in 36 years, falling in Week 14, sandwiched between road games against the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. Beat writer Nick Harris has already taken his first crack at predicting the season.
— Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton, who threw the first touchdown pass by a Cowboy in a Super Bowl, died recently at age 83 in Mill Valley, California. Morton is one of only four quarterbacks to start for two franchises in a Super Bowl, having led both the Cowboys (Super Bowl 5) and the Denver Broncos (Super Bowl 12), where he lost to Roger Staubach and Dallas 27-10 in January 1978.
Morton had an interesting 18-year NFL career. Where does he rank among Cowboys QBs? It’s higher than you might think.
— Fort Worth Christian senior shortstop Grady Emerson is one of 26 semifinalists for the 2026 Golden Spikes Award and the only high school player on the list, projected by ESPN as a top-two MLB draft pick. Emerson joins Bobby Witt Jr. (2019) as the only high school athletes named semifinalists in the award’s 48-year history — and both hail from Tarrant County. Reporting by Charles Baggarly.
— Mac Engel writes that former TCU assistant Tony Vitello is off to a rough start as San Francisco Giants manager after making an unprecedented jump from college baseball to MLB. Vitello’s success or failure carries implications beyond San Francisco, as a positive outcome could open doors for other college coaches to jump straight to the majors, similar to the football and basketball pipelines.
— Former TCU standout Olivia Miles, taken No. 2 overall in the WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, returned to DFW and posted 15 points, six assists and a block in a 90-86 win over the Dallas Wings. Lawrence Dow was on the scene and also wrote about Dallas coach Jose Fernandez’s postgame comments about “selfishness” in his team’s locker room.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
